Behavioral Characteristics of Autism

Autism is a brain development disorder that appears during infancy or childhood, and usually follows a steady course without subsidence. Autism is one of the development disorders, which are included in the autism spectrum disorders. The autism spectrum disorders includes disorders like the Rett syndrome, Asperger's syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, or pervasive development disorder. It also houses qualitative impairments of social communication and interaction along with restricted and repetitive activities.

Behavioral Characteristics of Autism

Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder which is marked by three prominent symptoms - impairment in social interaction, impaired communication, and repetitive behavior.

Social Impairment

Autistic infants exhibit less attention to social stimuli like smiling and making eye contact with people or responding to their name. Children with autism are often very resistant to cuddling. Autistic toddlers tend to exhibit more severe forms of social impairment in terms of anticipatory postures and tend to have less social understanding, emotional expression and spontaneity as compared to the other children of their age. Children with autism display extreme behavioral characteristics in the sense that they might either be overly aggressive or abnormally passive. They do not pay attention to other people around them and do not reciprocate to communication - verbal or non-verbal. A child who suffers from autism has difficulty in the development of play and usually uses only parts of toys or displays repetitive actions in playing.

Impaired Communication

It is believed that a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication requirements. The children suffering from autism exhibit difficulties in communication starting from the first few months, which can be characterized by delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, and the lack of synchronization of vocal patterns with the parent / caregiver. A person who suffers from autism does not establish eye contact and has difficulty in maintaining eye contact as well. Older children and autistic adults tend to show poor understanding of face and emotion recognition. Older children and autistic adults tend to show poor understanding of face and emotion recognition.

Repetitive Behavior

A person suffering from autism has a highly restricted, repetitive and stereotyped pattern of behavior and interests. Autistic people are extremely resistant to slightest of changes in their routines, which might break their repetitive behavioral patterns. A very low attention span is also a common trait of autism. They exhibit stereotypy, which is apparently purposeless movement like rocking the body or flipping the hands. People with autism tend to exhibit compulsive behavior and develop ritualistic behavior in their daily routine. Children with autism have also shown movements that lead to self-injury like biting oneself. Another significant characteristic of autism includes restricted behavior, that is, limited focus or limited interests.

Autism is usually treated by means of behavior therapy and there is no one specific course of treatment that can be used for everyone. Every child needs a mode of treatment, which would help him to cope up with the specific problems and symptoms of autism. One of the most important things to be mentioned is that autistic children do not prefer to be alone; it is just that making friends and communicating with people is difficult for children with autism. Children with autism need constant love and support to encourage them and help them cope up with autism.