what are the major symptoms of utism???

Question

should be autism

Answer 1

"Signs of autism may appear during infancy and the disorder is usually diagnosed by the age of 3. Sometimes the child's development appears normal until about 2 years old and then regresses rapidly. Symptoms of autism occur in various combinations, from mild to severe.

Infants with the disorder often display abnormal reactions to sensory stimuli (i.e., senses may be over- or underactive). Touches may be experienced as painful, smells may be overwhelmingly unpleasant, and ordinary daily noises may be painful. Loud noises (e.g., motorcycle going by, vacuum cleaner) and bright lights may cause inconsolable crying.

Other signs of the disorder in infants include the following:

Appears indifferent to surroundings
Appears content to be alone, happier to play alone
Displays lack of interest in toys
Displays lack of response to others
Does not point out objects of interest to others (called protodeclarative pointing)
Marked reduction or increase in activity level
Resists cuddling
Young children with autism usually have impaired language development. They often have difficulty expressing needs (i.e., use gestures instead of words) and may laugh, cry, or show distress for unknown reasons. Some autistic patients develop rudimentary language skills that do not serve as an effective form of communication. They may develop abnormal patterns of speech that lack intonation and expression and may repeat words or phrases repetitively (called echolalia). Some children with autism learn to read.

Autistic children do not express interest in other people and often prefer to be alone. They may resist changes in their routine, repeat actions (e.g., turn in circles, flap their arms) over and over, and engage in self-injurious behavior (e.g., bite or scratch themselves, bang their head).

Other symptoms in young children include the following:

Avoids cuddling or touching
Frequent behavioral outbursts, tantrums
Inappropriate attachments to objects
Maintains little or no eye contact
Over- or undersensitivity to pain, no fear of danger
Sustained abnormal play
Uneven motor skills
Unresponsiveness to normal teaching methods and verbal clues (may appear to be deaf despite normal hearing)
Symptoms of autism may increase in severity when the child enters adolescence and often decrease in severity during adulthood. "

Answer 2

Most of the major symptoms manifest very early, and early intervention is crucial. If you and your toddler are in a room, and you give the toddler a toy to play with, most toddlers will look back and forth between you and the toy. If your toddler puts all his/her attention on the toy and doesn't glance at you at all, you should ask for an evaluation.

In the US, even if your child isn't school age, you can contact the principal at your local elementary school to ask for help in setting up an evaluation. Then help the school team gather information to determine whether formal evaluations are appropriate. This may involve a series of observations and interviews with a psychiatrist for example, hopefully one who specializes in development. They'll want to review the medical files and know about the pregnancy and milestones like first step, first spoken word, and so forth.

That early, you may not be able to get a diagnosis of "autism", per se, but maybe one of "developmental delay". By the time the child is eight, a diagnosis of developmental delay is no longer valid, but you should be able to get a more definitive diagnosis by then.

If the evaluations the school orders show that the student has a disability, the school district should provide services to help prepare your child for school-- years ahead of time--and smooth the transition to school attendance. In most states, there are actually quite a lot of services and people to help the autistic child have a successful school experience.

If your child has a disability and qualifies for special education, you will join a team that includes school staff, maybe some folks employed by the school district, and maybe some service providers who work for agencies that are contracted by the school. As the parent, you are one of the most important members of that team, but you will need to meet regularly and communicate often.

The school generally provides you with a lot of paperwork. You need to hang onto all of those, especially documents relating to your rights under state and federal law. Every time the team makes an important decision (for example, your child is eligible for special education) the school is required to give you a document called a prior written notice. If your child is autistic, that file folder is going to become very thick! But that's good. It means your child is getting a lot of help, and the school is accountable to you.

If I were you, though, I would do my own research on autism. There are a lot of practices in wide use with autistic children that have never been shown to be effective. The keywords you want to look for here are "efficacious practices".