Is my child showing signs of Autism?

Signs of autism may begin to be detected as early as 12 months of age. Symptoms of autism can occur in isolation or in combination with other conditions. Some early indicators of autism spectrum disorder include:

• Delayed development of the ability to draw the attention of parents and others to objects and events
• Little or no use of pointing to encourage another person to look at what he or she sees (i.e., “joint attention”)
• Little or no attempt to gain attention by bringing or showing toys/objects to others
• Little or no eye contact
• Participates in repetitive patterns of activities
• Aloofness and indifference to other people
• Lack of understanding that language is a tool for conveying information
• Tendency to select for enjoyment trivial aspects of things in the environment (e.g., attending to a wheel on a toy car and not the whole car for imaginative play)
• Odd responses to sensory stimuli, such as hypersensitivity to sound, fascination with visual stimuli, dislike of gentle touch but enjoyment of firm pressure
• Uses senses of taste and smell rather than hearing and vision
• Poor coordination including clumsiness, odd gait and posture
• Over or under activity
• Abnormalities of mood, such as excitement and misery
• Abnormalities of eating, drinking, and sleeping

More Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder:

• Flicking fingers, objects, pieces of string, etc.
• Watching things that spin
• Tapping and scratching on surfaces
• Inspecting, walking along and tracing lines and angles
• Feeling special textures
• Rocking, especially standing up and jumping from back foot to front foot
• Tapping, scratching or otherwise manipulating parts of the body
• Repetitive head banging or self injury
• Teeth grinding
• Repetitive grunting, screaming or other noises
• Arranging objects in a line
• Intense attachment to particular objects for no apparent reason
• A fascination with regular repeated patterns of objects, sounds