Autism: Features of

Question 1

What are the two categories of autism?

Answer 1

• Social communication difficulties.
• Repetitive behaviours.

Question 2

What are social communication difficulties? (social emotional reciprocity deficits, nonverbal communication deficits , problems developing and maintaining relationships)

Answer 2

Social emotional reciprocity deficits:

• May not use communication to share interests or emotions, initiate interactions or respond to others.
• ## Lack back-and-forth of everyday communication.Nonverbal communication deficits:
• Use nonverbal signals (e.g. eye contact and social smiling) inappropriately.
• Facial expressions can be limited or exaggerated, gestures may be used in the wrong contexts.
• ## Mismatch between facial expression and tone of voice.Problems developing and maintaining relationships:
• Lack understanding that other people have minds, so have trouble seeing the world from another’s viewpoint.
• Unaware of social norms, which makes it hard to change behaviour to suit the context (e.g. laughing at the wrong time).
• Lack of understanding means difficulty making friends (e.g. children with ASD do not play cooperatively)-

Question 3

What are repetitive behaviours? (repetitive behaviours, routines and rituals, unusual reactions to sensory input)

Answer 3

Repetitive behaviours:

• Use language unusually, e.g. repeating what has just been heard (echoialía).
• Physical movements can be repetitive (e.g. rocking).
• ## Use objects over and over again in the same restricted ways (e.g. lining them up).Routines and rituals:
• Inflexibly to routines
• Use verbal rituals, insisting other people use words in a ‘set pattern’ (e.g, when answering questions).
• ## Can be resistant to change and variations in routines.Unusual reactions to sensory input:
• Find touch aversive so try to avoid it (e.g. avoid hair brushing).
• May be obsessively interested in movements of objects, (opening, closing) looking at them for long periods.
• First response to an object (or in some cases a person) may be to lick or sniff it.
• Can be easily distressed by stimuli they’re not used to.