Diagnosing Autism at Home - Treat it Early!

[Christian Hanks]

People with autism often have problem with social development, a key
characteristic that separates autism from other developmental
disorders in the world today. Social communication is one of the key
things that you need to look out for when trying to detect autism at
home and ensure that your child gets treatment early before it becomes
a serious problem that stays within the cortex when they become young
adults.
Social impairments actually do appear quite early in their childhood
and it is up to you to use the powers of observation and daily
interaction to ensure that your child does not have any sort of
autism. One of the best ways to see (especially if your child is an
infant), is to try methods of social stimulation with them. A normal
infant without developmental disorder will respond to stimuli quite
normally, especially when responding to their own name and recognising
familiar people around them. Infants with autism show much less
attention to these aspects, smiling less, looking away and sometimes,
they do not even respond to their own name.
They also avoid plenty of eye contact and will often bury their face
in a blanket or pillow to hide from the world. These are just some of
the tell tale signs to look out for to ensure that your infant child
does not have autism. When they get older, there are other things to
look out for. A normal child of that age is usually quite spontaneous,
friendly, energetic and will try to make friends when introduced to
other children within the same age range. Children who are 2 - 5 years
old that have autism will be more introverted and much more clingy to
their parents and guardians. They would have formed a fierce and
strong bond with their loved ones and drawn a circle of safety that
does not allow other people to come on.
They cannot fathom social situations, have no idea of the aspects of
social understanding and they would limit their communication to non
verbal actions like touching of the arm. Also, if you notice that your
child is severely lacking in developing natural speech or any
linguistic capabilities to support communication, than more than
likely your child is autistic. Their reliance on non verbal
communication is a tell tale sign that they are indeed autistic and
have not adequately developed their verbal communication skills.
Of course when we are discussing autism, the normal repetitive
behaviour, illogical insistence on things, fixation upon a particular
object, stereotype and self injury are the tell tale signs that
something is wrong and something needs to be done soon. Other symptoms
might include malnutrition because of strange eating habits and poor
psycho motor development. If you do have any fears that your child
might be autistic, it is a good idea to get him or her professionally
appraised by a child psychologists so that treatment and therapy can
begin early so as to avoid more serious symptoms from cropping up.