How do I know if my child has autism?
We have recently noticed the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder and the World Health Organization has recognized that for every hundred children, there is one child with autism spectrum, which is considered a large percentage. As mothers, we want the best for our children, and some think that a child with autism spectrum is a child who is unable to develop and grow, nor a normal life, but these are wrong beliefs. As a result of these mistaken beliefs, parents deny the fact that their children have autism spectrum. Knowing what autism spectrum disorder is, diagnosing your child in time and turning to specialists helps develop his skills and life closer to normal.
1- Eye look
Recommend
Children on the autism spectrum avoid and hate looking into the eye of their interlocutor completely, whenever you try to look into his eye while speaking, he looks away.
2- Responding to his name
A normal baby responds to his name from the age of 9 or 10 months, you will notice that an autistic child ignores his name and does not even respond by looking when using his name. Sometimes a child responds if you intend to give him something he likes or wants.
3- Use facial expressions
From the age of about 10 months to 12 months, babies begin to express their feelings with different facial expressions, such as exclamation, joy, sadness or anger, but the autistic child is unable to develop this skill and does not show any expressions on his face.
4- Interactive play
From the age of about 12 months, the child begins the skill of interactive play, for example, if you pass him the ball, he passes it to you, or if you hide looking for you, or if you pass him a car, he passes it to you, an autistic child is unable to play interactively and most of his game is individual.
5- Does not share his interests
At the age of about a year and a half, the normal child begins to try to draw your attention to his interests even if he does not start speaking, for example, he is interested in offering you his coloring or the way he describes the game, but the autistic child feels that he is in a valley alone that does not try to involve you in his interests or play.
6- Does not show concern for the feelings of others
Have you played a game with your child where you pretend to cry to see how he reacts, and the child comes to see why you are crying, or try to calm you down by hugging you, for example? An autistic child will not show any interest in these situations and will completely ignore you.
7- Imaginative play
A normal child practices imaginative play from the age of 23 months to about 25 months, such as grabbing anything and pretending to be a car, feeding brides girls like they were real children or playing with toy tea cups and pretending to be serving tea. An autistic child does not play any imaginary play.
8- Caring for other children
When a normal child enters a place with children, he is attracted to them and after a little time begins to share the toys or try to communicate with them. An autistic child ignores the presence of children in the place completely as if they are invisible or stands near them without any attempt to communicate or play.
9- Expressing feelings
A normal child develops the skills to express different emotions, an autistic child will not express his joy even if he is presented with his favorite toy or candy. His facial expressions do not change as mentioned. Autistic children sometimes cry or laugh for no visible reason.
10- Does not understand the rotation of roles
From the age of about 5 months, the child begins to understand the alternation of roles, for example when playing with the ball understands when it is his turn to pass the ball or his role among other children in eating candy. An autistic child who does not understand the alternation of roles when playing will play when he responds and does not notice others and does not wait for his turn.
11. Describe things
Many autistic children are obsessed with parking things, such as parking their car in a row or dividing their toys into rows based on color or shape, and you don't notice them playing with those toys normally.
12- Speech communication
An autistic child may begin to speak with a word or even sentences of two words and then notice that he stops communicating with speech from the age of two years. Such as wanting something and pulling you by the hand to bring it without mentioning his name and some autistic children never speak. Sometimes an autistic child speaks one word when he wants something like mentioning his color, but when you speak to him, he does not answer the word, but ignores you.
13- Routine
The autistic child is very routine in his play and all his daily activities and hates change greatly, if he plays with a certain car by disassembling it and then installing it, he will repeat that process daily and will never change the way he plays, and if you try to show him a different way of playing, he will be upset and may cry. He hates changing anything from his daily routine, whether in clothing, food, or any activity he is used to. It does not change and does not compromise.
14. Attention to detail
An autistic child shows more attention to detail than the main thing, such as paying attention to the wheel of his car while playing and focusing only on the movement of the wheel. For example, we notice that he is overly interested in one item of clothing, such as socks.
15- Intense obsession with one thing
Autistic children are obsessed with one topic or game, such as obsession with playing with one car, playing with water, hearing the same song up to 50 times a day, and getting angry when trying to change it.
We have mentioned the most important features, but as we mentioned to you, there are forty features of autism, we advise you to read more about these traits and follow a specialist if there are 8 or more traits in your child to diagnose him early and help him adapt and develop normally.
