Characteristics Found on the Autism Spectrum
Social Skills
- Very little or no eye contact.
- Resistance to being held or touched.
- Tends to get too close when speaking to someone (lack of personal space).
- Responds to social interactions, but does not initiate them.
- Does not generally share observations or experiences with others.
- Difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm.
- Difficulty reading facial expressions and body language.
- Difficulty understanding the rules of conversation.
- Difficulty understanding group interactions.
- Aversion to answering questions about themselves.
- Gives spontaneous comments which seem to have no connection to the current conversation.
- Makes honest, but inappropriate observations.
- Seems unable to understand another’s feelings.
- Prefers to be alone, aloof or overly-friendly.
- Difficulty maintaining friendships.
- Finds it easier to socialize with people that are older or younger, rather than peers of their own age.
- Unaware of/disinterested in what is going on around them.
- Talks excessively about one or two topics (dinosaurs, movies, etc.).
- Overly trusting or unable to read the motives behinds peoples’ actions.
- Minimal acknowledgement of others.
Linguistic/language development
- Abnormal use of pitch, intonation, rhythm or stress while speaking.
- Speech is abnormally loud or quiet.
- Difficulty whispering.
- Repeats last words or phrases several times. Makes verbal sounds while listening (echolalia).
- Often uses short, incomplete sentences.
- Pronouns are often inappropriately used.
- May have a very high vocabulary.
- Uses a person’s name excessively when speaking to them (“Mary, we are having lunch. Right, Mary?”).
- Speech started very early and then stopped for a period of time.
- Difficulty understanding directional terms (front, back, before, after).
Behaviors
- Obsessions with objects, ideas or desires.
- Ritualistic or compulsive behavior patterns (sniffing, licking, watching objects fall, flapping arms, spinning, rocking, humming, tapping, sucking, rubbing clothes).
- Fascination with rotation.
- Play is often repetitive.
- Many and varied collections.
- Unusual attachment to objects.
- Quotes movies or video games.
- Difficulty transferring skills from one area to another.
- Perfectionism in certain areas.
- Frustration is expressed in unusual ways.
- Feels the need to fix or rearrange things.
- Transitioning from one activity to another is difficult.
- Difficulty attending to some tasks.
- Gross motor skills are developmentally behind peers (riding a bike, skating, running).
- Fine motor skills are developmentally behind peers (handwriting, tying shoes, scissors).
- Inability to perceive potentially dangerous situations.
- Extreme fear (phobia) for no apparent reason.
- Verbal outbursts.
- Unexpected movements (running out into the street).
- Difficulty sensing time (knowing how long ten minutes is or three days or a week).
- Difficulty waiting for their turn (such as in a line).
- Causes injury to self (biting, banging head).
Emotions or Sensitivities
- Sensitivity or lack of sensitivity to sounds, textures (touch), tastes, smells or light.
- Difficulty with loud or sudden sounds.
- Unusually high or low pain tolerance.
- Intolerance to certain food textures, colors or the way they are presented on the plate (one food can’t touch another).
- Inappropriate touching of self in public situations.
- Desires comfort items (blankets, teddy, rock, string).
- Laughs, cries or throws a tantrum for no apparent reason.
- Resists change in the environment (people, places, objects).
- An emotional incident can determine the mood for the day – emotions can pass very suddenly or are drawn out for a long period of time.
- Becomes overwhelmed with too much verbal direction.
- Tends to either tune out or break down when being reprimanded.
- Calmed by external stimulation – soothing sound, brushing, rotating object, constant pressure (hammock, rolled in a blanket).
- May need to be left alone to release tension and frustration.
School-related skills
- Exceptionally high skills in some areas and very low in others.
- Excellent rote memory in some areas.
- Difficulty with reading comprehension (can quote an answer, but unable to predict, summarize or find symbolism).
- Difficulty with fine motor activities (coloring, printing, scissors, gluing).
- Short attention span for most lessons.
- Resistance or inability to follow directions.
- Difficulty transitioning from one activity to another in school.
Health/movement
- Walks on toes.
- Unusual gait.
- Difficulty changing from one floor surface to another (carpet to wood, sidewalk to grass).
- Odd or unnatural posture (rigid or floppy).
- Difficulty moving through a space (bumps into objects or people).
- Walks without swinging arms freely.
- Incontinence of bowel and/or bladder.
- Constipation.
- Frequent gas (flatulence, burping) or throwing up.
- Appearance of hearing problems, but hearing has been checked and is fine.
- Seizure activity.
- Allergies and food sensitivities.
- Irregular sleep patterns.
- Apparent lack of concern for personal hygiene (hair, teeth, body odors).
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