Autism and related conditions have some common characteristics or features which are evident in the first years of life and include the following:
Behavioural characteristics
- Difficulty joining other people.
- Difficulty using items or toys to represent real objects.
- Over- or under-reaction to sight, sound, smell, taste, pain or touch (including being held).
- Repetitive actions or body movements.
- Unusual postures, walking or movement patterns.
- No fear of real dangers.
- Intense anxiety or unusual lack of anxiety.
- Sudden, unexplained, distress or fear. Problems coping with change; dependency on parts of routines.
- Unusual or inappropriate habits or interests.
- Focus on moving or spinning objects.
- Laughing, giggling or screaming at unusual times.
- Difficulty imitating gross or fine motor movements.
- Intense or unusual activity level.
- Unusual sleep patterns.
Communication characteristics
- Inability to express need or interest.
- Indicating needs with gestures (sometimes unusual) instead of words.
- Difficulty imitating sounds and words.
- Loss of or delay in developing spoken language.
- Difficulty using speech in a meaningful way.
- Rarely initiates communication.
- Repeating words or phrases heard previously.
- Confusing gender (he, she) and pronouns (I, me, you) in speech.
- Unusual pitch and rhythm in speech.
- Unusual or lack of eye contact.
- Unusual or lack of facial expression.
- Difficulty interacting with other people (responding back and forth, turn-taking), making friends, and understanding others.
- Difficulty controlling emotion and excitement.
Learning characteristics
- Difficulty paying attention.
- Difficulty shifting attention (stuck on an idea or action).
- Difficulty sharing attention with others.
- Difficulty understanding abstract ideas.
- Difficulty grasping time and order of events.
- Thoughts and actions may appear illogical.
- Strong memory and sense of direction.
- May not benefit from typical teaching methods.
