A - Z Encyclopedia
Understanding Autism
the Basics | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention
Symptoms
What Are the Symptoms?
Symptoms of autism include:
- Extreme difficulty in learning language.
- Inappropriate response to people. A child with autism may avoid eye contact, resist being picked up or cuddled, and seem to tune out the world.
- Inability or reduced ability to play cooperatively with other children or to make friends.
- Inability to understand other people's feelings.
- Need for a rigid, highly structured routine -- and being very distressed by changes in routines.
- Extreme hyperactivity or unusual passivity, and extreme resistance to change.
- Repetitive body movements including pacing, hand flicking, twisting, spinning, rocking or hitting oneself.
- Insensitivity to pain or lack of response to cold or heat.
- Impulsive behavior and no real fear of dangers.
- An unusual attachment to inanimate objects such as toys, strings or spinning objects.
- Frequent crying and tantrums for no apparent reason.
- Peculiar speech patterns. An autistic child may use words without understanding their meanings.
- Abnormal responses to sensations such as light, sound and touch. At times an autistic child may appear deaf. At other times the child may be extremely distressed by everyday noises.
- Some of these symptoms occur in children with other disabilities. Symptoms can change as the child grows older.
Call Your Doctor If:
- Your infant or child resists cuddling and doesn't respond to his or her environment or to other people.
- By about the age of 1 year, your child is not pointing to objects, bringing items to you or engaging in simple interactions such as "peek-a-boo."
- By the age of 18 months your child is not using any words or attempting to communicate.
- Your child bangs his or her head or demonstrates self-injurious behavior or aggression on a regular basis.
- Your child demonstrates unusually repetitive behavior, such as repeatedly opening and closing doors or turning a toy car upside down and repeatedly spinning its wheels.
the Basics | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention
