What are the Symptoms of Autism?
We can talk about 3 basic symptom groups.
-Social-Communicative Disability
-Inadequacy in Verbal Communication.
-Repetitive Behaviors
First, let's review the development of the normally developing child and then the differences of children with Autism.
1-Social-Communicative Disability. :
In normally developing children, the baby can make eye contact at the age of 1 month. She responds to her mother's smile and asks for her needs with different tones of voice. Starting from the 4th month, he notices strangers and gets disturbed by them. He is happy to see his parents. After the 5th month, he tries to attract the attention of those around him by making sounds. He enjoys playing the peek-a-boo game. At 6 months old, he tries to communicate with his environment by babbling. Other babies attract attention. He wants to go towards them. He cries when his mother walks away from him. He looks at his name when he is 9 months old. He starts playing with the people around him. Imitates movements. When he turns 1 year old, he starts to say bye and give kisses. At the age of 2, he plays games side by side with his peers. He can create imaginary games at the age of 3.
The use of body language is limited in children with autism. They do not make eye contact and do not care about the presence of other people. They live in their own world. They are insufficient in imaginative play in the domestic style, such as looking at their name, pointing, smiling mutually, taking care of other children, and showing what they like. They do not want to share their feelings, they do not want to develop a friendship, or they do not know what to do even if they want to.
2- Inadequacy in Verbal Communication:
Speech retardation is present in autism compared to normally developing children. This applies to both understanding and expression skills.
A normally developing child begins to use the first meaningful words at the age of 1. Receives simple and short commands. Like come, throw the ball, open the door. Vocabulary expands between the ages of 1-2. At 18-24 months, children make two-word sentences. His speech may not be fully understood. At the age of 3-4, he can now make long sentences. He can tell about a cartoon he watched.
Children with autism have difficulty understanding what is spoken. There are varying degrees of difficulty expressing oneself. Some of us can't talk at all At most, some children express themselves with single words or short sentences. Again, echolalia (word repetition) may be seen in some. Children with autism, whose speech is more developed, are unable to initiate and maintain a conversation, and they often talk about the subjects they are obsessed with. They cannot intonate their voice correctly, they speak in a mechanical voice. Older people do not understand insinuations, figurative speeches, idioms and jokes.
3- Repetitive and Obsessive Behaviors:
Children with autism may have repetitive behaviors such as rocking, turning, turning, clapping their hands, and walking on their toes. These are also called motor stereotypes. In addition, these children cannot play with objects and toys for their intended purpose. For example, turning a wheel instead of driving a car and watching rotating objects such as a washing machine for a long time, arranging toys side by side, kitchen utensils instead of toys, playing inappropriately with electronic devices, carrying an object with you all the time, being excessively interested in emblems and advertisements.
Some may also have excessive adherence to routine. For example, not wanting to change the location of things, always wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, always using the same path. Sometimes he/she insistently wants daily repetitive programs to be repeated. For example, going to the same market and buying the same chocolate on the way home.
Some of these children may have different sensory sensitivities. Being disturbed by sounds that do not attract anyone's attention, covering one's ears due to excessive fear of loud mechanical sounds, or liking loud noises and listening to the same music over and over again may also occur.
It may be possible to get stuck on visually colorful rotating objects for a long time, and the visual attention span is very short. It may also be possible.
Tactilely, constantly lying on the ground, touching objects, putting everything in one's mouth and biting, constantly playing with water, as well as being uncomfortable being hugged and held on one's lap, can also be observed.
Due to these differences, Autistic People can also be observed. Children may experience seemingly unreasonable outbursts of anger and restlessness in new environments, such as shopping malls, where there is a lot of stimulation.
They may have special interests in mild cases with higher intelligence levels and better communication skills. ir. For example, memorizing all the public transportation stops in the city and learning all the details of the history of the Republican Era. Since this information is generally useless and considered strange, it can be considered as an obsession.
As a result, it is not necessary to have all of these symptoms to make a diagnosis, and the diagnosis is not made immediately if there are a few symptoms. It can only be diagnosed by a child psychiatrist, a medical doctor. Children with some of these symptoms should be evaluated by a specialist.
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