CAUSES

WHO IS AT RISK?

SIGNS

The main characteristics are impairments in social interaction, impairments in communication, restricted interests and repetitive behavior. Other aspects, such as atypical eating, are also common but are not essential for diagnosis. Individual symptoms of autism occur in the general population and appear not to associate highly, without a sharp line separating pathological severity from common traits. If your child has autism, you will only start to see the signs after the fist three months. You’ll see these signs before they turn 3years old, though you’ll notice poor social skills, impaired language development and repetitive behaviour. However, as with any disorder, the signs can range from mild to severe. Autism develops differently from person to person, and the effects can range from relatively mild to debilitating. Unlike some conditions, there is no "typical" person with autism.
Some of the typical symptoms include:

• Social skills
  People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted. Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name. Autistic toddlers have more striking social deviance; for example, they have less eye contact and anticipatory postures and are less likely to use another person's hand or body as a tool.
  
  Autistic children are less likely to exhibit social understanding, approach others spontaneously, imitate and respond to emotions, communicate nonverbally, and take turns with others. However, they do form attachments to their primary caregivers. Older children and adults with ASD perform worse on tests of face and emotion recognition. Contrary to common belief, autistic children do not prefer to be alone. Making and maintaining friendships often proves to be difficult for those with autism. For them, the quality of friendships, not the number of friends, predicts how lonely they are.
  
  
• Communication
  About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet daily communication needs. Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and the desynchronization of vocal patterns with the caregiver. In the second and third years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words.
  
  Autistic children are less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words reverse pronouns. Autistic children may have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language. They are more likely to have problems understanding pointing; for example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the pointed-at object.
  
  
• Repetitive Behaviour
  Autistic individuals display many forms of repetitive or restricted behavior, such as:
  Purposeless movement, these include hand flapping, head rolling, body rocking, or spinning a plate. (Stereotypy).
  Compulsive behavior which is intended and appears to follow rules, such as arranging objects in a certain way. 
  Resistance to change; for example, insisting that the furniture not be moved or refusing to be interrupted. Performance of daily activities the same way each time, such as an unvarying menu or dressing ritual.
  Restricted behavior which is limited in focus, interest, or activity, such as preoccupation with a single television program.
  Movements that injure or can injure the person, for instance biting oneself. (self-injury)
  
  No single repetitive behavior seems to be specific to autism, but only autism appears to have an elevated pattern of occurrence and severity of these behaviors; as such an autistic child will not have all these symptoms and some may not be listed above. Two thirds to three quarters of autistic children also have severe learning difficulties. However, some autistic children learn quickly, but have difficulty communicating and applying their knowledge to everyday life.

TREATMENT