It’s a fact that parents really can tell when something is off with a child, even though autism symptoms can be quite different in children. Autism shares similar symptoms with other medical problems, and that’s why it’s imperative that a professional assessment is performed to determine autism. Our discussion centers on the usual symptoms found in autistic children, and these symptoms are not all expressed equally in all children.
The first symptom we’ll discuss is failure to imitate. a normal child will imitate almost everything they see right down to smiles and sounds. However most autistic children do or can not. Babies soon learn to smile when someone smiles at them. As we progress through life we learn to speak, walk, and act by watching the same actions of others. you won’t see an autistic child pick up this type of behavior although it is a normal part of development. These imitative behaviors are not often seen in autistic kids like they are in normal kids. Autistic children often do not develop the ability to speak until much later but can communicate in ways that may be difficult to understand by others. Another range of symptoms concerns a lack of understanding regarding communication with others such as observing body language or hearing/understanding varying tones in other people’s voices. the result is the autistic person is unable to detect signs in other people that related to various feelings and emotions. Also with communication, they do not understand language devices that are not literal. so successful communication will happen when highly literal words are spoken to them. there are high functioning autistic people, but they still seem to face the same challenge in this area of effective communication.
One symptom of autism is a fear or dislike of any changes in daily routines. Autistic people, from the lowest to the highest functioning, tend to like repetition and ritual. Movement and routine are basically self taught and self managed such as how they prefer to stand or certain types of movement. regardless of what the routine is, if you try to force a change they will become disturbed. taking into consideration how change affects the autistic person is an important factor in treating this condition.
There are more symptoms that are considered common in autism, and that are seen frequently in the very young child. the range of symptoms is different from one person to the next, and that is why any treatment for this condition must be constructed based on that person’s particular symptoms and situation. Autism research has been an ongoing concern for many years, and obviously more needs to be done so the disease can be unraveled and understood.