Typical symptoms
The autism disorder is connected with the difficulties that are present in three different areas of human functioning and their mutual connections.
Area I: Impairments in social interaction – is a main characteristic of autistic disorder.
- Children with autism do not respond to their own name and often avoid eye contact with other people, hardly ever can they initiate a play ‘let’s pretend …’ They also have problems with understanding gestures, voice intonation and facial expression expressing feelings.
- Children with autism are not aware of the feelings of other people towards them and of the negative impression of their behavior that can be made on other people.
- Some people with autism are prone to aggression. It usually happens when they have to stay in an unfamiliar and depressive surroundings or when, because of over sensitivity to stimuli, they feel stressed and frustrated.
Area II: Impairments in communication – more than half of the people with autism do not speak for their whole lives. In the case of people who can speak, the speech ability usually develops late.
- People with autism often speak in the third person using a name rather than pronouns ‘I’, ‘my’.
- Their language may be strange – they often use single words or repeat one sentence all the time regardless of the situation.
- Some people constantly talk about their favorite topics not paying any attention to a person whom the speech is directed to.
- Regardless of whether they are able to speak or not, all people with autism have difficulties with understanding verbal and non-verbal communication.
Area III Impairments in behavior.
- Although people with autism seem to be quite normal and physically fit, many of them perform strange, repetitive activities such as: body rocking, hair curling, etc.
- Some people have tendencies to self-injury. Such behavior is often caused by difficulties in communication, difficulties in interpretation of the world around them and the social meaning of behavior or over sensitivity to sensory stimuli.
- Some people constantly and ritually repeat certain activities and every even slightest change of a given order is highly depressive to them.