People With Autism Are Different from One Another If you've seen Rainman or a TV show about autism, you may think you know what autism “looks like.” In fact, though, when you've met one person with with autism you've met ONE person with autism. Some people with autism are chatty; others are silent.
Most autistic children develop special interests and may love talking about them. Special interests often have a purpose and therefore should be treated with respect. It is not easy to teach autistic children to talk less and listen more.
Some people on the autism spectrum may seek social opportunities and may initiate social interactions themselves, others may enjoy social situations and interactions when they are initiated effectively by others.
A person with autism: Might not realize a certain topic will trigger certain emotions in others; turn people off. May experience significant discomfort making eye contact. Might ramble and have trouble getting to the point.
People with autism often speak with a different rhythm, prosody, and/or volume than typical peers. Thus, even if the words themselves are appropriate, they may sound flat, loud, soft, or otherwise different. It's not unusual for people with autism to "script" their conversations.
A recent study of nearly 100 children with autism and 100 typically developing peers conducted by Joshua Diehl, Notre Dame assistant professor of psychology, and colleagues at Yale and Harvard universities suggests the speech difficulty may be because children with autism understand meaning differently as it's ...
Children with autism often sound different from other people. Some may speak in a flat, monotone voice; others may use unusual modulation or stress different words or parts of words in their speech; and some may speak at an increased volume.
Even after the babies with autism did babble, they did so less than controls. On average, out of every 100 sounds, the autism group made 6 babbles compared with the controls' 17 at age 9 to 12 months.
Cluttering. There is another language problem found in autism that can produce fast, unclear conversation. Cluttering is when someone talks rapidly, with syllables that run together, excessive filler words and repetitions, and abnormal pauses. It often occurs alongside stuttering, though it's less well-known.
The popular image of a person with autism is a quiet, isolated individual who prefers solitude to social interaction. This is often true, but by no means always the case. While autistic people, by definition, have challenges with social communication, many enjoy social interaction, group activities, and friendships.
They may appear to be too over-friendly.
People with autism may get easily attached to people, leading them to become over-friendly.
“High-functioning autism” isn't an official medical term or diagnosis. It's an informal one some people use when they talk about people with autism spectrum disorder , or ASD, who can speak, read, write, and handle basic life skills like eating and getting dressed. They can live independently.
A child with level 1 autism may understand and speak in complete sentences, but have difficulty engaging in back-and-forth conversation. Children with ASD level 1 experience some inflexibility of behavior, like difficulty switching between tasks, staying organized, and planning.
Autistic does not equal Introverted!
Many autistic people are extroverts and gain energy from being around others. They struggle with social norms and sensory input. They have the desire to be around people. But, they may not always catch on to the subtle nuances of social interaction, and that's ok!
Level 1 autism spectrum disorder. The least severe form of autism is level 1, generally considered “mild autism.” Children with level 1 autism may struggle in social situations and raise concerns about restricting or repetitive behaviors, yet require limited assistance to perform their daily activities.
Reasoning in people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been characterised as being slower and more effortful than controls. People with ASD show a more circumscribed reasoning bias, and often take longer to make decisions.
We autistic people can't always control our voices so we can speak too loudly or softly and use incorrect pitch tone and speed. Talking normally can require a lot of conscious effort.
Rarely shares enjoyment with you
Babies readily share enjoyment with you by smiling or laughing and looking at you. Some children with autism smile to show they're happy but don't share their enjoyment. Others show little facial expression or have flat affect and rarely smile so you may not know when they're happy.
Of course, autistic individuals laugh when they are happy, or if they find something funny. However, they often laugh to release fear, tension and anxiety. What is very difficult for their parents to comprehend (and accept) is that they might laugh or giggle non-stop when someone is crying.
Stimming is a way for individuals with ASD to regulate their sensory input and cope with the overwhelming sensory environment around them. Vocal stimming can take many forms, such as humming, singing, making animal sounds, repeating words or phrases, and more.
Many minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop idiosyncratic communication habits and ways of expressing themselves. It is difficult to say why your son developed this new habit of only whispering or mouthing words.
Focus On Self
They may spend an excessive amount of time talking about themselves, interrupting others when they speak, and changing the subject back to themselves. This makes conversation difficult for most people.
In previous studies, children with autism have been found to have unusually wide faces and wide-set eyes. The cheeks and the nose are also shorter on their faces (Aldridge et al., 2011).