There’s a good reason why we now refer to autism as a spectrum disorder — the diagnostic criteria can be hard to pin down, and no two kids have the exact same symptoms. Not to mention, for the 1 in 36 kids in the United States who are on the autism spectrum, there’s a wide range of severity of symptoms, hence the spectrum.
While diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in kids is best left to professionals, like the team of pediatric speech therapists and pathologists here at Celebrations Speech Group, we want to give you some general guidelines to know when you should seek our help.
Here, we take a close look at the two core symptoms of ASD, a condition that affects boys four times more than girls, which is a fact that you can also plug into your preliminary diagnostic equation.
As a child learns to communicate and interact with the world around them, they typically open up and begin to explore. Kids with ASD tend to run into difficulties at this point — between the ages of 2 and 4 — and go in the opposite direction and shut down.
For example, kids with ASD often struggle with:
As a result of these communication and interaction issues, kids with ASD often find making friends difficult because they’re not following the rules of the road when it comes to socializing. They can also feel overwhelmed in social situations and melt down or just turn inward.
When we diagnose ASD, we also look for restrictive and/or repetitive behaviors. These behaviors are often in response to a world that a child simply can’t make sense of, so they turn to behaviors and patterns to help relieve the stress.
One way in which kids with ASD do this is through stimming, which is a repetitive behavior, such as rocking back and forth or flapping their hands.
Kids with ASD may also feel a need to have their world in a certain order, so they line up their toys or stick very close to a routine (and struggle when that routine is broken).
Kids on the autism spectrum can also become hyper-focused on one thing — a certain toy or a video that they watch over and over.
As well, kids with ASD can often become easily overstimulated, especially by new sights, sounds, and sensations.
If you’ve read the above and you feel that your child is checking a good many of the boxes, your next step is to come see us so that we can thoroughly evaluate your child. Research shows that early intervention with ASD can be highly beneficial because kids still have enough neuroplasticity for us to make a meaningful difference in their futures.
Through speech therapy, occupational therapy, and social skills therapy, we can help your child to better manage their ASD and interact with the world around them.
To learn more about how we work with kids with ASD and to schedule an appointment, please contact one of our offices in Brentwood, Stockton, or Elk Grove, California.
