Help For Children With Autism

Today, we shall be dealing with symptoms of autism in a child.

You might have been wondering why your child behaves strangely.

Before you go to the doctor why not do a personal check on your child first to be sure he is not autistic.

Below are a few sure signs that your child may be autistic:

1. Partiality - the inability to deal with the "in between" situation in anything.   The inability to properly process the "partial" and separate the partial from the whole!    The autistic child needs to understand the "parts" before he can understand "the whole"... in almost everything.  This is what I believe to be at the root of almost all problems we see in autistic children. For example, he doesn't want the door partially open. It's either it's totally shut or totally open.

2. Arching of back when someone tries to pick them up.

3. Aggression -  autistic children appear more aggressive than normal.

4. Attachment to persons and/or "normal" childhood things (i.e., stuffed animal, blanket) is not there.   Child is more attached to specific, favorite, often unusual items and can play with them for hours. 

5. Attention/Focus (this one goes both ways... child has amazing focus for specific things, yet none at all for others). 

6. Biting/Gnawing (more objects than other people... although many bite themselves also). 

7. Chronic ear aches- many many children with autism had chronic ear infections under the age of 2. 

8. Constant running back and forth or jumping (to get sensory stimulation via feet).

9. Dark circles under the eyes  - sign of a food intolerance - seems to occur a lot with eating of phenols (in all fruits and vegetables - apples, bananas, red grapes, tomatoes and nuts are the highest phenol foods). 

10. Diarrhea -  sign of a food intolerance and an unhealthy digestive tract.   

11. Does not respond to his/her name... even if called dozens of times - yet, hearing loss has been ruled out and parents know their child can hear "other things". 

12. Echolalia - repetition of words.   I call this "ordering language"... again, read my first book on my website and you'll see why! 

13. Epilepsy:  Signs of epilepsy are quite varied and include blank stares, changes in emotion (fear, aggression, anger, etc). 

14. Extreme or unusual sensitivity to light and/or sound (i.e., child squints a lot or puts hands on ears a lot). 

15. Fascination with captions/credits at the end of a movie (more so than with the movie itself).  Gets very upset when VCR is rewinding a movie and you see the images go "backwards" on the tv screen. 

16. Hand flapping.  May be an attempt to release B6 from muscles… so critical in so much of what we see in autism.   See Book 3 posted in full at http://www.autismhelpforyou.com for more on this issue. 

17. Hyperactivity - Autistic children are often much more hyperactive than their counterparts.   Often, they are seen as candidates for medication, however, as many many parents are finding, a diet change with appropriate supplements (i.e., calcium and magnesium) can make a huge huge difference. 

18. Inappropriate play (i.e., flips toys over to spin wheels rather than pushing a toy car/truck). 

19. Inappropriate use of stairs... don't use "alternate foot, alternate stair" but rather go down one step at a time, with both feet. 

20. Lack of eye contact  (some kids have ok eye contact, but for most kids with autism, there is an inability to make or maintain eye contact... yet, a normal infant is able to do this quite well and is indeed fascinated by the human face).  Autistic children often seem to be "looking
through you" rather than at you! 

21. Lack of fever.  Many parents are finding their children show no fever (with an ear ache for example).   This may be due to the fact that the autistic child's immune system is not working properly in the first place and therefore, it is not exhibiting the "fever" that should show itself when the body is fighting off an infection.   In this case, the sign is not only missed or dismissed... it is altogether absent and so nothing is seen as "wrong" with the child... when in actuality, lack of a fever when a child has an earache, for example, could be a sign in and of itself that something is wrong! 

22. Lack of flexibility in everything (i.e., difficulty with changes in direction, can't allow for the "in between" situation... for example, all lights must be on or off, not some on, some off, doors must be completely opened, then closed, no "in betweens", tasks must be completely finished before child can move on to the next thing... can't leave something "unfinished" no matter how small the task. 

23. Lack of pointing with finger. 

24. Lack of sensitivity to pain - "the nothing hurts" syndrome... the child can have a busted eardrum and "not feel it"... not show any pain.   Burns, falling, needles... none of these things seem to "hurt" the autistic child... a normal child has a much lower pain threshold and would have cried under "normal" circumstances. 

25. Lack of social skills (totally ignores new person, no "hello", "goodbye"... nothing). 

26. Leg banging , body shaking - to get sensory stimulation (i.e., while on a bed).   For these children, it provides a "calming" effect. 

27. No fear of danger - the autistic child has no concept of "what is dangerous" and, unfortunately, for too many parents, this has resulted in the death of their child.  :o(    The autistic child does not perceive vehicular traffic in the street as a danger, nor is water seen as a danger to them... the autistic child will run into traffic or go deep into water without thinking twice about it!  Because they have no fear of danger, these children also do not know HOW to "call for help" when in a dangerous situation!

 
 

28. Order - for many autistic kids, theirs is A World Of Order©... things need to be in their place... placed exactly so, tasks need to be completed (not partially done), etc.! 

29. Potty training is just not coming along... no desire whatsoever to be potty trained.   Some children go to age 9 and are still not fully potty trained.  

30. Pretend play is not there.  In my opinion, pretend play in the autistic can be very dangerous. 

31. Screaming/Screeching... up to several hundred times a day.  

32. Self injurious behavior (SIB) in the form of head banging, self mutilation (biting). 

33. Sense of touch is heightened.   This can take on many forms in the autistic child.   For example, s/he may not like to have clothes on, or s/he may want specific clothes only.     Some children can't stand being hugged/touched by another person (although some are ok with this particular "sensation"),  some don't like specific textures on their hands or skin.   Sensitivity to textures is also seen with foods. 

34. Tantrums/Violent outbursts that seem to come from nowhere... child is easily provoked or upset. 

35.The "loner syndrome" (child likes to play alone... for hours on end... no interest in socializing with other children).