Early Signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder – Early Interventions are Essential

| April 25, 2020 | My medical specialty | No Comments

The signs of autism spectrum disorder are present from early childhood.

Early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder in infancy and toddler age

  • Deficits in Social Interaction
  • Little or no eye contact
  • Inadequate social smile
  • Inadequate smile of recognition
  • Lack of pretend play and imitation.
  • No interest in peers
  • Lack of facial expressions according to social situations.
  • Lack of object sharing
  • Deficits in Social Communication
  • Not responding to the conversations, even by parents or siblings.
  • Not responding to the name or other attempts to gain attention.
  • Impairment in the use of non-verbal behaviors like gestures.
  • Impaired joint attention, which is manifested by lack of pointing or lack of bringing things to share interest with others. (Joint attention skills emerge by about 9 to 10 months of age and it will be well established by 18 months of age).
  • Fail to follow someone’s pointing.
  • Lack of language development even at 18 months of age.
  • Echolalia (meaningless repetition of another person’s spoken words).
  • Restricted, Repetitive Patterns of Behavior, Interests or Activities.
  • Hand flapping
  • Finger flicking
  • Spinning
  • Lining up toys in a fixed manner
  • Body rocking (back and forth for long periods)
  • Repeated jumping
  • Twirling
  • Preoccupation with objects and reduced functional exploration of objects

In the study conducted within the Danish National Birth Cohort by interviews from 76,441 mothers about their children’s development and behaviour at 6 and 18 months, 720 children with autism spectrum disorder were identified. At 18 months of age, social and language skills were delayed in these children[1].

Children with autism show aberrations in social and communicative development in the first year of life. Social and nonverbal communicative delays appear before the language abnormalities. Problems with orienting to name, eye contact, joint attention, affect sharing and imitation are important early warning signs of autism. Early intervention should be started when there is a suspicion of autism and never wait for a definitive diagnosis[2].

Infants at-risk for autism spectrum disorder demonstrated early delays in grasping as well as reduced functional exploration of objects[3].

It is an urgent priority to start parent training interventions appropriate for each infant or young toddler, as soon as the early signs emerge. This is because, recovery is possible if early interventions are started in infancy or at 18 months of age. Hence early identification is essential and very early interventions should be provided to all infants at-risk for developing autism spectrum disorder.

References

  1. Lemcke S1, Juul S, Parner ET, Lauritsen MB, Thorsen P. Early signs of autism in toddlers: a follow-up study in the Danish National Birth Cohort. J Autism Dev Disord. 2013 Oct;43(10):2366-75.
  2. Sally Ozonoff, Kelly Heung, Robert Byrd, Robin Hansen, Irva Hertz-Picciotto. The Onset of Autism: Patterns of Symptom Emergence in the First Years of Life. Autism Res. 2008 Dec; 1(6): 320–328.
  3. Maninderjit Kaur, Sudha M. Srinivasan, Anjana N. Bhat. Atypical object exploration in infants at-risk for autism during the first year of life. Front Psychol. 2015; 6: 798.