Do autistic traits (or undesire development disorders) increase with age?

Question

Do maladaptive behaviours in autistic children increase with age (into adulthood). Does communciation difficulties increase or stay stagnant with age. Does isolation increase with age (social skills, empathy). Is there a regression, as the time passes, or the development of the child is stagnant (no growth).

Answer 1

Autistics follow autistic developmental trajectories, so no, we don't just stop developing. We grow and develop regardless of whether we are given so-called therapies.

What's important for autistics is to have contact with other autistics. We need to learn to do things in autistic-friendly ways, and not try to learn only in NT (non-autistic) ways. We should be given opportunities to explore every possible type of communication.

Autistics aren't socially disabled when it comes to interacting with other autistics. It's with NTs that we usually have communication problems, since our nonverbal language and interaction style are incompatible with theirs. We can lose ability to interact with other autistics as we get older if we don't have the opportunity, just as you would have had trouble interacting if you were kept isolated from anyone who communicated your way for most of your life. We do not however, magically gain skills in reading NTs, though we can learn NT nonverbal communication much like we would learn a foreign language. (That does not mean that we should be forced to emulate NT communication by any means.)

Some of us never do well with speech, no matter how long people try to teach it to us. Give autistics the opportunity to type, even if you aren't sure that they know how to read. Try using a picture board. Try every method of communication possible and make an effort to communicate with the autistic. Too often, people don't want two-sided communication with autistics, they just want to be able to tell us what to do. If an autistic expresses an opinion that you don't want to hear, don't take the communication system away.

Don't listen to the whole thing about how if autistics don't receive ABA they will stagnate. ABA forces autistics to adopt a non-autistic mask. It also often eventually results in things like Borderline Personality Disorder due to the way that it invalidates the autistic. It makes autistics look good to NTs on the outside while severely damaging them internally.

Oh, and read "Help! I Seem To Be Getting More Autistic!" over at the autistics.org library. It covers the topic of "regression" in more depth.

Answer 2

Over emotionalism has a lengthy historic previous of being pathologized. there is easily no actual evidence that Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton were on the "autistic spectrum." it really is in straight forward words romanticizing a intense sickness. understand that "intense functioning autism" many times refers to those with autism who're no longer mentally handicapped. And that team constitutes about 25-30% of the autism spectrum. The "genius" or autistic savant is amazingly uncommon. Pre-natal screening for autsim is way off, if even accessible. it really is exceedingly not likely there'll ever be a marker is there is with Downs syndrome. As for the "masculinisation" of the mind, you may want to keep in mind that maximum issues on the extremes are undesirable. that is the stability which produces the most optimal functioning.

Answer 3

Depending on the level of disability---if the child is diagnosed at an early age and given special therapies, then they should only get better. There is probably a level that the child would hit where that would be as good as they could get, but there's no reason for regression....unless they are neglected and/or abused.

Answer 4

lf there are no therapies done on him,he'll likely stay the same or get worst in adulthood.
When one is diagnosed with autism, that child is in need of physical therapy as well as behavioral therapy. Early intervention should start as soon as possible. Most of them are needing of speech therapy, too.
Good luck and all the best to you.

Answer 5

I have found with my sister there has been improvement with age. she is 35. she does work a job (at the Goodwill) she does comminicate but is slow at getting it out. she does not always like crowds anymore where as before i dont think that they bothered her (but also she may have not been able to comminicate it before) her communication with us (the family) may not be what everyone else understands but you learn there moods and tones in voice and i can tell if she seems nervous. i find reading everything you can on it. be your own advocate. we have yet to find a doctor that could help and dont bother. god bless and good luck

Answer 6

I think it depends on environment. And the person's cognitive ability.

Communication difficulties can get better with practice. I have high-functioning autism or asperger's syndrome but by the time I was in high school I learned to listen to other people's conversations (I think "fly-on-the-wall" is the expression) and memorize phrases and what things followed what. I also payed attention when people would talk about other people's social blunders. Often they would explain why it was bad and I would put that in my memory bank too. I developed a system of "if this is said, then say this" sort of thing, much like the way a trouble-shooting guide or dichotomous key is set up. Since high school I have gotten better at talking to other people and responding appropriately. I used a similar approach to learn how to joke and use humor, although I still don't get it when a joke is just totally illogical or abstract.

However there are still times when I say things that people respond badly to when I didn't mean ill. Sometimes I can review my memory bank and diagnose the mistake but more often I am discouraged and alienated because I can't figure out why I was wrong, and to ask only makes things worse. People assume you already know and so when you ask what was wrong with what you said they think you are just being an @$$. But aside from the once-to-twice-weekly inexplicable faux-pas I have gotten much better with practice.

