Many resources are available to help autistic children as well as their loved ones. Local support groups can be found through the national nonprofit the Autism Society of America. These conditions are characterized by differences in communication and social interaction.
Masking and Coping Skills
These unusual sensitivities may contribute to behavioral symptoms such as resistance to being cuddled. Children with autism might have problems talking with you, or they might not look you in the eye when you talk to them. They may have to line up their pencils before they can pay attention, or they may say the same sentence again and again to calm themselves down. They may flap their arms to tell you they are happy, or they might hurt themselves to tell you they are not. During your child’s visits, the pediatrician may ask specific questions or complete a questionnaire about your child’s development.
What is the difference between autism and ADHD?
Cyril Burt and other educational psychologists in the 1940s also debated how to attribute mental activity and thoughts to infants, clashing dramatically with behaviourists such as J. B. Watson who argued that it was not the vocation of psychologists to describe the thoughts that they imagined infants to have (Watson, 1925; Burt, 1941). The specialist will go over your child’s medical and developmental history. Your child’s intelligence, behavior patterns, and social and communication skills can be tested.
Repetitive behavior
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They may want to form friendships but not know how, or they may not really care. Many babies start waving bye-bye and pointing to objects they want by the time they are 12 months old.
Unusual or atypical eating behavior occurs in about three-quarters of children with ASD, to the extent that it was formerly a diagnostic indicator. Selectivity is the most common problem, although eating rituals and food refusal also occur. More generally, autistic people tend to show a “spiky skills profile”, with strong abilities in some areas contrasting with much weaker abilities in others. Autistic people may have symptoms that do not contribute to the official diagnosis, but that can affect the person or the family. The broader autism phenotype describes people who may not have ASD but do have autistic traits, such as avoiding eye contact and stimming.