Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which manifests itself during the first three years of life and will last the entire life cycle. The fundamental symptoms of autism are
two:

  • Persistent deficiencies in communication and social interaction.
  • Restrictive and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.

Signs that may be indicative of ASD in children are:

  • In kindergarten and school, there is a lack of interest in other children.
  • They do not share interests (usually they do not point fingers at what surprises them by sharing it with others).
  • Absence of symbolic play (feeding the dolls, cooking, playing cars as if they were real, etc.)
  • There is little eye contact and they do not observe the expression on the person’s face when they see something unusual together. They do not usually present social laughter.
  • Their language, if any, is literal (they don’t understand jokes, jokes, double meaning, or metaphors).
  • Avoid physical contact or dislike it. They tend to have tactile, olfactory, taste and hearing hypersensitivity. There is often little sensitivity to pain.
  • They react badly to the voices of their parents, which can raise suspicions of a hearing impairment.
  • They have unusual interests. These are repetitive and are not shared.
  • They can show strange, repetitive and self-stimulating behaviors, such as balancing, shaking hands or walking on tiptoe, among others.
  • Those with more intellectual level notice that they are different and do not understand what is happening to them. They are the piece of the puzzle that doesn’t know how to fit or fit on the social board.

They have unusual interests. These are repetitive and not shared.
They can display strange, repetitive and self-stimulating behaviors, such as rocking, flapping hands or walking on tiptoe, among others.

Those with a higher intellectual level notice that they are different, and do not understand what is happening to them. They are the piece of the puzzle that they do not know how to connect or fit socially.