Introduction to SEND: Week 2 - Early signs of Autism
What are the early signs of Autism? **in broad terms, these are not exhaustive
There are a number of key signs to identify in the early stages of autism, linked to key developmental stages.
At 2 months, crucial developmental signs where delay or lack may indicate autism:
--smiling at people
--can calm themselves
--tries to look at parents
--holding their head up
By 12 months, signs include:
--rarely responding to loud sounds, voices and names
--little or no eye contact
--not showing interest in things
--does not initimate others: parents, peers etc.
--Does not point out objects of interest, or initial shared interest
--limited range of facial expressions or gestures
At 18 months:
--delayed language skills, sometimes accompanied by skills such as pointing, gestures of facial expressions to make up for lack of verbal communication.
--Some children may make no attempt to compensate for speech delays, or may limit their speed to echoing and repeating what they have heard from others or TV/other media.
After this age, as the child gets older, things to look out for are:
--social engagement with peers - do they play solitarily or parallel play?
--imagination: can they use their imagination to extend games or scenarios
--repetition: how they react to a change in routine?
--special interest: do they have a subject, toy, routine that fully engages their interest.
My takeaways from this week's lesson have been around solidifying my introduction into the early signs of autism, and really how key it is to recognise and act on them as quickly as possible, to ensure that support is there in the crucial early years.
My overriding thoughts though, and this is influence heavily by my own personal circumstances, is how many of the early signs of autism are vision-based: eye contact, joint engagement, following pointing indications, reacting to facial expressions. These are all things that the visually impaired find difficult, challenging and difficult too.
I am really enjoying listening to everyone's takes and reactions during class, and how they are influenced by their own personal experiences; it's fascinating collating them all together.
Again, back to the language of all this, thinking of the definitions of ‘signs’ (something noticed by others) vs ‘symptoms’ (something experienced by the individual) was fascinating, as I had never considered the distinct differences in definitions. It is interesting how those words have become colloquial synonyms of each other in this context, and again links to the idea of autism being a different perception of reality; even in the language used in diagnosis, the experience of the individual and the outwards signs noticed by others are blurred.
Continuously to my mind, the link between some signs of autism and things that a visually impaired person might experience seem difficult to distinguish. ‘Lack of imitation’ being another (in addition to the other ones I’ve mentioned) that VI children can not do, as they can’t see to imitate.
One of the early symptoms at 12 months mentioned was that they were difficult to spot at this age as physical/gross motor skills were often not delayed; it is interesting to them consider that co-ordination issues are one of the things mentioned on ASD diagram we saw last week.
On the the task regarding a 24 month old bringing a bottle of bubbles to its parent and not ‘sharing the joy’ or making eye contact or sharing the pleasure of playing together: I wonder, again, about the idea of different perceptions of reality, that for this child, simply giving the adult the thing they are interested in is ‘sharing’ and interaction enough for them.
Although I know how important the logging of milestones is for early recognition of the symptoms, but the consistent checking against milestones like this can take its toll mentally on the parents, especially when their child is behind on the milestones. The saying, ‘comparison is the thief of joy’ - and I think it’s really true in this instance.
