Autism And Symptoms – Understanding The Warning signs Of The Condition

The symptoms of autism are becoming clearer and easier to define as more is being learnt about the disorder. Being able to identify the warning signs and indicators of the set of symptoms will help you in no little way to seek and get help for those who need it. You should learn to lookout for them anywhere that you find yourself.

Social symptoms: People with autism often display several social symptoms or difficulties in relating to others such as:

- They don’t laugh or smile in response to gestures from people around them
- They make poor eye contact with others
- They don’t imitate or repeat caregiver sounds or gesticulations
- They do not share their own enjoyment with others and do not share those of others as well
- They do not often respond to toys in their neighborhood
- They do not make their own gestures
- They never make friends with other children, and
- They are immune to the feelings of other people around them.

Communication Symptoms: autistic patients also have problems with communication which involve the following:

- The lack of gestures or speech – most times they don’t learn to speak early enough, and when they do, they don’t speak the same way other kids do. In some cases, the patient never learns to speak at all.
- They repeat word you say to them right back at you
- They misuse pronouns in conversation, sometimes saying ‘you’ when they mean to say ‘I’
- They prefer to line up toys then to play with them, and
- They refuse to play make-believe with anyone at all.

Symptoms of unusual behaviors: the above symptoms of autism also include other symptoms worthy of note, namely:

- They have restricted interests or repetitive behaviors
- When focused on any one thing, they lose interest in everything else
- They cannot be interrupted in anything that they are doing, otherwise they would throw a fit or tantrum, and would likely end up hurting themselves
- They play with their toys in of ways, lining them up or spinning the wheels of a car rather than trying to drive it
- They insist on doing things the same way all the time, and if you interrupt them in this process, they throw a fit – for instance, they can insist on the same meal every day, the same road to church, same clothes, etc.
- They tend to repeat body movements like rocking back and forth, flailing their arms, and spinning

It is common to have an autistic child complain of belly pain or constipation from time to time, or even diarrhea. Also, they tend to be highly sensitive to certain stimuli like sounds and touch and may react violently if disturbed by rain, a car driving by, or a loud noise around them. Then, although the patient may look like they are retarded, they may demonstrate particular preserved or enhanced in some areas like math, sciences, or the arts. These are called savant skills from the savant syndrome.