Wednesday, March 27, 2024

How To Tell If A Kid Has Autism

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Going Forward With An Autism Diagnosis

How To Know If Your Child Has Autism

The process of coming to terms with a diagnosis of autism often takes months, and understanding its effects on a deep individual level may take decades. As a parent, you must therefore remain patient, compassionate, and available for your child. Keep abreast of the latest developments in autism research, proactively steer your child in a positive direction when he’s struggling with his condition, and seek out support for not only your child, but for yourself as well. Though autism can be a challenging condition to manage at times, as your child grows and develops, you will be amazed to discover the intensely unique individual that he is.

Autism Signs By 3 Months

  • She doesn’t follow moving objects with her eyes: Babies at high risk for autism dont follow caregivers as they move in the visual field, says Dr. Frazier. They may be more intrigued by something like a blanket.
  • She doesn’t respond to loud noises.
  • She doesn’t grasp and hold objects.

  • She doesn’t pay attention to new faces

Lack Of Eye Contact And Joint Attention

Joint attention refers to two people sharing a focus on the same object after one alerts the other to the item using verbal or nonverbal cues. For example, a parent or caregiver will point to a toy or tell the child about it, and the child will then look at the toy. Joint attention is an important way of connecting and interacting with other people.

According to a 2016 article in PLOS ONE , from about 9 months old, a baby should be able to make regular eye contact and share focus with their caregivers.

Autistic babies can find it challenging to pick up on these social cues and may ignore the person or the object that they are pointing out.

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Restricted Or Repetitive Behaviors Or Interests

People with ASD have behaviors or interests that can seem unusual. These behaviors or interests set ASD apart from conditions defined by only problems with social communication and interaction.

Examples of restricted or repetitive interests and behaviors related to ASD can include:

  • Lines up toys or other objects and gets upset when order is changed
  • Repeats words or phrases over and over
  • Plays with toys the same way every time
  • Is focused on parts of objects
  • Gets upset by minor changes
  • Has obsessive interests
  • Flaps hands, rocks body, or spins self in circles
  • Has unusual reactions to the way things sound, smell, taste, look, or feel

What Are The 3 Main Symptoms Of Autism

Parody Autism Help Chart
  • What Are the 3 Main Symptoms of Autism? Center
  • Autism or autistic spectrum disorder can manifest as different symptoms in different children. The average age of diagnosis is 2 years, though some children may be detected at around the age of 5 years.

    The symptoms to look out for in children for suspected autism are:

    • Delayed milestones
    • A socially awkward child
    • The child who has trouble with verbal and nonverbal communication

    Delayed Milestones: Every child starts cooing, rolling over, babbling, smiling, pointing, and sitting up at an expected age. These are called milestones. Though every child grows at their own pace, you must visit the pediatrician if:

    • The child does not smile by the age of 6 months
    • The child has no facial expressions by the age of 9 months
    • The child does not make cooing noises or babble by the age of 12 months
    • No pointing or waving by the age of 12 months
    • The child does not speak by the age of 16 months

    Signs of social awkwardness: You must be concerned if your child

    • Avoids eye contact while you feed him
    • Prefers to play alone
    • Does not respond to their name
    • Does not like being touched
    • Prefers fixed routines and even a minor change may upset them greatly
    • Has trouble understanding feelings or talking about them

    Problems with verbal and nonverbal communication:

    • Echolalia: They keep repeating words over and over
    • They talk in a flat tone, devoid of expressions
    • They do not understand emotions in a conversation
    • Have difficulty communicating what they want

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    May Exhibit Difficulty Recognizing Facial Expressions And Making Eye Contact

    From an early age, children learn to make eye contact with their parents, smile when they are being smiled at, and point or wave at things they find interesting, such as an animal at the zoo or a favorite toy.

    Children on the autism spectrum have a harder time recognizing emotion in facial expressions and may show little to no emotion themselves. When something startling occurs , its actually normal for a child to look to their parent and in seconds process their facial expression to identify what emotion is being conveyed. This is done as a way to verify if they too need to be concerned with what just happened. With an autistic child, however, there is often no reaction at all, which for a parent, can be very puzzling and concerning.

    Older children with ASD will often look at the ground or let their eyes wander when an adult is speaking to them making eye contact is often a key struggle for children with ASD.

    Because children on the spectrum have trouble reading facial expressions, they may fail to react or even react inappropriately when a parent or sibling is expressing joy, anger, or sorrow.

    Signs Of Autism Meltdown

    For some people with autism, sensory overload can become overwhelming. In these situations a person may have a meltdown. A change in routine can also precipitate a meltdown.

    A meltdown is not a temper tantrum and can be experienced by someone with autism of any age. A meltdown should be managed by calming the person and addressing the cause of the distress.

