Signs of Autism in Infants

Autism is a developmental disorder, which is associated with undeveloped social interaction, lack of communication skills and overall abnormal behavior of a child. Signs of autism are possibly visible within first three years of age. This disorder affects information processing mechanism of brain and leads to repetitive and restricted actions-reactions of a child. There are different types of autism and according to a recent study, the signs of autism in infants are clearly visible. Early detection of these signs of autism can work as the first positive step towards its control which is crucial for normal and trouble free future of a child.

Early Signs of Autism in Infants

Average age of detecting the autism characteristics in children, is between 2 ½ to 4 years old. However, early signs of autism in infants can be observed as early as between 6 to 18 months of its age. These signs are pretty hard to recognize and they are more often detected only when the child gets a bit older. These signs of autism are early warnings that are needed to be monitored and corrected with immediate clinical evaluation. The best thing to do is to maintain a checklist of your infant's speed of crossing the normal developmental milestones. These milestones are pretty common in all the infants and hence, any abnormalities with them are easy to catch as well. These normal milestones include smiling, relaxing when she is picked up, making an eye contact, making suggestive gestures for help, making cooing and babbling noises and even laughing, etc. However, remember that absence of some of these milestones is not related with autism. Here are some of the obvious abnormal signs of autism in babies.

Expression
The first signs of autism in infants can be observed in the form of abnormal or no gestures and expressions, towards their parents and regular people like grandparents/nannies. A few things like not smiling by first 6 months of age, no use of gestures, babbling, cooing or pointing towards recognizable people and on seeing recognizable objects by first 12 moths of age, not using a single word by first 12 months of age and not using the two word phrases by 2 years of age. Along with lack of facial expression, obsessive behavior towards certain things, abrupt changes in eye contact and facial expressions, etc.

Repetitiveness
Some of the common physical characteristics of children with autism is repetitiveness of a few things. These children get used to some relatively similar patterns, colors and things. It is the reason why they develop a sort of attachment with these things and want the things in a certain way. If you refuse them, then they start to get agitated and extremely cranky. Physical repetitiveness signs are: rocking their bodies for hours, flapping their arms, etc. Close observation of these physical characteristics of autism proves to be a great help.

Sensitivity
Infants with different levels of autism possibly have a certain imbalance of their five senses. For example, some infants get soothed when you rub their cheek or pat their head continuously, while some don't like to be touched at all. Some infants are extremely sensitive towards sounds and get disturbed, some infants have an emotional meltdown when they see a color pattern or experience certain distinct smells. This level of sensitivity varies by levels and severity of the disorder.

Regression
When a child gets diagnosed with mild autism or severe autism, her parents claim that their child did not show any signs of autism during infancy. There might be certain early symptoms of autism in infants that left unnoticed by the parents or the children start to regress after a certain period of time. These dangerous child autism symptoms include losing the ability to articulate and understand the meaning of certain words and withdrawing completely from all the interactions. These children stop speaking altogether and starts living within themselves, more often.

The exact causes of autism are not known and the early signs of autism in infants are often left unnoticed than not. This fact leads to more dubiousness about this disorder. Parents first of all need to accept the fact and opt for the autism treatments in an open and broadminded manner. The sooner the parents accept the fact, the greater are the opportunities for these children to adjust in their social surroundings and start leading a normal lifestyle.