Health and Social Care
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Impaired Communication |
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Difficulties in using and understanding verbal and non-verbal communication are
common in children with ASD, Impairments can be found in these areas.
- The development of spoken language - often no speech
- Responses the the communications of others - e.g. won't look
- Failure to initiate or sustain conversations - e.g turn taking
- Pronoun confusion - e.g. "I" vs. "You"
- Stereotypical and repetitive use of language - e.g. using lines from a favourite
cartoon or film to communicate
- Unusual highly personalised use of words and phrases - e.g. a child always salutes
when when giving a direction while saying "yes sir"
- Abnormalities in pitch, stress, rate, rhythm and tone of speech
Communication involves both understanding language – receptive skills and providing
information – expressive skills. The abilities of individuals with ASD vary widely
in that some children will have a good grasp on comprehension – e.g. sit down
but lack expressive skills e.g. my tummy hurts and vice versa. Many children with
ASD experience difficulty with non-verbal communication – such as, eye contact,
facial expressions and smiling. Children with ASD often fail to understand words
or phrases that are abstract – e.g. “we'll go swimming later” or “I love you”
or that have a double meaning – for example, the teacher says to a child with
ASD, “clear the table” and he goes over and pushes everything off it. Or the person
may interpret things very literally – e.g. “give yourself a hand”.
Some children have Echolalis, which is the repetition of words, signs, phrases
or sentences spoken by other people. Some children use this as a communication
device – for example, the adult says, “do you want a car?” and the child might
say, “want a car” to mean yes. A child may repeat the same phrase over and over
again as a means of regulating their own behaviour – such as, a child repeats
aloud “time to clean up” while cleaning.
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Impaired Social Skills |
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ASD is characterised by an impaired ability to engage in social relationships
and can result in serious deficits in the ability to make friends. In fact, children
with ASD often behave as if other people do not exist. This is demonstrated in
various ways including failure to respond to their name when called, appearing
not to listen when spoken to, unusual or inappropriate facial expressions, avoidance
of eye contact, failure to respond to affection and sometimes treating people
as if they were objects. Often children will acknowledge an adult only for the purpose of getting a need
gratification and will return to ignoring the adult thereafter.
If a child with ASD has any social skills, they are characteristically learned
and awkward in nature. Individuals with ASD also experience problems maintaining
reciprocal relationships. Additional difficulties include the inability to take
on another's perspective, feelings and emotions, or provide or seek comfort, in
conventional ways – for example; a child with ASD hurts another child and cannot
understand why he is crying.
Individuals with ASD tend to crave predictability and function best in highly
structured situations. They are likely to become extremely dependant on elements
of sameness in their lives, to the extent that they can have difficulty coping
with changes in their environment or routine. |
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Impairments in Imagination |
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Children with ASD may have problems with imaginative play. They may not see a
toy car as a car but rather as an object that rattles and makes funny patterns
when the wheels are spun. This may account for part of the reason why such children have difficulty interacting
with peers and joining in games with others.
Children with ASD typically have a narrow range of interests. They also may engage
in repetitive, stereotyped body movements such as hand flicking, spinning or rocking.
They may insist upon carrying certain objects around with them to help them feel
secure. Need for sameness might extend to food.
An individual with Autism may have a preference or dislike certain colours, textures
or temperatures of foods.
Some individuals focus on certain topics of interest. The person might remain
intrigued with one or two topics such as music or modes of transportation, and
exhaust everyone who comes into contact with him about their knowledge in that
area of interest. |
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Sensory Difficulties |
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More often than not, individuals with ASD have unusual reactions to sensory stimulation.
Some individuals show a hypersensitivity to stimuli – e.g. can hear lights buzzing,
cannot tolerate touch, fascinated with spinning objects, must smell everything
while others display a hypo sensitivity to stimuli – such as a high pain tolerance
or acting as if deaf. A person with ASD may be fascinated with a piece of shiny
paper or may spend hours rocking or watching objects twirl. In general these types
of reactions are providing some sort of sensory stimulation for the individual.
An assessment by an Occupational Therapist will help your child if he /she is
experiencing sensory problems. |
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Variability of Intellectual Functioning |
A characteristic of people with ASD is the wide range of functioning within which
they can fall. Individuals with ASD can be severely impaired to the extent that
they are unable to talk or to perform independent living skills, or they may be
functioning in the above- normal range of intelligence. Some people go to university,
and have a career; many get married and have a family. |
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Uneven Development Profile |
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People with ASD have an uneven development profile. Being able to function in
some areas at levels perhaps higher than their overall level of functioning. For
example, a five year old with ASD may be reading books at a Primary 4 level while
his self-help skills are at his own age level and his social skills are non-existent. |
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Difficulties in Sleeping |
Some children with ASD have trouble falling asleep or require only a few hours
of sleep each night to function. This can be extremely difficult for parents/carers
who often sleep in shifts to prevent the child from getting into difficulties
around the house. |
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If you need further information you can visit the Autism N.I. website.
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