Many parents are worried about whether their children are autistic. Of course, we will encourage parents to seek an assessment as soon as they have doubts. However, in questioning, parents can use the list below as a reference to see if your child needs an autism assessment. Please keep in mind that early assessment will enable you to grasp the prime time and let your children receive treatment as soon as possible.
Although each child has a different autism spectrum, the main areas of affected areas include:
(a) Defective language and communication skills
(b) Social skills and social interaction barriers
(c) Poor cognitive and adaptive skills
(d) Limited, repetitive and rigid behavior and interest
(a) Defective language and communication skills
Parents can pay attention to their children’s ability in speaking. Experts suggest that at 16 months, children in general can use single words to communicate with people, and can communicate with phases with 2 words in about 24 months. You may ask, what is communication? Children may use language to seek assistance, request objects, or use language to view objects. Communication should also be spontaneous! Rather than unilaterally responding to parents’ questions. Therefore, in addition to vocabularies learning, parents should also pay more attention to the spontaneous use of language as communication of their children.
(b) Social skills and social interaction barriers
In general, children will use body language i.e. pointing, shaking head, knocking head, after 12 months. They may have more interaction with others, i.e. smile as if they are facing each other, point to the display of objects, and even try to communicate with others. In addition to the technical language, generally children will also interact with people through imitation. For example, young children can follow clapping, and so on. Moreover, children should have eye contact with people, such as looking directly at others when talking or getting information.
(c) Poor cognitive and adaptive development
Of course, cognitive ability is more difficult to observe, but parents can observe whether their children are having more difficulties to adapt changes. For example, if you change your transportation to school, will your child get upset and throw tantrum? Whether children can adapt to the new classes, or find it hard to adopt any small changes in daily life? If so, you may need to seek help from professionals.
(d) Limited, repetitive and stubborn behavior and interest
In terms of play, parents can pay more attention to whether their children have limited interest, such as car-only, children with autism got limited interested and are not willing to try new toys. In play, they may only focus on the small parts of toy. For example, keep turning the car wheel or repeatedly switching the toy door. In addition, parents can also pay attention to their children’s play skill: whether their play lacks of imagination, ie. imitate the car moving in the parking lot and so on.
Finally, please bear in mind the above list is for reference only. If in doubt, parents should seek assessment of their children as soon as possible. Don’t miss the prime time of treatment! A mile to a smile!
If you have any questions or enquiries, please feel free to contact us.
Tel / WhatsApp：+852 5448 5438
https://autismilee.com/
