What are the INDICATORS OF AUTISM?

Indicators of AUTISM

PHYSICAL HEALTH

• is generally healthy
• is generally good-looking
• is a picky-eater, tends to smell food/objects and put things in mouth 
• exhibits disturbed sleeping patterns
• does not seek attention when hurt, has high pain threshold, unable to localize pain

GROSS-NOTOR

• walks on tiptoe especially during early years
• is hyperactive, dysinhibited
• is fast and strong and does not tire easily
• is well-balanced, generally coordinated but lacks impulse control
• exhibits repetitive movements: body rocking, hand wiggling, whirling"ritual" of walking to and fro
• is eaither echopraxic or non-imitative of gestures

FINE MOTOR

• may either have good or poor perceptual-motor skills depending on level of attention span
• is absorbed by some objects with tendency to get attracted to spin round/whirling objects
• self-stimulates by touching surfaces, arranging objects precisely

PSYCHOSOCIAL

• exhibits limited/flecting eye contact
• is aloof, passive: prefers solitary activities to group activities
• manifests inappropriate emotional responses
• demonstrates unusual fear
• is socially immature and handicap
• is maladaptive to changes in food, clothes, routine, routes or arrangements of things
• tends to be self-injurious

LANGUAGE-COGNITIVE/INTELLECTUAL/ACHIEVEMENT

• shows deficit in the use of language
• unrreacts to language and visual
• underreacts or everreacts to sounds
• demonstrate rote learning
• exhibits pronoun reverseals, is echolalic
• exhibits inaappropriate recall of experiences
• is delayed in language-conceptual abilities: reasoning, inferential thinking, problem solving, deductive and inductive thinking, etc.
• is delayed in overall intellectual reponse

SELF-HELP

• is delayedin performing eating, dressing, and grooming tasks
• is unable to assume age-apprpriate responsibilities
• lags behind in discriminating and avoiding dangers