Autism Symptom Checklist

Because no two people with autism will exhibit the same symptoms, sometimes autism can be hard for parents to pin down. Fortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism Information Center provides a comprehensive checklist of what symptoms children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may exhibit.

Social Skills

One of the main impairments of people with ASDs is social impairment. This goes beyond just "shyness" and is often combined with other problems, like trouble with communication skills. People with ASDs may not be interested in other people at all, or have trouble interacting with peers or imitating others. Playing social games like peek-a-boo, for instance, may hold no interest for a child with ASD. Although it is hard for all children to learn to take turns and to share, children with ASDs have a particularly difficult time with this concept.

Communication

Some children with ASDs my have only slight language delays, but about 40% of children with ASDs do not speak at all. Others may have some words and then lose them, or not speak until later in childhood. Some people with ASDs may repeat the same words over and over, and have a hard time understanding body language or tone of voice. They may not be able to participate in a give-and-take conversation, instead talking a great deal about things that interest them.

Repeated Behaviors and Routines

Repetitive motions (rocking side to side, flapping the arms, or repeatedly turning a light off and on) can be symptoms of ASDs. Some people with ASDs develop unusual routines, like having to look in every window of a building, and being unable to do these things will elicit frustration. A change in routine can be very upsetting to children with ASDs.

Associated Features

A range of other behaviors and disorders can be associated with ASDs, such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness, and self-injury. Abnormal eating and sleeping habits, or laughing or crying at unusual times (or showing no emotion when you'd expect a reaction) are other symptoms of ASDs. People with ASDs may fear harmless objects, but not be afraid of truly dangerous things.

Pattern of Development

While patterns of development vary somewhat from child to child, children with ASDs develop at different rates; some have delays in language, others with social development. Some may be very good at solving problems, but have trouble making friends.

Red Flags

Some "red flags" for ASDs include not playing "pretend" games; not pointing at objects; having trouble relating to others and avoiding eye contact; appearing unaware when spoken to; repeating or echoing phrases or words; repeating actions over and over; having trouble accepting change in routine; and losing skills once obtained (for instance, ceasing to say words already learned).

Seek a Diagnosis and Treatment if You Suspect Autism

If you are concerned that your child exhibits signs of an ASD, your first step should be to schedule an appointment with your pediatrician to address your concerns. He or she may refer you to a specialist who can make additional assessments. Autism is treatable, but, as with any disorder, the sooner you can get a diagnosis and treatment, the better.

Symptoms of ADHD and Autism - Know the Signs

The Symptoms of ADHD:

Difficulties staying on task - People who have attention deficit disorder are easily distracted by what is going on around them. This can make for problems in a traditional classroom setting.

Inattentiveness - A tendency to get lost in their own world. Time may pass before they become aware again. Chunks of time can be "lost" when this occurs.

Excessive Talking

Excessive interruptions and intrusions on other's conversations and personal space.

Aggression - Some people with ADHD are aggressive with other people and may seem "pushy".

Difficulty finishing projects - Someone with attention deficit hyperactivitiy disorder may have multiple projects that are only partially done. Many children with ADHD do not complete their homework or do not turn it in when done.

Type "A" personality - May go so far as to take risks without thinking of the consequences.

Forgetfulness - This can affect doing projects that take steps to complete, missing appointments, forgetting names and places...

Hyperactivity - It may seem that a person with ADHD cannot sit still. In fact, many can't be completely still. If forced to sit or stand in one place, a child or adult may tap their fingers, chew on a pencil, bounce a ball... or do anything to keep themselves in action.

Note: Many with ADHD defy the typical signs and instead exhibit a tendency to daydream or appear to be "lazy".

The Symptoms of Autism:

Inability to empathize with other people - A lack of an understanding of the emotions and reactions of the people around them.

Inability to communicate with others - this varies in degree from having trouble staying on the subject of conversation to an inability to communicate at all. This may not only impact social interaction, but education as well.

Repetitive Behaviors - This may involve actively repeating the same actions or saying the same sound, word or phrase over and over again.

Obsession with putting things in a straight line - A tendency to line things up and be wildly upset if the line is disrupted is a sign of autism.

