How do i know my child has autism
Signs of autism in children
Autism in young children
Signs of autism in young children include:
- not responding to their name
- avoiding eye contact
- not smiling when you smile at them
- getting very upset if they do not like a certain taste, smell or sound
- repetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, flicking their fingers or rocking their body
- not talking as much as other children
- not doing as much pretend play
- repeating the same phrases
Autism in older children
Signs of autism in older children include:
- not seeming to understand what others are thinking or feeling
- unusual speech, such as repeating phrases and talking ‘at’ others
- liking a strict daily routine and getting very upset if it changes
- having a very keen interest in certain subjects or activities
- getting very upset if you ask them to do something
- finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on their own
- taking things very literally – for example, they may not understand phrases like "break a leg"
- finding it hard to say how they feel
Autism in girls and boys
Autism can sometimes be different in girls and boys.
Autistic girls may:
- hide some signs of autism by copying how other children behave and play
- withdraw in situations they find difficult
- appear to cope better with social situations
- show fewer signs of repetitive behaviours
This means autism can be harder to spot in girls.
The National Autistic Society has more information about autistic women and girls.
Non-urgent advice: Get advice if:
- you think your child might be autistic
You could speak to:
- a GP
- a health visitor (for children under 5)
- any other health professional your child sees, such as another doctor or therapist
- special educational needs (SENCO) staff at your child's school
Getting diagnosed can help your child get any extra support they might need.
Find out how to get diagnosed
Page last reviewed: 11 November 2022
Next review due: 11 November 2025
Learn the Signs of Autism
One of the most important things you can do as a parent or caregiver is to learn the early signs of autism and become familiar with the typical developmental milestones that your child should be reaching.
The autism diagnosis age and intensity of autism’s 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 don’t have autism show a few. That’s 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:
By 6 months
- Few or no big smiles or other warm, joyful and engaging expressions
- Limited or no eye contact
By 9 months
- Little or no back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles or other facial expressions
By 12 months
- Little or no babbling
- Little or no back-and-forth gestures such as pointing, showing, reaching or waving
- Little or no response to name
By 16 months
- Very few or no words
By 24 months
- Very few or no meaningful, two-word phrases (not including imitating or repeating)
At any age
- Loss of previously acquired speech, babbling or social skills
- Avoidance of eye contact
- Persistent preference for solitude
- Difficulty understanding other people’s feelings
- Delayed language development
- Persistent repetition of words or phrases (echolalia)
- Resistance to minor changes in routine or surroundings
- Restricted interests
- Repetitive behaviors (flapping, rocking, spinning, etc.
) - Unusual and intense reactions to sounds, smells, tastes, textures, lights and/or colors
If you have concerns, get your child screened and contact your healthcare provider
The M-CHAT (Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers ™) can help you determine if a professional should evaluate your child. This simple online autism screen, available on our website, takes only a few minutes. If the answers suggest your child has a high probability for autism, please consult with your child’s doctor. Likewise, if you have any other concerns about your child's development, don't wait. Speak to your doctor now about screening your child for autism.
Resources
A diagnosis of autism is an important turning point in a long journey to understand your child's world. Autism Speaks has many resources for families whose children have recently received a diagnosis.
These include Autism Speaks First Concern to Action Tool Kit and First Concern to Action Roadmap.
Signs of autism in adults and teens
Do you suspect that your feelings and behaviors involve autism? Many people who have milder forms of autism go undiagnosed until adulthood. Find out more in our guide: "Is it Autism and If So, What Next?"
Please visit Treatment of Autism and our Autism Speaks Directory for more information. Have more questions? Autism Speaks' Autism Response Team can help you with information, resources and opportunities. Call us at 888-288-4762 (en Español 888-772-9050) or email [email protected].
Recent research confirms that appropriate screening can determine whether a child is at risk for autism as young as one year. While every child develops differently, we also know that early treatment improves outcomes, often dramatically. Studies show, for example, that early intensive behavioral intervention improves learning, communication and social skills in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Autism in children - signs, symptoms, causes and diagnosis of childhood autism in the clinic "SM-Clinic" for children and adolescents deviations. With careful attention to the baby, the earliest messengers of pathology can be seen already in infancy.
The first signs of autism in young children are:
- refusal of tactile contact - the child cries when he is picked up, turns away, bends, and calms down only after he is returned to the crib;
- passivity in response to parents' appeal, lack of attention, interest during adult communication;
- a sharp reaction to loud noises;
- indifference to bright, rattling, whistling and squeaking toys with which adults try to entertain the child; nine0007 indifference to standard toys, attempt to play with inappropriate items.
