What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others. It also includes restricted repetitive behaviors, interests and activities. These issues cause significant impairment in social, occupational and other areas of functioning.
ASD is now defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a single disorder that includes disorders that were previously considered separate — autism, Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified.
The term “spectrum” in ASD refers to the wide range of symptoms and severity. The number of children diagnosed with ASD is rising. It’s not clear whether this is due to better detection and reporting or a real increase in the number of cases, or both. While there is no cure for ASD, intensive early treatment can make a big difference in the lives of many children.
Early Signs of Autism
Autism spectrum disorder typically appears during the early years of life. Early assessment and early intervention are crucial to a child’s long-term success.
Early warning signs include:
- No social smiling by 6 months
- No one-word communications by 16 months
- No two-word phrases by 24 months
- No babbling, pointing, or meaningful gestures by 12 months
- Poor eye contact
- Not showing items or sharing interests
- Unusual attachment to one particular toy or object
- Not responding to sounds, voices, or name
- Loss of skills at any time
We encourage you to talk to your pediatrician about concerns.
Symptoms of ASD
Autism spectrum disorder impacts how a child perceives and socializes with others, causing problems in crucial areas of development — social interaction, communication and behavior.
Some children show signs of ASD in early infancy. Other children may develop normally for the first few months or years of life, but then suddenly become withdrawn or aggressive or lose language skills they’ve already acquired.
Each child with ASD is likely to have a unique pattern of behavior and level of severity — from low functioning to high functioning. Severity is based on social communication impairments and the restrictive and repetitive nature of behaviors, along with how these impact the ability to function.
Social communication and interaction
- Fails to respond to his or her name or appears not to hear you at times
- Resists cuddling and holding and seems to prefer playing alone — retreats into his or her own world
- Has poor eye contact and lacks facial expression
- Doesn’t speak or has delayed speech, or may lose previous ability to say words or sentences
- Can’t start a conversation or keep one going, or may only start a conversation to make requests or label items
- Speaks with an abnormal tone or rhythm
- May repeat words or phrases verbatim, but doesn’t understand how to use them
- Doesn’t appear to understand simple questions or directions
- Doesn’t express emotions or feelings and appears unaware of others’ feelings
- Doesn’t point at or bring objects to share interest
Patterns of behavior
- Performs repetitive movements, such as rocking, spinning or hand-flapping, or may perform activities that could cause harm, such as head-banging
- Develops specific routines or rituals and becomes disturbed at the slightest change
- Moves constantly
- May be uncooperative or resistant to change
- Has problems with coordination or has odd movement patterns, such as clumsiness or walking on toes, and has odd, stiff or exaggerated body language
- May be fascinated by details of an object, such as spinning the wheels of a toy car
- May be unusually sensitive to light, sound and touch, and yet oblivious to pain
- Does not engage in imitative or make-believe play
- May become fixated on an object or activity with abnormal intensity or focus
- May have odd food preferences, such as eating only a few foods, or eating only foods with a certain texture