Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends to absence of interest in peers.ī. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, see text): Not responsive to verbal cues acts as if deaf although hearing tests in normal range.Ī.Noticeable physical over-activity or extreme under-activity.Apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain.Unresponsive to common teaching methods.Laughing, crying, showing distress for reasons not apparent to others.Repeating words or phrases in place of normal, responsive language.Difficulty in expressing needs uses gestures or pointing instead of words.Insistence on sameness resistance to change.
Persons with autism may also exhibit some of the following traits. Two children, both with the same diagnosis, can act very differently from one another and have varying skills. Although autism is defined by a certain set of behaviors, children and adults can exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity. The symptoms and characteristics of autism can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe. It was in 1943 that Leo Kanner, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, created the diagnosis of autism.Īutism is a spectrum disorder. The classic form of autism involves a triad of impairments – in social interaction, in communication and the use of language, and in limited imagination as reflected in restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviour and activities. The word “autism” means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and non-verbal communication and social interaction. Autism is a lifelong, nonprogressive neurological disorder typically appearing before the age of three years.