As they grow older, symptoms of autism in children may include:
- lack of speech at the age of 1.5–3 years with a rich vocabulary and understanding of adult conversation;
- echolalia - uncontrolled copying and repeated repetition of sounds uttered by another person;
- perseveration - "getting stuck" on some phrase, word that the child constantly repeats, or emotions, or tasks, while the baby tirelessly ponders the idea that has swallowed him, but does not take any steps towards achieving the goal; nine0008
- refusal to comply with the game rules specified by adults or peers, and this refusal is not motivated by the child’s personal decision, his disagreement, he simply does not understand why some installations and restrictions are needed;
- Difficulties in perceiving the emotions of other people: children with autism do not understand why other children laugh at some phrase of the teacher or why a girl who has been pulled by a pigtail is crying; such children may not have access to humor, sarcasm, irony; nine0007 no response to own name;
- unwillingness to look directly into the eyes when communicating, answering or addressing, including in situations with parents or other close people;
- lack of fear, apprehension in life-threatening or health-threatening circumstances;
- tantrums, violent expressions of emotions when the usual environment changes, when strangers appear, etc.
; - restless, restless sleep with frequent awakenings. nine0008
Children with autism prefer to be alone, do not participate in group activities, it is difficult to force them to do something together with other children. They try to leave, hide where they will not be touched. Such children come up with their own games, incomprehensible to their peers, and constantly play them. From the side of people around, the movements of an autistic child may seem strange, devoid of meaning.
In many series and films that show the life of people with ASD, autistic characters are presented as strange but brilliant characters who avoid communication, offend others with their directness, but show excellent results in their professional activities. In life, unfortunately, everything is different: most often, children with autism develop mental retardation due to impaired functions of the cerebral cortex. Studying is given to them with difficulty, they are not able to understand the patterns, learn the rules, delve into the solution of the problem.
Due to problems with studies, the desire for loneliness and isolation is exacerbated. Such children may show immoderate aggression, which is most often projected onto loved ones or oneself. Children with autism in case of failures can bite, cut themselves, beat against foreign objects. nine0003
However, situations in which autistic people have unique mental abilities also occur. Unfortunately, high intelligence does not cover other manifestations of the disease: isolation, emotional scarcity, difficulties with abstract thinking, a tendency to self-flagellation, etc.
The main crisis peak falls on adolescence: hormonal changes in the body exacerbate autism spectrum disorders, the child, realizing that he is not like everyone else, closes even more. In rare cases, the reverse process occurs, when puberty helps an autistic person become more calm, balanced, which positively affects the ability to interact with others. nine0003
Autism or delayed speech/mental development: how to understand?
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11.18
Behavior analyst and mother of a son with autism on what to look for if a child has a speech delay
Author: Mary Barbera Many children of primary preschool age have a speech delay. In some cases, speech delay is a sign of something more, including autism. For parents, the question of what speech delay means in their child can be extremely difficult and painful, especially when they are trying to get to an autism specialist, who is still very difficult to find. I know this from my own experience. In this article, I want to briefly describe what is important to pay attention to during this period of uncertainty. I also want to emphasize what parents can do, whether it's autism or "just" speech (mental) developmental delay. nine0003 As with many other children with autism, at first my son Lucas simply had a speech delay. At the age of two he attended a regular kindergarten, he did not cry and rarely acted up. Although I was a nurse by profession, I did not know about the typical stages of mental development, and I had never even heard of the early signs of autism. In my defense, I will say that these were 19The 90s, before the advent of Google or Facebook, and the official rate of autism among children in the United States was 1 in 500, not 1 in 50 as it is now. One day before Lucas turned three, he was diagnosed with autism. At that moment, I set a goal for myself - I will learn everything I can about the early signs of autism, and I will teach them to pediatricians in our state of Pennsylvania. I was able to do this thanks to a grant for the early detection of autism from the organization First Signs. I can't diagnose autism, but as a nurse and now as a behavior analyst with extensive experience in the field of autism, I always try to pay attention to the first possible signs of autism in a child. Below I list the factors that I always pay attention to. If your child has these early signs of autism, please don't panic. Whether the diagnosis of autism is confirmed or not, you can start taking action now to help your child. First of all, if we are talking about a child aged 18 to 24 months, I check whether he has a pointing gesture. Previously, I did not understand what a huge role the pointing gesture plays in the mental development of the child. By 18 months, or at least two years old, a child should be able to draw your attention to something with a pointing gesture. And it's not about the child pointing at something once a month, he must do it all the time. The child should point to the items he wants, such as a pack of juice or a toy. In addition to the pointing gesture, I check to what extent the child understands the speech of other people, even if he himself does not speak at all. When my son was two years and six months old, I invited a photographer to our home. I remember back then, in the 1990s, a photographer gave Lucas a film case and said, "Hold it baby, throw it away." Lucas clearly didn't understand what he was saying at all. That photographer looked at him in