Understanding Autism Page 8

Signs and Symptoms: Social

Page 8

Symptoms of ASD vary wildly from person to person. Generally, those with the disorder have social challenges, communication difficulties and engage in repetitive/atypical behaviors.

Let’s take a moment to look at each of these categories individually.

Social Challenges

Most infants are social by nature. They will turn toward noises, gaze at faces, point at objects and smile at people. However, those on the autism spectrum can have difficulty with social relationships even from an early age. For example, they may show a reduced interest in people around them. They may not respond to their name at an appropriate age and they may have delays in babbling. For toddlers, those on the autism spectrum may have difficulty playing in social games and may prefer to play alone.

Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder may also:

have difficulties understanding subtle social cues and tone
be unable to engage or maintain eye contact when listening to another person
have difficulty understanding another person’s perspective
have trouble regulating emotions i.e. inappropriate outbursts
be unsure of how to initiate, terminate, or facilitate a conversation
speak too loudly or too fast
lack the ability to predict or understand another person’s actions
have difficulty understanding the appropriateness of words or actions