Not so long ago Autism was not a spectrum disorder but a diagnosis on itself. Nowadays there has been quite some research on the subject resulting in a new how how to diagnose autism spectrum disorders. With spectrum disorder we mean that there is not a fixed set of behavior that defines the disorder. Instead, every person with an autism spectrum disorder can be totally different than the other one. It is just the same no other 2 people in the world are alike. But what are common autism characteristics? How can you notice someone has an autism spectrum disorder?
Different terms are used to describe children within this spectrum. Often they are described with autistic tendencies, autistic like, autistic high functioning or autistic low functioning. We must not forget that the most important thing is that whatever the form of autism is, these children are still able to learn and properly function with education and treatment.
The characteristics of autism makes every person different. Some are able to function properly without any help, others will need help for the rest of their life. Some are able to communicate quite well and others are not able to interact with any other person. The biggest problems often rice on communication. A person with autism is not able to notice how someone feels and can not reflect that emotion to himself. Therefore he will not understand jokes of funny remarks. He will also not understand figural speech. But they are often accelerating in other aspects of intelligence. Quite often they are rather good in math and rational thinking.
Here is a list of common autism characteristics:
- They do not like changes. They have a routine that has to be the same every time.
- They have problems expressing themselves and most often use gestures instead of speech.
- Repetitive speech: repeating the same word multiple times
- They like to be alone
- They don’t like to interact with others
- They don’t react well on normal methods of teaching
- They have no real fears
- They make almost no eye contact
- Non responsive to figural speech
- Not able to recognize emotions
- They don’t like to be touched
- Attachment to certain objects
- Might ignore some verbal cues
This list is only a guideline in recognizing autism characteristics. It is not true that every person with an autism spectrum disorder is not able to make eye contact or not able to recognize emotions. Because of the spectrum every person will have an unique set of characteristics making him different from everyone else.
Although there is no cure for this disorder, treatment, education and normal development makes it able to lesson the symptoms over the years.
What are Your Views on This? Leave a Comment