    Signs that a meltdown may be developing, sometimes known as the rumbling stage, include:

    • Nail biting

    Many people with autism spectrum disorder also have food intolerances and may find that a diet which excludes gluten or casein helps.

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    Signs Of Autism In Babies

    Some parents recognize autism signs when their child is 6-12 months old, depending on the symptoms and their severity. Pay attention to whether or not the baby is reacting to social information and the environment. Within the first year of life, babies start to babble and use gestures like pointing, says Dr. Frazier, adding that babies may also smile at their caregivers. Baby noises should have some social function as well, and they should try communicating with parents. Babies with autism sometimes fail to communicate through sounds or gestures, and may not respond to social stimulation.

    Here are other early signs of autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

    Can A Child Be Slightly Autistic

    How and When to Tell Your Child They’re Autistic

    A child can be mildly autistic. Every child with autism spectrum disorder is unique and so symptoms may differ in severity and range between individuals. Children diagnosed as mildly autistic are unable to understand the body language or emotions of the people around them, but they do have normal intelligence and can conduct their daily activities.

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    What Does An Autism Diagnosis Mean For My Child

    An autism diagnosis can result in some beneficial effects, but also comes with associated risks, disadvantages, and contraindications. Once your child is diagnosed with autism, you can expect your doctor to devise a specific treatment plan, comprised of therapy and/or medication to help your child function more easily in daily life. You can also seek specific guidance and support for your child to thrive at school. Despite these benefits, a diagnosis of autism also come with the risk of social stigmatization for the child. There is also a range of physical and mental-health conditions that frequently accompany autism including but not limited to: gastrointestinal problems, epilepsy, ADHD, anxiety, and depression.

    Repeating Phrases Or Babble

    While many young kids babble or repeat themselves, Pandey says young children with autism may repeat the same jargony phrase over and over again in the exact same wayalmost like theyre singing the verse of a song. I had one child who would repetitively count the way he heard it on Elmo, she says. This is known as scripted language, she adds. Repeating a phrase or babble with odd rhythms or in sing-song voice are also warning signs, Mayo Clinic experts say.

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    Inspecting Toys Rather Than Playing With Them

    Most young kids will inspect a toy before playing with it. But a child with autism may not move past the inspection phase, Pandey says. So while a child without autism will race a car along the floor, or fly an airplane through the air, a child with autism might continue to spin the cars tires or examine the bottom of the plane. Their interest is in the parts of the object rather than the whole, she says.

    If another child tries to interact or play with him, a child with autism may not know how to react.

    Common Signs Of Autism

    How Do I Know If My Child Has Autism?

    Some of the more common signs that may indicate a person has autism include:

    • Avoiding eye contact
    • Delayed speech and communication skills
    • Reliance on rules and routines
    • Being upset by relatively minor changes
    • Unexpected reactions to sounds, tastes, sights, touch and smells
    • Difficulty understanding other peopleââ¬â¢s emotions
    • Focusing on or becoming obsessed by a narrow range of interests or objects
    • Engaging in repetitive behavior such as flapping hands or rocking
    • Children not responding to their name by 12 months
    • Children not pointing at distant objects by 14 months

    Worried you or someone you know might have some of the signs of autism? The Ada app can help you check symptoms. or find out more about how it works.

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    Signs And Symptoms Of Autism In Babies And Toddlers

    If autism is caught in infancy, treatment can take full advantage of the young brains remarkable plasticity. Although autism is hard to diagnose before 24 months, symptoms often surface between 12 and 18 months. If signs are detected by 18 months of age, intensive treatment may help to rewire the brain and reverse the symptoms.

    The earliest signs of autism involve the absence of typical behaviorsnot the presence of atypical onesso they can be tough to spot. In some cases, the earliest symptoms of autism are even misinterpreted as signs of a good baby, since the infant may seem quiet, independent, and undemanding. However, you can catch warning signs early if you know what to look for.

    Some autistic infants dont respond to cuddling, reach out to be picked up, or look at their mothers when being fed.

    Communication: Early Signs Of Autism

    In the first year of life, childrens social and communication development is an important area to watch for early signs of autism. Social and communication development includes things like learning to smile, make eye contact, and use gestures.

    Social interaction and communicationIf young children are autistic, they might:

    • not consistently use eye contact to get someones attention for example, they might not always look at you and then at a snack to show you they want it, or not look back towards you when they see something that excites them
    • rarely point to or hold up objects to show you things for example, they might not point to a dog and look back at you to make sure youve seen it too, or they might drop a toy in your lap and walk away instead of holding it up and looking at you
    • not consistently respond to their name being called
    • not consistently use gestures on their own for example, they might not wave bye-bye or clap without being told to, or without copying someone else whos waving or clapping
    • not consistently smile at you or other familiar people without you smiling at them first
    • rarely copy other peoples actions, like combing their hair when you do it
    • not sound like theyre having a conversation with you when they babble
    • not understand simple, one-step instructions for example, Give me the block or Show me the dog.

