Children with autism have social challenges. Many kids on the Autism Spectrum have a hard time remembering what people look like, where they saw the person before, or what their name was.
Children with autism have memory challenges that hinder not only their memory for faces but also their ability to remember other kinds of information, according to new research from the Stanford School of Medicine. These impairments are reflected in distinct wiring patterns in the children's brains, the study found.
As we age and our memory starts to function less well, names are most likely among the first things to escape us. You can use tricks to help remember, such as rhyming the name with an object.
Speech-language pathologists working in early intervention often consider a young child's lack of response to their name as a potential sign of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It can also be an indicator of issues with receptive language skills.
They can't do it (yet) because no one has taught them in a way that makes sense to them. Won't do: At the same time, someone on the autism spectrum may not value social interactions and responses the way other people do. So he or she may lack the motivation to respond the way we expect.
“If people with autism have trouble understanding that you're trying to communicate with them, that's huge.” Even without a noisy background, both verbal and minimally verbal autistic people had the same 600-millisecond responses to their own name and a stranger's name, whereas typical people registered a difference.
Difficulty Remembering Names
This is also a sign of inattention, a common symptom in ADHD.
Introduction: The five-word test (5WT) is a serial verbal memory test with semantic cuing. It is proposed to rapidly evaluate memory of aging people and has previously shown its sensitivity and its specificity in identifying patients with AD.
Alzheimer's is a brain disease that causes a slow decline in memory, thinking and reasoning skills.
Sensory Issues
Many people with autism experience sensory processing disorder. This is more commonly known as sensory overload. Noise, crowds, bright lights, strong tastes, smells, and being touched can feel unbearable to someone with HFA. This makes going to restaurants, movies, and shopping malls difficult.
While memory difficulty is not part of the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is a common symptom experienced by many autistic people.
Signs of High-Functioning Autism in Children
May appear more mature for their age and have above-average intelligence. A tendency to avoid eye contact. Trouble deviating from a routine or adapting to changes. Trouble making friends and maintaining social relationships or not “fitting in” with peers.
Normal age-related memory loss doesn't cause a significant disruption in your daily life. For example, you might occasionally forget a person's name, but recall it later in the day. You might misplace your glasses sometimes. Or maybe you need to make lists more often than in the past to remember appointments or tasks.
The main sign of mild cognitive impairment is a slight decline in mental abilities. Examples include: Memory loss: You may forget recent events or repeat the same questions and stories. You may occasionally forget the names of friends and family members or forget appointments or planned events.
The Mini-Cog test.
A third test, known as the Mini-Cog, takes 2 to 4 minutes to administer and involves asking patients to recall three words after drawing a picture of a clock. If a patient shows no difficulties recalling the words, it is inferred that he or she does not have dementia.
The five-minute cognitive test (FCT) was designed to capture deficits in five domains of cognitive abilities, including episodic memory, language fluency, time orientation, visuospatial function, and executive function.
For most people with Alzheimer's — those who have the late-onset variety — symptoms first appear in their mid-60s or later. When the disease develops before age 65, it's considered early-onset Alzheimer's, which can begin as early as a person's 30s, although this is rare.
Atypical Presentation of ADHD Symptoms
Sleep disturbances (has trouble with sleep initiation, sleep deprived, can't wake up easily, etc.) Weak executive function (poor recall of information, internalizing language, controlling emotions, problem-solving, etc.)
Some patients with very late-onset ADHD may be misdiagnosed with dementia because their symptoms arise in the pre-elderly or elderly stages of life.
Therefore, it appears that while some individuals may be aware they are autistic, others may not fully understand why they have difficulties connecting with people socially or engaging in conversation - yet still realize they are 'different.
Non-autistic people tend to assess concepts before details, also known as top-down thinking. Autistic people take the opposite approach with bottom-up thinking and use details to build concepts. It may take longer to filter out sensory details with this approach, but you're less likely to miss important information.
If a person is struggling to remember a name, follow a conversation or recall what they did yesterday, many of us may put it down to the fact that the person is getting older. But it may well be a warning that they are in the early stages of dementia.