1. Signs and Symptoms of
Autism/Aspergers
1. Eye Contact. Children will avoid this by looking elsewhere and often look
downwards.
2. Socialization. Children prefer to play by themselves than interact with others
3. Obsessions. This may be a colour, an object or interest that is intense without
distraction.
4. Noise. This could be something like a vacuum cleaner, a dog barking or a siren
on an ambulance or police car. This would upset the child.
5. Frustration. This is born out of stress of not being able to communicate or
express themselves. This can manifest in tantrums and hurting themselves in
extreme cases.
6. Sensory Overload. This can be a situation where they cannot cope eg. Crowded
areas, or too much information given they cannot understand.
7. Facial and Emotional Expression. Not being able to recognize the difference in
whether someone is angry, sad or happy is extreme but sometimes it is simply
taking things literally and unable to understand humour, sarcasm or idiolism.
8. Understanding Rules. They will appear to be unresponsive to requests or
authority. Sometimes appearing deaf.
9. Not Understanding Danger. They sometimes would not understand why
something is dangerous.
10. Difficulty With Change. Routine is important and can cause problems with
behaviour if this is altered without preparing them or explaining.
11. Lack of Interest. This would be an inability to sustain any conversation or
interest in other children’s activities.
12. Physical Mannerisms. Some children use hand flapping, rocking or spin around
in circles.
13. Inappropriate Laughing and Giggling. This can be for instance when another
child falls over or on receiving bad news.
14. Physical Contact. Hugs and signs of affection are not always understood in
some children.
15. Unresponsive. Sometimes they have a low attention span and normal teaching
methods do not work. They do not always respond to their name or a request.
16. Apparent Insensitivity to Pain. On occasions some children have a high pain
threshold and can tolerate many falls without crying.
17. Extreme behaviour. This can be restlessness and inability to concentrate and
also passivity where they appear slow and uninterested.
18. An Attraction to Objects. Sometimes they do like attach themselves to objects
such as anything glittery or a particular part of a toy.
19. Food Obsessions. Some will only like certain textures and tastes which will not
allow them a very varied diet,
20. No Imaginative Play. As these children sometimes lack imagination it is hard
for them to understand this and cannot role play eg. Play shops or dress up.