ADHD in children has become increasingly common in the past decade or so. It may be that children have always suffered from these symptoms but it’s only been researched recently so they are barely starting to recognized it. Autism spectrum disorder symptoms are another thing that people are starting to understand better and are able to diagnose the condition more quickly. There are varying degrees of Autism spectrum disorder symptoms that you might notice but you can start looking out for it when your child is as young as one or two years old. Here are a few things that might be warning signs for Autism.
Social Interaction
Generally speaking, a child with autism won’t point to an object that he wants and he won’t show people things by holding them up. If he or she wants to show you something, they might drop the item in your lap and then walk away. Normally a child would hold it up to your face and look at you to make sure that you’ve seen it but a child with autism will not. They also will not respond to their name being called very often. If they do babble, it will be more ‘in their own world’ and not really in an attempt to have a conversation with you.
Nonverbal Communication
A child won’t typically use their own hand gestures like waving goodbye and hello unless they are copying someone else who is doing that. Lack of eye contact is one of the major autism spectrum disorder symptoms. Even when being spoken to, the child will usually avoid eye contact. He or she probably won’t smile very often or show much emotion at all.
Relationships
Children with autism don’t really have an interest in playing with other children. Keep in mind that young toddlers usually play side by side for awhile rather than with one another so this could also just be an age thing. However, on top of that, other symptoms might be a lack of imaginative play or playing pretend or interactive games like peek a boo and pat a cake.
Restricted Interests
You’ll notice that the child will become fixated on a certain object for a time. For example, he may only be interested in playing with cars and nothing else. Or for older children, they will only want to play with things that are a certain color. You may also see that he doesn’t play with toys how they were intended to be played with. Another example would be if he only sits and turns the wheels of the cars instead of rolling them along the floor and pretending to drive them. His interests will also tend to be very organized. Lining things up and separating colors is a very common symptom of autism.
Required Schedules
Your child might express some anxiety over a change in the schedule. A child with autism needs to have a very sepcific routine. Any changes can be quite traumatic. For example, the child needs to wake up, eat, leave the house, come home and go to bed the same way every single day. They are creatures of habit and need those schedules and routines to feel safe and in control.
Repetitive Movement
If your child is indeed autistic, you will begin to notice that they seem to randomly repeat the same unusual body movements. For example, they might flap their hands or stiffen their arms or arch their backs. It would not be uncommon for your child to consistently walk on their toes everywhere they go for awhile.
Keep in mind that your child may have a few of these Autism spectrum disorder symptoms and still not actually have the condition. If you think that your child may be showing early signs of Autism disorder then make an appointment with your pediatrician. He or she may refer you to a specialist but this still doesn’t mean that your son or daughter definitely has Autism. There may be something else going on or it may be regular behavior for that age. It can be difficult to diagnose in the very early stages so make sure not to do to much Internet researching and more listening to your doctors.
