What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Neurodevelopmental disorder which starts to develop at the early age of development. The diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder can be made when its symptoms starts to appear during 12 to 24 months or in the second year of age. The individual with this disorder show developmental delay in achieving milestones like having lack of communication skills, minimal or low eye contact during communication, some sensory issues like rigidity in behaviors.

Why it is named as Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism Spectrum Disorder is named a “spectrum” because it contains multiple symptoms having wide range, with severity from mild to severe.

What are symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Some important symptoms od autism spectrum disorder are

1. Lack of Communication skills

• Individual with autism spectrum disorder lack communication skills they have difficulty in one on one conversations
• Children with this disorder lack facial expressions and nonverbal communication
• They can’t make friends and mostly prefer solitary activities.

2. Restricted and repetitive behaviors

• Children with autism show repetitive movements like hand flapping, finger flicking and head banging
• They have strong stickiness to their routines and show distress if there is any change
• They have intense focus on some specific hobbies

3. Sensational sensitivities

• Children with autism spectrum disorder have over or under sensory sensitivities to sensory stimuli like sound, light or smells etc
• They show unusual reaction to some sensory inputs like avoid certain fabric etc

What are important causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder?

The exact cause of autism is unknown but there are some reasons which can cause it are some environmental and genetic factors.