Isolation - Someone who is autistic may seem to be in their own world. In fact, many who have autism will panic or over-react to stimulation.

Hyperfocusing - A child or adult might stare at one object for lengthy amounts of time.

Autism Spectrum Disorders Explained

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) cover a variety of behaviors and abilities and are caused by abnormal brain development. While ASDs begin when the individual is a child, they will last throughout the individual's life. Most individuals with ASDs will display a lack of social skills, as well as communication skills. While these individuals with ASDs may have a variety of different behaviors, each individual is unlike another. While the symptoms may be severe in one individual, they may be very mild in another. The following are some common behaviors emitted by individuals diagnosed with an ASD.

Generally, individuals diagnosed with ASDs will not want to socialize with others. Some things you may notice are a lack of eye contact with others, preferring to do activities by themselves, and they may not want to be touched. Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, some individuals may not even notice when others speak to them or are trying to get their attention. In mild cases, it may be that an individual will simply not understand how to relate to others and in case of a young child, they may not know how to play with other children.

When it comes to communication skills, more often than not, individuals with ASDs will show lack of development in these areas, as well. Many children that have been diagnosed with ASDs do not talk at all. Some may display a repetitive speech, such as echolalia, where they repeat the words that are said to them. Instead of answering a question, they'll simply repeat what was asked of them. A child with ASDs may be able to talk and then at a later date, stop talking altogether.

Other communication behaviors may be a flat tone to their voice and they may not be able to control how loud or softly they talk. They may have a hard time sticking to a topic of discussion for a long time and they may also show a lack of listening skills. Some may stand too close to someone they are talking to, as well as talking a lot and not letting someone else get a chance to talk.

Individuals with ASDs may also display repetitive actions. It might be that they have to line their items on their nightstand up perfectly before going to bed or it may be they simply have to stick to a certain routine. Any change in this routine may upset them badly and throw them off kilter. These repetitive behaviors become very important to them.

The fact is that children who have been diagnosed with ASDs simply develop differently than those without ASDs. While they may exhibit motor skills that are similar to other children their age, their language and social skills may be severely underdeveloped compared to others. Children with ASDs might be able to put together a very intricate puzzle, but have a hard time making friends.

The symptoms of ASDs may become less severe over time or perhaps become more pronounced. Again, while there are many symptoms associated with ASDs, each individual that is diagnosed will display varying degrees of each one.

Children With Autism and Structure

Children with autism have many struggles placed before them in life. You as a Parent of a child with autism want nothing but the best for them. One of the best ways you can help your child is to provide them a home environment in which they feel safe and secure. You can do this through structure and consistency. Through all of the chaos that children with autism feel, you can help keep them grounded. Follow a few simple steps and your home life could be very calm and serene. Well at least as serene as it can be with a child of any sort keeping you on your toes.

One of the first things you should do is set up a schedule for your child with an autism spectrum disorder. Make a pictorial schedule and place somewhere the child can see and refer to it often. Stick by the schedule, try to make sure that the days typically remain the same. You will want to use pictures, as a lot of children with autism are visual learners. If an occasion should arise that you need to change the schedule, try preparing the child in advance. Possibly try rehearsing with them the situation that is going to arise that will interrupt the schedule. You will surely want to do some preparing around big events such as holidays and birthdays. These will be huge disruptions in the normalcy of their schedule. The concreteness of the schedule will help your autistic child feel safe.

Speaking of safe, you will want to set up a place set aside specifically for the child. This will be their safety area. This should be a place where they can go to relax free from any stressors. Maybe this is a chair in the den, or someplace quiet. Make sure this spot is theirs, and theirs alone. This maybe where they need to go when they feel overwhelmed. You will want to clearly define this place so your child know where to go.

Being consistent is also a big key. How you interact with children with autism should remain consistent. This will further their sense of safety and comfort. If something is off limits, it should be off limits all the time. Don't be wishy washy when it comes to your child with autism. This may only confuse them, and make them feel unsafe, or turbulent.

Your actions will directly contribute to how secure you child with autism feels. Make sure you follow these simple steps and you should do well by your child.

