Autism Symptoms

To help understand the nature of autism, let's take a look at what it is and a high level autism symptoms checklist.

Autism is a serious developmental disorder that affects the child's ability to communicate ideas and feelings. It also inhibits the child's natural ability to use their imagination or to establish relationships with others. The true difficulty in dealing with autism is that there is no single behavior that defines autism nor is there any known cause of the onset.  And currently there is no cure.

According to some of the research available, diagnosing autism can return results in children as young as two years old if done by professionals experienced in the diagnosis and assessment of young children. This early diagnosis is crucial as education is the primary form of treatment.  All available research advocates early and intensive treatment for children with autistic disorders. Without the early identification and intervention, children with this disorder face the unlikely chance that they will learn and develop from a educational treatment and process.

Some (or all) of the following may be observed in the child in mild to severe forms:

• Difficulty in communicating (understanding language)

• Difficulty in relating to people, playing with other children.

• Odd or unusual ways of playing with toys and other objects

• Trouble handling changes in surroundings or routines

The educational programs for children with autism focus on improving those aforementioned areas of difficulty; communication, social, and daily living skill sets. Many times such educational programs (sometimes referred to as IEP's) require the knowledge of a professional trained in the field of autism in order to be implemented in the home or at a school.

Any classroom environment should be set up so that the educational program

administered to the child is consistent and predictable. Remember one of the difficulties a child with autism has is having trouble with changes in patterns to their daily routine. Children affected with autism learn much better and are less confused when material is presented visually as well as verbally.

It is very important to keep the approach and philosophies consistent across a school environment and into the home environment. Programs should be designed for, by, and with parents so that learning activities, daily experiences, and educational approaches in general can be consistently carried between home, school, and the community.

Certainly the scope of this short article doesn't cover autism in great detail. Hopefully the short autism symptoms checklist and the information in this article will give you a starting point for more in depth research if need be.