Autism Children

Autism is one type of brain development disorder and is part of a group of related Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which includes Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder or PDD. Autism characteristics or symptoms first appear during infancy or early childhood and would develop continuously until adulthood. 

The following describes various autism characteristics in detail.

* Deficiency in Social Skills

Lack of abilities for socialization can be distinguished from early childhood. This characteristic distinguishes autistic disorders like Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder from other development disorders. Children with these autism characteristics have difficulty or lack the ability to respond to a social stimuli like smiles or even when called by name. Other characteristics include:

Autism is a behavioral and developmental disorder that can be categorized into distinctive categories of behavior. These include problems with socialization and external interaction, difficulties in communicating verbally or nonverbally, and repetitive behavior which involve obsession to a focal point of interest. These categories can be minor or mild in impact while others can be totally disabling.

Difficulties in socialization and external interaction are the most common signs of autism. These symptoms and deficiencies in social skills will first be noticed by parents and can be noticed as early as the child is still in infancy stage. These children seldom or will not respond to people. Most of the time they will constantly be focused on one item like a particular toy and disregard others for a lengthy amount of time.

The term autism has been in use in the modern world for over 50 years now, since Dr. Leo Kanner used it in his 1943 report. He was a psychiatrist working at Johns Hopkins Hospital when he wrote a paper regarding 11 children with distinctive behavioral disorders. These children were self-absorbed and have severe difficulties in socialization and communication unlike other normal children. 

Since then, statistics have indicated that autism spectrum disorder or ASD occur in about 4.5 children out of 10,000 births in surveys taken from England and the United States. These figures can go as high as 0.25 to 0.5 percent of the population, and includes people with autism, Asperger syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder or PDD. These statistics also show that ASD can occur in males three times more likely than females.