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What is Autism? Well that is a question that we could all give different answers to as every one of us looking at this page will have had different experiences.  What we would all agree with is that Autism is a complex communication and interaction difficulty.  You may hear many different names used by different professionals i.e. Autism     Aspergers Syndrome         Atypical Autism   PDD But what we need to remember is that these all fall under the same umbrella and are different names used to describe a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  Autism can affect anyone regardless of sex or race but does tend to surface a lot more in boys.  What we do know is that autism is on a spectrum so let me try and explain the way I look at it. Lets say we have a long rope and at the bottom end of the rope you have Severe Autism and at the top end you have Aspergers Syndrome. All the way along the rope you will have varying degrees of severity but from my understanding those with Aspergers Syndrome are on the more able end of the rope.  But regardless of where our child is on the rope they will all have impairments in three areas Social Interaction (problems with social relationships) Social Communication (problems with verbal and non- verbal communication) Imagination (problems with the development of play and imagination) Characteristics of Autistic Spectrum Disorders   Rather than describe characteristic of autism and aspergers syndrome separately I will do my best to describe as many characteristics as possible of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Social Relationships Your child may lack interest in people be socially isolated become distressed coping with social demands have difficulty understanding social cues behave inappropriately be too familiar with strangers want friends when he/she is older but lack the skills to develop and sustain friendship Social Communication Your child may have difficulty with eye contact taking turns keeping to a topic of conversation giving the right amount of information seeing another point of view understanding body language(facial expression/gesture/tone of voice) Your child may  have no speech or language  lack understanding of speech  interrupt  speak to loudly  use a strange tone of voice  repeat words, phrases or patterns of behaviour  take thing literally  use formal or grown up language  have topics of special interest  ask to many questions  talk to much Imaginative Thought Your child may be rigid in his thinking and obsessive in behaviour be upset by changes in routine and need a lot of structure be limited in his ability to think and play imaginatively or creatively have temper tantrums have difficulty transferring learnt skills from one setting to another Other Difficulties may include poor organisation skills poor co-ordination stress and anxiety leading to unusual behaviour poor concentration heightened sensory awareness appear slightly odd or mildly eccentric Some children will only experience some of these problems but in order to meet the diagnostic criterias they would all be expected to experience some problems in all three areas.  Each of our children are unique in the way there ASD manifests itself. What we need to remember is that there is nothing we could have done to prevent this happening, it is not our fault and has nothing to do with how we as parents choose to bring our children up. Severe autism is rare but it is suspected that about 1 in every 100 children have Autistic Spectrum Disorders.  Some have severe learning difficulties; a small amount may have exceptional talents in certain areas such as maths or drawing.  Some can cope in mainstream school others need the extra support offered in special schools.  You as parent know what your childs needs are and there capabilities are. I will say that in my personal opinion a parent knows his/her child best and therefore regardless of what is said to you with regards to education etc you may have to fight for what you feel is best for child, but it is a fight worth having no matter how long and hard it is.

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