surprise, as if he wanted to say "you're already big enough." Then I did not know to what extent he should understand speech at this age, and I did not attach any importance to this. I want to emphasize that receptive language delay alone does not necessarily indicate autism. A child with this delay may not have autism. But in the case of Lucas, and in the case of many other children, autism manifested itself in a severe delay in both expressive and receptive speech. In addition to pointing and understanding speech, I always pay attention to how the child plays. Does the child play with different toys, with more than one toy? Or is he completely focused on one item, like wanting to carry it with him all the time? When he plays, does he perform the same action over and over again, like laying out the blocks? Not for a couple of minutes while you are busy with something of your own, but hour after hour, when it seems that the child is quite pleased with the repetition of this action and the absence of speech? For example, a child can spend hours laying out objects in a row or rotating something. Finally, at 18-24 months, it is natural for a child to imitate the actions of those around them, such as waving goodbye when you say goodbye, or launching an airplane if you do so. Not imitating your actions can be a potential sign of autism. Thus, the absence of speech in itself does not speak of autism. It is important to take into account how the child plays, whether he knows how to imitate other people's actions, whether he understands the language, whether he tries to communicate using gestures. If he does not imitate other people in any way during the game, and if he does not understand other people's speech, it may be more than just a speech delay. nine0003 See also: M-CHAT-R Online Test for Early Signs of Autism, A Parent's Guide to Autism Symptoms. I have worked with hundreds, if not thousands of children as a behavior analyst, and I realized that it does not matter if it is autism or language delay - Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) methods will help the child improve speech and reduce behavior problems. So I recommend three steps if your child has speech delay and possible signs of autism. Perhaps you are now waiting for an appointment with a doctor, trying to “knock out” help, or looking for a specialist to get a different opinion about the diagnosis. Either way, you can create a specific action plan based on these three steps. 1. Learn as much as you can about typical developmental milestones and compare them to your child's development. There are very detailed descriptions and tables of what skills a child should have at a given age. So if your child is 4 months old, 8 months old, 18 months old, or two years old, you can determine if the child has physical, cognitive and language delays. For example, when a child should have a pointing gesture, when he should start speaking in two-word phrases, when he should eat on his own. 2. In any case, if the child is delayed compared to the typical stages of development, you need to see a doctor. Between the ages of 2 and 3, our son did not have general mandatory examinations, my husband and I were worried about his development, but did not even think about going to the doctor. 3. Try to learn as much as you can about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). While a child is still young, even if diagnosed with severe autism, PAP-based intensive care can be of great help and will help the child lead a normal life in the future. Even if it turns out to be just a speech delay, PAP-based therapy will not hurt the child - it will only help him master speech skills faster.
Once a week he visited a speech therapist, and initially the speech therapist was optimistic - I was told that speech would appear, and everything would be fine. 
For example, if at 18 months or two years old the child speaks too little or does not speak at all. nine0003 What are the signs to look out for in case of speech delay in children
Pointing gesture to ask for something or attract attention
It also has to point to something to get your attention - that's what we call divided attention, to point to show you something. For example, a child points to a plane in the sky so that you can look at it too. Even if he can't say "airplane" yet, he can point his finger at it and tell you "oh, oh!" is a very good sign. One of the main "wake-up calls" in relation to autism is the lack of a pointing gesture. nine0003 Speech comprehension
Now I realize that at that time Lucas did not understand other people's speech at all. It was not just a delay in expressive speech, but also a delay in receptive speech. nine0003 Playing skills
These behaviors are possible signs of autism. nine0003 Mimicking
What parents can do about speech delay in a child
I have also worked with young children who were prevented from being diagnosed with autism because, thanks to intensive behavioral therapy, they were able to quickly catch up and catch up with their peers. nine0003 
It is very important to pay attention not only to the development of speech - pay attention to self-service skills. For example, can a child eat with a spoon, drink from an open cup? Can he calm down on his own, or does he often have tantrums and other problem behaviors because he doesn't understand the world around him? Such descriptions are just guidelines, this does not mean that all two-year-old children, without exception, must be able to do this. But if you see that your child has practically no skills that are usually formed at two years old, but he can do everything that children can do at 18 months, this means that there is a delay, but it is not very strong. This comparison will also help you determine what skills your child needs to work on and what needs to be addressed. nine0003 
It is best to immediately look for a specialist who can carry out the diagnostic process, and with whom you can discuss possible assistance. During the conversation with the doctor, describe everything that worries you, list any delays that you have found in your child, and if the child attends kindergarten, then talk to the caregivers in advance - there may be something that worries them, but you you don't know this. If you're having trouble figuring out how to get a diagnosis in your area, try contacting your local organization for parents of children with autism, or just find the parents of children with autism and talk to them. nine0003 
