As a pediatric neurologist, Dr. Jennifer Cope has diagnosed children with autism for nearly 25 years. While a professional who specializes in autism must make the final diagnosis, pediatricians, parents, and teachers should be on alert for certain signs of autism.
Frequent signs of autism include:
- The child does not make eye contact with others, including parents.
- The child does not respond to their name.
- The child does not mimic faces or gestures from the parent.
- The child does not seek to get the parent’s attention by pointing to something they might want or need.
- The child might have sensory issues, though every child displays those sensitivities differently. Some children are sensory seekers — licking objects and needing constant physical attention from the parent. Other children are sensory avoidant, disliking loud noises, bright lights, or the tags in the back of their shirts. Some may be picky eaters.
- The child displays self-stimulatory behavior, like hand flapping or repeating the lines to movies.
- The child appears to be aloof or self-directed and is not interested in interacting with others.
- The child is not interested in playing with toys. They might fixate on small features of the toys, like the wheels on a train, or they might line up their dinosaurs in a row.
- The child has an expressive and receptive language delay.
- The child regresses, losing acquired skills like speech and mobility.
If a child shows several of these autism signs, then Dr. Cope might determine the child has autism. Because every child displays different indicators and some children have less obvious autism symptoms, it takes a trained expert utilizing a standardized diagnostic, such as the ADOS exam, to make that final call.
If there are any concerns, families should seek a formal medical diagnosis as soon as possible. Dr. Cope often says, “Time is independence.” The faster a diagnosis is made, the more likely a child is to become an independent adult.
Worried that your child or student has one or more of these signs of autism? Make an appointment with us!
Want to hear more from Dr. Cope about the signs of autism? Dr. Cope chatted with Nicole Friend from the CAPE Resource Center on the CAPE Chat Podcast on November 24th about this and more.