subject: Symptoms of Autism Parents Should be Aware Of [print this page] Symptoms of Autism Parents Should be Aware Of
Are there typical symptoms of autism? Most parents want to know what these symptoms
might be especially if they are worried about their own child having them. Because of the number of symptoms that mimic other conditions it is not always
easy to diagnose autism. Read on for a few of the more common symptoms of autism.
The first
symptom we'll discuss is failure to imitate. A normal child will imitate almost everything they see right down to smiles and sounds. Autistic children however never begin this stage of development. Infants quickly learn to smile when smiled upon. As we grow we learn to speak and behave by our environment and those who influence it. This is the beginning of normal development, but it's something
that autistic children never pick up. Even
the most basic behaviors that normal kids learn from imitations are not often learned by autistic kids. Autistic children often do not develop the ability to speak until much later but can communicate in ways that may be difficult to
understand by others.
One thing
parents, and teachers, typically notice is the autistic child showing zero interest in the games other kids like to play, or playing with the other kids. Children
thrive on imagination, and it is indeed a most fertile period for children. The autistic child finds no enjoyment at all in
that kind of play, and there seems to be an inability to completely understand what it is.
Communications is another challenging area for the autistic child, and
that is especially so with groups of people. Individual little rituals and movements is
what the autistic child engages in, and they do not play in the same ways as non-autistic children. This may involve looking at or playing with certain objects or moving around in a certain way. You typically will not observe the child autistic doing the same things as other kids, and that
is part of the reason why.
Rituals, repetitive movement, and
possibly extreme forms of attachment behavior to things are quite common symptoms, as well. That is why you can see autistic children doing nothing but looking, or staring, at any
particular object - pick anything, and they do that for a long time. Behavior like pattern walking or hand movements in some special way that they repeat again and again. This behavior can pose real danger sometimes if
they child decides to bang his head on the wall, or the ground, etc. For this reason, some people with autism are given medication to control their behavior or restrained to
prevent them from harming themselves or others. Fortunately, only the severest forms of autism
display that kind of behavior, and not all children or adults do that. There are no set types of symptoms of autism, and you'll
find people with this disease exhibiting a range that includes varying degrees of severity. While we have looked at some common symptoms of autism, it is difficult to generalize about this disorder, as it manifests in so many different
ways. As far as treatment is concerned, it all depends on the
severity of the condition. Traditional medical doctors are in firm disagreement with alternative medicine doctors as to the causes
of autism, and naturally that leads to more differences over the best way to treat it.
