Which of the following are the characteristics of children affected by autism spectrum disorder?

1. experience profound difficulties in relating to other people.

2. unable to initiate social behaviour and seem unresponsive to other people’s feelings.

3. unable to share experiences or emotions with others.

4. show serious abnormalities in communication and language that persist over time

5. many of them never develop speech and those who do, have repetitive and deviant speech patterns.

1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Children with autism spectrum disorder experience profound difficulties in relating to other people. They are unable to initiate social behaviour and seem unresponsive to other people’s feelings. They are unable to share experiences or emotions with others. They also show serious abnormalities in communication and language that persist over time. Many of them never develop speech and those who do, have repetitive and deviant speech patterns. Such children often show narrow patterns of interests and repetitive behaviours such as lining up objects or stereotyped body movements such as rocking. These motor movements may be self-stimulatory such as hand flapping or self-injurious such as banging their head against the wall. Due to the nature of these difficulties in terms of verbal and non-verbal communication, individuals with autism spectrum disorder tend to experience difficulties in starting, maintaining and even understanding relationships.