    Relationships and playIf young children are autistic, they might:

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    What Are The Symptoms Of Autism

    Autisms early warning signs usually emerge sometime before a child turns three. Symptoms can start as early as 12 or 18 months for some children, while other kids with autism may not be diagnosed until the second or third grade, Pandey says. Symptoms occur over time, and they dont always happen in a doctors office, she says. Thats why parents watching for symptoms and providing that information is important.

    Pandey also says parental symptom-spotting is vital because the sooner a health professional can intervene, the better off the child will be. You cannot get autism-specific intervention until you get a diagnosis, she adds.

    So what are the symptoms of autism? Here are 12 that parents need to know. Just keep in mind: Diagnosing autism is complicated. We need to see a number of these symptoms to make a diagnosis, not just one, Pandey says.

    Also, different symptoms emerge at different ages. What may be a red flag for autism at age 3 could be considered typical behavior at age 1 or 2. While you should tell your childs doctor if you notice any of these symptoms, spotting one of themor even several of themis not a guarantee that your child has autism.

    How Is Autism Diagnosed

    How do you know if your autistic child’s therapy is harmful?

    Doctors check babies and little kids for signs of autism at every checkup. A parent may think that something is wrong and tell the doctor. Maybe the child is old enough to speak but doesn’t. Or a kid doesn’t seem interested in people or plays in unusual ways.

    When a doctor thinks a kid might have autism, he or she will work with a team of experts to see if it is autism or something else.

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    Later Warning Signs Include:

  • An impaired ability to make friends
  • Repetitive or unusual language
  • An intense or focused interest
  • The impairment of social or imaginative play
  • Being inflexible in relation to specific routines or rituals
  • Its important to note that each and every child is unique. Autism is a complex spectrum disorder and symptoms will range widely from person to person. Each child will vary depending on their measured intelligence, social interaction, communication, behaviors, sensory response, and motor skills. For example, in terms of repetitive behaviors , where do they fall on a scale from mild to intense?

    Pay special attention to playtime. If a child under the age of two shows zero interest in showing or sharing toys or prefers to line their toys up instead of playing with, they should be evaluated.

    What Are The Signs Of Autism

    The autism diagnosis age and intensity of autisms early signs vary widely. Some infants show hints in their first months. In others, behaviors become obvious as late as age 2 or 3.

    Not all children with autism show all the signs. Many children who dont have autism show a few. Thats why professional evaluation is crucial.

    The following may indicate your child is at risk for an autism spectrum disorder. If your child exhibits any of the following, ask your pediatrician or family doctor for an evaluation right away:

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    May Be Easily Startled By Sounds Or Agitated By Background Noise

    Although all children may exhibit adverse reactions to loud sounds, children with ASD have a particularly strong aversion to loud noises that may cause them to react by grimacing or wincing, rather than showing surprise or a normal wide-eyed curiosity.

    It may be symptomatic of autism if you see your child convey their strongest emotions in the form of an adverse reaction to the music or TV being turned up too loud or if adults in the room are having a loud and animated conversation or if other children are playing nearby are making loud sounds or even when you run the vacuum cleaner.

    This is something worth paying close attention to.

    Because children with autism process the world around them differently, they may have trouble filtering out irrelevant sounds coming from the microwave or washing machine sounds that would disappear as white noise in the background for neorotypical children.

    These reactions may result in fits, crying, anger, or even physically aggressive behaviorthe reaction differs based on the child and the severity of their sensitivity to noise.

    What Does Aspergers Look Like

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    The three characteristics a child with Aspergers exhibits are social awkwardness, obsessiveness, and sensory issues, says John Carosso, PsyD, a child psychologist and certified school psychologist at Community Psychiatric Centers at the Autism Center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They might be bossy, very physical, and lack empathy, he says. They may be aggressive. They want to be friendly with other children but they dont know how. Temper tantrums, self-injury, and aggression are other possible signs, as are language delays and the habit of avoiding eye gaze.

    Look for deficits in social communication, repetitive behaviors, and rigidity, says Eric Hollander, MD, director of the Autism and Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. A child with Aspergers may obsess over one item, always carrying it around, he says. This also can interfere socially since this may be all the child talks about, he says. And they may be hypersensitive to clothing, sounds, touch, textures and smells.

    Additionally, Dr. Hollander says, because life is generally so difficult for these children, they may mishandle social situations. These kids tend to be very emotional and are always having tantrums, he says. They are routine-oriented and very rule-oriented. They have the attitude: These are the rules and you stick with the rules.

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