Managing Tantrums in Autism Spectrum Disorders

When dealing with tantrums and difficult behaviors in autism spectrum disorders, using behavioral approaches alone can sometimes fail. What is the missing piece to managing these behaviors that a behavioral approach alone may not address?

To start, we need to look at the reasons for behavior. According to behavioral approaches, most of the behavior we see results from one of three reasons: a request, seeking attention, or a sensory reason. Let's look deeper at these three reasons for behavior and the ways we currently handle them.

Handling a request is fairly straightforward. To put it very simply, a request is usually something externally controlled by both reinforcing appropriate requests and not reinforcing inappropriate ones, such as a tantrum.

For negative attention-seeking behaviors, we can eliminate the behavior by not giving the negative behavior attention and give attention for desired behavior - very straightforward, and again, usually externally controlled.

The sensory reasons arise from both the external and internal events that a child experiences through the five senses, and may or may not be externally controlled.

In all of these situations, our internal responses - our feelings and thoughts about events fire us into action. In stressful situations, the resulting "knee jerk" reactions are often difficult to manage with a purely behavioral approach for a few reasons:

1. Thoughts and feelings are often lightning-fast, internally-controlled events, therefore difficult to manage through external behavioral modifications.

2. Thoughts and feelings can't be measured, and as a result, behavioral approaches simply don't address them. It doesn't mean that these things don't exist or aren't important. It just means that they're left out of the equation.

3. Behavioral approaches address the cause and consequence of behaviors - the beginning and the end. But internal responses (ie thoughts and feelings) happen in the moments between the cause and the consequence. By not dealing with thoughts, feelings and solutions at these moments, we leave a child to figure out solutions on his or her own.

4. Children on the autism spectrum have a limited ability to adapt to new or changing situations, solve problems, compare past to present, or see possibilities. Because of this, if a child never learns how to think through a challenging situation during the emotional moments, when faced with it again, the same behavior will probably repeat itself, no matter what the consequence, or how many times they've been through it before.

This situation calls for tools to deal with overwhelming thoughts, feelings and strategies in the moment before the tantrum, not just consequences after.

In the book The Explosive Child , Ross Greene talks about this situation. This book applies to any disorders that have limitations in problem solving and executive thought, including all PDD's, including Asperger's Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and all autism spectrum disorders, ADD, ADHD, and various other developmental disabilities.

In the book, first we pick our battles carefully, and then talk through our thought process out loud. This way our children can hear us think through situations before tantrums. This also creates a memory of how they triumphed in the situation without resorting to negative behaviors.

Progress is made in small increments, but as time goes on, tantrums should decrease, and you can even start to ask your child to contribute ideas about solving problems during those emotional moments. In doing this, you help your child learn how to solve problems and become confident about handling new, changing, or challenging situations. You'll combine the best of all worlds, to the benefit of your child.

Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Overview

The term "autism" is often used most commonly used to describe any one of the 5 different types of pervasive developmental disorders. These pervasive developmental disorders are collectively known as "autism spectrum disorders." There are many theories about how these disorders relate to one another. While some researchers believe that they are all separate disorders with similar symptoms, other researchers say that there is a "spectrum" of severity that ranges from extremely mild to incapacitating. In the most severe cases of autism, the one inflicted will not be able to function and live independently.

Autism is a chronic brain disorder that manifests in developmental difficulties in the areas of social interaction, verbal skills and communication. If your child is autistic, he is likely to have repetitive and narrow interests. In addition, he finds it hard to cope with changes in schedules and environment. He can react violently when any changes occur or if there is a disruption to his normal schedule.

Unfortunately, it is not known what causes autism but some scientists and researchers believe that it is a genetic abnormality. Yet others say that it is caused by an injury to the brain or exposure to an environmental toxin. This can be supported by the fact that in some population areas, autism is at higher rates of incidence than it is elsewhere.

You may start observing some odd developmental problems of your child between the ages of 12 and 36 months old. It may be that your child is not hitting some milestones with underdeveloped or delay in speech and communication skills. You may also begin to notice that his social interactions are poor. However, if your child only has mild autism, you may not be able to detect that anything is wrong until he enters school. In some cases, your child may go undiagnosed until he reaches middle school, which is when social and communication skills become more important.

