Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptoms

Babies, from the time of their conception through birth and growing up, are under constant observation and monitoring by parents and their doctors. The reason for this is because the early years of life of an individual is the period for development where the crucial skills and abilities are formed.

Parents and pediatricians are on the lookout for possible delays in development both physically, mentally, socially and psychologically because these delays may be indicative of developmental disabilities that may affect the child’s life until adulthood.

These developmental problems are known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD's) or more commonly referred to as autism.

Autism is a disorder that affects an individual’s full development in terms of communication, social interaction, intelligence or behavior. Statistics show that out of 91 children in the world, one is diagnosed with autism. 

Autism spectrum disorder symptoms are usually identified early on in the child’s life, as early as eighteen months of age until five years old. Because of the disorder, the child with autism views or sees things in a different way normal children do. Their brain literally interprets normal things in a different way thus affecting their actions and reactions to things around them.

Autism spectrum disorder symptoms vary from person to person affecting each individual at different areas of development and at varying levels of severity. Some people diagnosed with mild autism spectrum disorder symptoms can still function normally, communicate and possibly find a way of living independently.

On the other hand, there are also cases where the autism spectrum disorder symptoms are so severe, that the person is incapable of speech, requires full time hands-on care and special help to be able to go through his everyday life.

Such is the nature of this developmental disorder that the symptoms are described by medical professionals in a spectrum or range. Nevertheless, no matter how severe or mild the symptoms are, they will still be considered ASD.

There’s an expected set of developmental skills children are expected to gain during the first three years of life and autism spectrum disorder symptoms are identified when there are delays or non-development of these skills according to the expected period. Children with ASD may not show these skills at all or may start to learn these skills but eventually lose them.

Children with autism spectrum disorder symptoms could have difficulty communicating verbally or non-verbally. They may not respond to names, may not show interest in expressing what they want or need either through words or through non-verbal cues such as pointing or eye contact. It may also be the case at the other end of the spectrum where they might say words over and over or endlessly flap their hands for no reason, or have wild temper tantrums. These symptoms are called routines or repetitive behaviors.

People with ASD are also socially deficient because they cannot normally process emotions, logically understand social cues and interact normally with other people. They get frustrated easily because there is a difficulty understanding the meanings of words and normal communication.

Some also show severe type of autism spectrum disorder symptoms at the sensory level. They have an unusual reaction to certain touch, smell, feel or sound.

There’s no cure to autism as of today. However, there are a lot of therapies and options for parents to adapt to the symptoms of the disorder and to help the person with ASD to try to live a normal life. It is crucial to identify and diagnose ASD in an early age to be able to maximize the help that can be offered in order to minimize symptoms and give a chance to improve learning skills, which in turn would give the person with ASD higher chances of living life independently.

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