It takes time to diagnose autism in a baby and no medical doctor is willing to certify this disorder without observing the child over a period of time – in many cases this could be up to three years. However, there isn’t a fixed set of symptoms that all autistic children exhibit. Some could display some symptoms, others could have a totally different set of symptoms. This is probably why doctors like to observe them for some time before drawing conclusions.
Most milestones in a baby’s development follow a course and while there could be a few days or in some cases a few months of difference, they all go through the milestones. Not so the autistic child where everything seems to progress at a much slower pace and in a rather haphazard manner. His reflexes are slow and sometimes seem non-existent and he usually does not speak till he is much older. The autistic baby may not turn at the sound of your voice, may not smile back at you when you do and lies being alone. He could have trouble turning, sitting up, standing and walking.
From the time these babies are very young, they are not very demonstrative when it comes to emotions. They tend to want to be alone and hardly ever smile or laugh or even respond to people who do. Nothing emotional seems to affect them – not even if people around them are angry or scared. They find it difficult to use body language and they usually avoid eye contact. Though most of them can hear very well, very often they appear to be deaf, either because they do not want to participate in any social interaction or because they have withdrawn to a place of their own and are not aware of what is happening around them. As they grow, they find it very difficult to act or role play – they just do not know how because they don’t understand emotion. They also hate displays of affections and try and wriggle away from hugs and embracing.
What is also apparent is repetition – they tend to repeat certain actions. They also tend to play with the same toys and arrange them in the same way every time. When they cannot communicate what they want, they can throw terrible tantrums but this arises from a deep sense of frustration of not being able to understand what they feel and not being able to communicate what they want. They are very inattentive, with short attention spans and can very often walk away from a conversation without answering. They don’t talk much and their speech, too, can be underdeveloped as they do not make the effort to learn any more words than is necessary. This makes their verbal skills very limited.
They are interested in very few things and their interests are few. They like routine – they find it comforting – and are very wary of anything new. This also means they do not like new people and find it very difficult to make new friends or socialize. The sooner this disorder is diagnosed, the sooner medication or therapy can be started to help manage it better.