Core symptoms:
Social interactions and relationships. Symptoms may include:
- Significant problems developing nonverbal communication skills, such as eye-to-eye gazing, facial expressions, and body posture.
Failure to establish friendships with children the same age.
Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.
Lack of empathy. People with autism may have difficulty understanding another person's feelings, such as pain or sorrow.
Verbal and nonverbal communication. Symptoms may include:
- Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk. As many as 40% of people with autism never speak. Problems taking steps to start a conversation. Also, people with autism have difficulties continuing a conversation after it has begun.
Stereotyped and repetitive use of language. People with autism often repeat over and over a phrase they have heard previously (echolalia).
Difficulty understanding their listener's perspective. For example, a person with autism may not understand that someone is using humor. They may interpret the communication word for word and fail to catch the implied meaning.
Limited interests in activities or play. Symptoms may include:
- An unusual focus on pieces. Younger children with autism often focus on parts of toys, such as the wheels on a car, rather than playing with the entire toy.
Preoccupation with certain topics. For example, older children and adults may be fascinated by video games, trading cards, or license plates.
A need for sameness and routines. For example, a child with autism may always need to eat bread before salad and insist on driving the same route every day to school.
Stereotyped behaviors. These may include body rocking and hand flapping
(This information was obtained from the WebMD website)
In my opinion, Darren isn't a typical child with Autism. Being a twin has put an interesting twist on his personality. He has always had Trevor in his face, whether he liked it or not. Darren's interests have always been unique. It started with sticks, spatulas, a tape measure, his own hand, a hoop, and various other objects that he HAD to have with him at all times. He still carries "transition toys" (toy that he likes to have in his hands when leaving the house and going to school etc) but they are not as specific as they used to be. AND most importantly, he is willing to leave the item in the car or share the item...in the past, asking him to do so would prompt a major tantrum.
His speech issues were obviously a concern. When Trevor's language started to take off, Darren went no where. He made sounds, and showed emotion...but nothing substantial was developing and his frustration level began to rise dramatically. So for the longest time, he would drag me around and take me to what he wanted. For example if he was thirsty, he would take me to the refrigerator. I would then take my best guess as to what he wanted. If I chose the wrong thing...let's say milk instead of juice..a meltdown would occur. This was a very frustrating time for all of us. We are so thankful that he is verbal! Although we are now in the "no" stage. Ha!
Darren's sleeping issues were exhausting. I would say that there was a span between 12-24 months that Darren would wake up around 2am and remain awake until 4am. Not every night...but it happened often enough. It was like he just couldn't regulate his body.
Early on, Darren was sensitive to loud noises. Yet, when we would call his name, he wouldn't turn around and acknowledge us. It seemed odd. We knew his hearing was fine though because if he was in another room and heard Baby Einstein come on, he would come running in to watch.
The extreme tantrums when transitioning from one activity to another started to happen with great consistency. Leaving the park for instance, was an every day nightmare. Trevor certainly had his tantrums, but Darren's had a different intensity.
Looking back, there were certainly more red flags than these. These are just the ones that stand out the most. It's hard to think back to those times, but helps me appreciate how far we all have come.
