ABLE Featured Articles
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a congenital developmental disorder. Patients have varying degrees of difficulties and developmental differences in social communication, cognition, emotion, and behavior. In addition to affecting the patient’s performance in interacting with others, this disorder will also make the behavior more repetitive and stubborn, and there will be problems such as narrow interests and abnormal sensory reactions. Other related disorders may include intellectual, language and other developmental problems. In the past, there were often differences in the names of the diagnosis of autism, such as autism, Asperger’s syndrome, high-functioning autism, autistic tendencies, autistic symptoms, atypical autism, pervasive developmental disorder to be classified, etc. The different names may confuse parents. With the update of the diagnostic criteria, the above names have been collectively referred to as “autism spectrum disorder”.
The behavioral manifestations of each child with autism spectrum disorder are different, sometimes even very different. The following are the more common clinical symptoms:
1. Difficulty in social interaction:
Children with autism spectrum disorders may be indifferent and passive, or overly enthusiastic and eccentric in their social behavior. When they are young, some children may approach others only for personal needs. For example, when they want to get food or toys, they will forcibly pull others’ hands as a tool to get what they want. In addition to the above, they usually lack eye contact or emotional communication, and even resist others touching their bodies, such as hugging. These children generally find it difficult to establish close relationships with others, even parents or caregivers. They prefer to play alone and rarely pay attention to other peers. They also rarely share their personal interests, feelings and achievements spontaneously. Some children may interact with others according to adults’ instructions, but their initiative is usually low; other children, although they have social motivation, are overly enthusiastic or more self-centered. As for older children, they still find it difficult to establish appropriate social behaviors (such as smiling at people, eye contact), and it is also difficult for them to perceive other people’s social messages and emotional reactions. Sometimes they may behave inappropriately. In terms of social communication, even if children have certain language skills, they are not good at starting or continuing a conversation with others. Sometimes they ignore other people’s responses and talk to others about topics that interest them in a one-way manner, giving people the impression that they “only care about talking and don’t like to listen”.
2. Difficulty in non-verbal communication:
Children with autism spectrum disorders have difficulty using non-verbal communication skills to communicate with others. When they are young, they lack eye contact and rarely point to objects to express their needs. Due to the lack of facial expressions and eye contact, they often give people a negative impression of being impolite and inattentive. Some children speak in a high-pitched voice with a more stereotyped or strange tone. When they grow up, they are unable to grasp the meaning conveyed by other people’s body language, tone of voice, and find it difficult to coordinate and consistently use verbal and non-verbal messages to express their meaning.
3. Difficulty in developing interpersonal relationships:
Children with ASD lack the skills to interact with their peers and have difficulty in establishing friendships. Difficulties in language and communication (e.g. poor vocabulary, easy confusion between pronouns such as “you” and “I”) also affect their ability to make friends and communicate with peers. Even if they have sufficient language skills and interest to make friends, they lack empathy and find it difficult to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings when interacting with others. They generally find it difficult to understand the “unspoken rules” of social interaction and thus find it difficult to adjust their behavior to suit the situation (e.g. not knowing what to do when facing strangers or teachers). They find it difficult to understand indirect communication patterns (e.g. metaphors, sarcasm, etc.) and therefore cannot communicate effectively with others. They also tend to build friendships in a one-way manner and mostly only keep company with people who share common interests. Some children may also be overly naughty or violent, giving people the impression of being immature, unnatural or overly enthusiastic.
