Understanding the Symptoms of Autism in Children?

Answer 1

Autism is a neural development disorder that inhibits an individual to develop fully functional communication skills and causes a person to participate in very repetitive behavior. In most cases, an autistic child begins to display symptoms of this condition when he or she is around three years old. However, many parents find it difficult to spot the unusual behavior present by a child who has autism until much later into the child’s development. As an increasing number of parents and medical professionals become familiar with the symptoms of autism, more and more people have been diagnosed with the condition. While it can take time adjusting to caring for an autistic child, many parents report that they were very misinformed about the disorder at the time that they first learned that their child had autism.

One of the easiest symptoms that parents can identify in young children who are autistic is that their child seems to be developing abnormally slowly starting at about age two. Autistic children will often seem to fall behind their peer group in learning how to speak and basic motor skills. An early telltale of autism is a child who suddenly seems to surge forward in catching up with the basics skills for his or her age only to immediately regress farther back than before. If a parent is able to spot the possible symptoms of autism in a young child, early intervention programs focused on helping autistic children develop communication skills can often be very effective.

Most autistic children have mild to severe social impairments that are sometimes not identified until an autistic child enters the school system. About 30% of the children who have more advanced autism do not develop sufficient communication skills to navigate society effectively. Parents of children with autism should be aware that many medical professionals and autistic adults believe that autism should be considered simply as a condition that different from the norm rather than a disorder that needs to be, or even can be, treated. How a parent views this condition can have an enormous impact on the types of resources and strategies a parent employs in raising an autistic child.