If you have an autistic child, you may fear that his disorder may worsen over the years. However, research shows that autism is non-progressive, meaning that it does not get worse in time.

The 5 types of pervasive developmental disorders include:

1. Autism. Autism's symptoms can be recognized before a child turns 3-years-old. However, it may be diagnosed much later than this. If your child is diagnosed with autism he will have difficulty making or maintaining eye contact, have disturbances in his social functioning and be overwhelmingly absorbed with himself.

2. Asperger Syndrome. Asperger Syndrome is similar to autism in that it tends to show up before your child turns 3 years old. However, your child will be able to function at a higher level than an autistic child. Your child can still have difficulties with social functioning, communication and speech. He will also be easily absorbed with narrowly defined interests. But with some therapy and help, most asperger children are able to live independently when they get older.

3. Rex syndrome. Some doctors would argue that Rex syndrome is not a type of autism. However, there are still doctors who do think that this is a form of autism. This syndrome almost exclusively afflicts girls. Usually your child will develop normally for 6 to 18 months and then show a remarkable loss of skills in such areas as speech and the ability to control her hands and her feet. This syndrome can be tested for with an 80% accuracy rate.

4. Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD). CDD takes place a little later. It happens after your child turns 2 to 4 years before showing a marked degeneration in his social, physical, mental and verbal skills. This long period of normal development below the age of 2 is what makes the difference between autism and CDD.

5. Pervasive developmental disorder. Your child is diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder if he is found to have impairments in social interaction, stereotyped behavior and communication. However, this disorder would only apply if he is not within any of the above other 4 mentioned categories.

Autism and Bilateral Coordination - Why Fine Motor Skills Are Important Too

How is bilateral coordination important in Autism? A major attribute that places us humans apart from many other animals is our ability to use tools - our manual dexterity, our bilateral coordination. Along with primates, we have an opposing thumb and separate digits that allow us a greater range of grasp and manipulation of objects in our environment.

We pay a great deal of attention to our baby's developing gross motor skills e.g. crawling, walking, climbing and running. They are our way markers, our important milestones.

We pay much less attention to how our babies learn to use and coordinate their hands, their hand-eye co-ordination and the complex development of fine motor skills.

Achieving bilateral coordination (the competent use of both hands together) and fine motor skills is another major milestone in child development, without which we cannot fully master complex physical tasks, including the use of cutlery, dressing, drawing, handwriting and using scissors. Nor can we experience fully all the sensory information available to us.

Have you noticed how many children on the autistic spectrum perform tasks with only one hand?

Check out the many videos of autistic children on YouTube and those on the Autism Speaks Video Glossary. Compare the dexterity of the 12 month old neuro-typical child with the much older 'red flags for ASD' children.

Why is no one concerned by this glaringly obvious developmental marker?

It is hardly surprising these children show limited interests, and repetitive movements. They do not yet have the physical skills to interact with objects, and explore their environment, irrespective of their lack of interaction with people.

Can we say for definite that the typical autism trait of lining up of cars and objects is not imaginative play, mimicking sitting in traffic on the way to the mall for example? Do we also know categorically that the child is not testing and honing his hand-eye co-ordination and spatial awareness in this lining up activity... or that he is not developing his geometric and numerical abilities? Children on this spectrum are known to enjoy intricate patterns!

He knows he is successful in lining up objects, or building towers from large blocks - and toddlers like to be successful! I would say that most babies are not great risk takers, until they know they have minimised the risk. Success is usually spurred on by receiving external reward and praise from parents, siblings or carers. Sadly the baby or toddler with autism cannot readily access that either.

Young babies tend to use the hand that is most convenient at the time. If an object is placed near their right hand, they will reach with that one, but if it is nearer their left hand, they are likely to reach with their left. By about 18 months, most babies begin to show a hand preference (about 90% of the time, it is for their right hands) and by their third birthdays, almost all children can be described as either right or left handed.

Difficulties with gross and fine motor skills, awkward gait, avoidance of PE and sports are all relevant to autism. Dyspraxia, or motor planning has been co-morbid with autism as far back as I can remember, To find out about how and when babies develop bilateral coordination, and to understand why helping your child to improve coordinated use of both hands will impact significantly on your child's autism visit: http://autism-toddler-program.com