Autism FAQ - Characteristic Behavior

Autistic children display unusual behavior. A typical autistic child's behavior is likely to include some of the following:

• no speech
• non-speech vocalizations
• delayed development of speech
• echolalia: speech consisting of literally repeating something heard
• delayed echolalia: repeating something heard at an earlier time
• confusion between the pronouns "I" and "You"
• lack of interaction with other children
• lack of eye contact
• lack of response to people
• treating other people as if they were inanimate objects
• when picked up, offering no "help" ("feels like lifting a sack of potatoes")
• preoccupation with hands
• flapping hands
• spinning
• balancing, e.g. standing on a fence
• walking on tiptoes
• extreme dislike of certain sounds
• extreme dislike of touching certain textures
• dislike of being touched
• either extremely passive behavior or extremely nervous, active behavior
• extreme dislike of certain foods
• behavior that is aggressive to others
• lack of interest in toys
• desire to follow set patterns of behavior/interaction
• desire to keep objects in a certain physical pattern
• repetitive behavior (perserveration)
• self-injurious behavior
• "islets of competence", areas where the child has normal or even advanced competence. Typical examples:
  • drawing skill
  • musical skill
  • arithmetic
  • calendar arithmetic
  • memory skills
  • perfect pitch

There are other conditions which sometimes coincide with autism:

• synesthesia(an unexpected sensation arises when a particular sense modality is stimulated)
• Cerebellar abnormalities revealed by MRI scans
• raised levels of serotonin in the brain