Symptoms of Autism

All individuals on the autism spectrum will display many of the following characteristics to a greater or lesser degree. No individual will have all of the characteristics.

If you have a loved one that seems to have many of these characteristics, please contact Margot Young for more information or to arrange a consultation regarding the Davis Autism Approach.

Problems with social interaction may show as:

• not paying attention to others;
  
• being aloof, distant and uninterested;
  
• being alone and withdrawn;
  
• a lack of social skills;
  
• inappropriate social behaviour;
  
• a lack of understanding about friendship or strangers;
  
• difficulties in making and sustaining friendships.

There is a wide variation in the extent of difficulties in communicating. These may be verbal and non-verbal, for example:

• not fully understanding the meaning of common gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice
• unusual patterns of verbal communication
• Echolalia (repetition of what has been said to a person)
• making up words
• difficulty with ‘I’ and ‘you’
• inappropriate tone of voice
• a lack of facial expressions and gestures

This may show as:

• difficulty in understanding how others think, feel and react;
  problems with imagination;
• difficulty in the development of imaginative play;
• having a literal understanding of language, for example having difficulties with expressions like “it’s raining cats and dogs” or “pull your socks up”;
• problems with predicting events or actions.

Some common patterns of behaviour, interests or activities in people with ASD include

• being obsessed with a certain topic or object;
• focusing on specific routines or rituals that have no practical function;
• repeating actions or movements like hand flapping, spinning, and/or body movements;
• intense preoccupation with parts of objects;
• extra sensitive (hypersensitive) or under sensitive (hyposensitive) to certain sounds, smells, tastes or textures.