Children with autism display many abnormal behaviors that, while not essential to the diagnosis, cause serious distress for both the child and the family. Unusual eating habits, abnormal sleep patterns, temper tantrums, and aggression to self and to others are among the most common of these abnormal behaviors.
Many autistic people have intense and highly-focused interests, often from a fairly young age. These can change over time or be lifelong. It can be art, music, gardening, animals, postcodes or numbers. For many younger children it's Thomas the Tank Engine, dinosaurs or particular cartoon characters.
behavior that is odd, strange, or unexpected, particularly if it is out of the ordinary for a given person. It may be a symptom of brain damage or a mental disorder, especially a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia.
People with ASD often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with ASD may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. It is important to note that some people without ASD might also have some of these symptoms.
Masking may involve suppressing certain behaviours we find soothing but that others think are 'weird', such as stimming or intense interests. It can also mean mimicking the behaviour of those around us, such as copying non-verbal behaviours, and developing complex social scripts to get by in social situations.
Restricted/repetitive behaviors is a core diagnostic criterion for autism. Motor repetitions, referred to as “lower-order,” include self-stimulation, hand flapping, twirling, repeating phrases, manipulating objects, banging toys together, and repeatedly pushing buttons (1).
posturing – holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting. visual stimulation – looking at something sideways, watching an object spin or fluttering fingers near the eyes. repetitive behaviour like opening and closing doors or flicking switches.
It's quite common for autistic children who do not appear to have any behavioural difficulties at school to behave differently at home. Tony Attwood refers to this as the Jekyll and Hyde character (Attwood, 1998). In section, we look at some of the reasons behind this behaviour, and offer tips to parents and carers.
All children are different, but if they change character when they go from school to home, or go into meltdown, or appear exhausted, it might be a sign that they are masking in public.
There are several conditions that resemble or have autism-like symptoms such as developmental delays, language disorders, motor impairments, attention-deficit, anxiety, brain injury, chromosomal abnormalities, and severe emotional and behavioral disturbance – just to name a few.
Autistic children have communication difficulties, narrow interests and repetitive behaviour. Early signs of autism might include lack of interest in other people, including lack of eye contact. Autism can be diagnosed in some children from around 18 months of age.
Science fiction and fantasy are often of great interest to autistic people. Depending on their interest levels and abilities, people on the spectrum may learn every detail of a particular "universe," write their own stories, watch and rewatch movies, read comics, attend conventions, or even make their own costumes.
Communication challenges. Verbal communication is a challenge for some children with ASD. For parents of such children, communication is a problem that compounds the stress & anxiety of parents. Parents face the challenge that their child is unable to communicate their needs and wants.
Hyperlexia is advanced and unexpected reading skills and abilities in children way beyond their chronological age. It is a fairly recently named condition (1967) although earlier descriptions of precocious reading do exist.
Vocal stimming involves making sounds with your mouth or breath. Examples of vocal stimming include: verbal noises. humming. shrieking.
Some common examples of stimming (sometimes called stims) include hand flapping, clapping, rocking, excessive or hard blinking, pacing, head banging, repeating noises or words, snapping fingers, and spinning objects.
Social anxiety – or extreme fear of new people, crowds and social situations – is especially common among people with autism. In addition, many people with autism have difficulty controlling anxiety once something triggers it.
Does The Father Or Mother Carry The Autism Gene? Autism was always thought to have a maternal inheritance component, however, research suggests that the rarer variants associated with the disorder are usually inherited from the father.