Autism:
Spectrum and Symptoms
Autism: The Difficulty Created by the Spectrum
Autism is often referred to as the "spectrum disorder." The word spectrum carries with it the idea that differing characteristics exhibit themselves in varying intensities in each person thus, at times, making it a difficult disorder to diagnose. Individuals exhibiting characteristics on the far end of the spectrum are far easier to identify and diagnose. However as interest has grown and research has been funded, more individuals exhibiting characteristics with intensity levels found at the lower end of the spectrum have been diagnosis. Many of these individuals are entering our private schools. In recent years, many adults born during the 1980s are being diagnosed on the lower end of the spectrum, and years of frustration are suddenly making sense to them.
Autism: The Symptoms
Communication:
Sensory:
Autism: The Symptoms
Communication:
- Eyes contact not maintained during a conversation
- Difficulty in grasping normal social expectations even after being taught/trained in these behaviors
- Fear of change due to social expectations changing and difficulty adapting on-the-spur-of-the-moment
- Communication is loud or cryptic
- Communication is irrelevant to conversation
- Talks too much
- Parroting lines from books or movies
- Confusion in reading facial expressions and/or adapting accordingly to changes in facial expressions
- Resistant to change in schedule, in habits, and/or expectations without time to adjust
- Easily upset by what appear to be minor issues (clothes not folded a certain way, sounds that others block out, etc)
- Frequent disappearances to a private, personal place when overwhelmed
- Severe mood swings
Sensory:
- Discomfort over certain clothing and food textures
- Repetitive movements (both fine motor and gross motor)
- Compulsive need for clothes to all be folded to the same size, put in color order, or laid out in a particular way
- Compulsive need for items to be arranged a particular way
- Overwhelmed by loud noises
- Fixated on one item, toy, thought, etc