My singular interests still persist -- that has never changed since I was little. The subject matter varies, but an obsession will usually last anywhere from a few weeks to a year or so, and it takes a concerted effort for me to keep my focus off of it and onto my schoolwork/jobs/responsibilities. As long as I can have "alone time" every day to devote to what I am hooked on I can usually manage.

As far as isolation goes it truly depends on the environment. Very few people can tell that I am autistic, and it seems better for some reason that most people are just kept in the dark about it. If I find people around me that are accepting of my manner of behaving, then I tend to hang around them until I feel that they are becoming frustrated with me. In those periods I can be very social and aside from being a little eccentric I can socialize fairly well. But if I find that people are becoming critical of me then I am usually content to isolate and entertain myself with my belongings, although I really do want to be around people I can trust and will take any opportunity to find such people. Thus I have a history of hopping from group to group because the new guy often gets more acceptance and forgiveness than someone who has been around a while and should "know the rules." It's really hard not to break social rules when they don't come naturally, so it's always just a matter of time before I alienate my group and need to find another. I have found that when people don't understand something they assume something, and speculate. Then word gets passed around, and everyone seems to believe something about me. Something that I am usually not aware of (no one ever says it to your face -- they assume you already know.). But at some point I can tell that people are uneasy with me, so being one who doesn't like to make waves, I will disappear for the good of the group. Sometimes they come looking for me, missing me. If they do I will sometimes rejoin with them. If not, then I will isolate until I find someone else.

Either way I can survive. It's just the way things are. I know I have family to back me if I ever run out of resources.

I think, though, in answer to some of your questions, that the traits and behaviors remain constant/stagnant. They become more or less pronounced depending on environmental stimuli.

But I have a very good memory, and that helped me to learn how to act and react. People/children who do not possess that may not be able to do that and may become increasingly frustrated. I think it's because of cognitive differences that autism affects everyone differently. I used to work at a preschool and we had some autistic children go through there. I found that the ones that could verbalize and remember words and phrases could handle themselves better in adverse circumstances than the ones that were delayed in that department. What is the person's IQ? What are their memory skills? How well do they read and write? What are their areas of special interest and can they use them as an avenue to gain language skills? If so, how and to what extent? These questions are key, and they will differ from person to person.

I don't think skills ever regress. They are always there but they are enhanced or suppressed when the environment changes.

And there's another big thing -- changes. The only way most autistic people remain sane is by being able to either control their own world, or being able to anticipate upcoming changes and plan accordingly. Caught unprepared, we are completely lost and terrified when unexpected changes occur because we have been taken out of our comfort zone and have no seeable way of finding out when and how we can get back to it. This sense of "panic" is involuntary, and it overtakes our bodies completely. In children it is often described as a "temper tantrum" because children don't know how to hold it in, and most adults do not recognize it or the stimulus for what it really is. Even when they do they usually will not know how to mitigate it. I found that you have to get back to the initial problem. If you address anything that the initial problem has escalated to, it will make the anxiety worse. But if you isolate the initial trigger and fix that then the anxiety will disappear.

Depending on the cognitive ability of the person, they may or may not be able to control the outward appearance of these immense panic attacks. I have learned how to delay it, so that I can have time to either think of an alternate route by using my "troubleshooting guide" or to separate myself from everyone so no one sees that I am breaking down. If I can find my way back to some familiar routine I can usually calm down, and will usually need to take a short nap because the attacks can be physically draining. If this happens at work, I have gotten to where I can delay the effect long enough to "limp" through the rest of the day. Once I get home I can sleep it off.

But here's the question you have to ask: will the person in question have these survival strategies? Will they have the thinking skills necessary to avert a crisis before it happens? The panic attacks are involuntary and can be overwhelming. Whether or not the person's reaction to this anxiety surge improves with age will not only depend on his cognitive ability, but also the amount of support he has. If he knows that there will be no forgiveness for a mental breakdown, then he will be walking on eggshells and will not be very productive for fear of an unanticipated change in plans, as this will trigger the uncontrollable fear that could ultimately lead to removal from the group, job, etc. Take that same person and put him with more understanding (or organized!) people and there will be more productiveness and more outgoingness, and less fear. If you put him back in the "scary" environment, he will close up again. Not because he has regressed -- the potential is still there -- but only because he is going into defense mode.

Unfortunately this is not a well studied subject area so I have made it a goal of mine to find/figure out/dissect as much of it as I can so I can at least survive in the workforce, if not help someone similar to me who is struggling. I've been doing so by experimenting with people, testing reactons, and asking questions that are worded so that they may provide clues as to when people will react certain ways and why. Of course I tend to do this with strangers so that if I offend, then no harm has been done. Also strangers are more open to random conversations, not to mention impartial to me so it is easier to get unbiased responses. Hopefully I will be able to write down everything I have found out because it is much easier for me to write cohesively than it is to speak cohesively.