Characteristics Of Autism

Characteristics of Autism
Definition
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitivebehavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how thisoccurs is not well understood.

Characteristics
* Autism is a highly variable neurodevelopment disorder that first appears during infancy or childhood, and generally follows a steadycourse without remission. Overt symptoms gradually begin after the age of six months, become established by age two or three years, and tend to continue through adulthood, although often inmore muted form.
Social development
* People with autism have social impairments and often lack the intuition about others that many people take for granted.
* Unusual socialdevelopment becomes apparent early in childhood. Autistic infants show less attention to social stimuli, smile and look at others less often, and respond less to their own name.
* Childrenwith high-functioning autism suffer from more intense and frequent loneliness compared to non-autistic peers, despite the common belief that children with autism prefer to be alone.Communication
* About a third to a half of individuals with autism does not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. Differences in communication may be presentfrom the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver.
*In the second and third years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words.