Every day, the word “autism” is becoming more of a household term. With the prevalence of autism on the rise, everyone seems to know someone affected by autism in some way.

Current research on autism shows that a well-trained professional can diagnose autism when a child is around 18 months old. The research further states that it is difficult to diagnose a child before that age.

However, a child with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism who may be speaking at an early age and appear more typical may not be diagnosed until school age. Most of the parents I’ve interacted with who have young children with autism say they could tell something was “different” with their child as early as a baby.

With the growing popularity of autism, more new parents are concerned about the symptoms associated with autism.

The three main areas of deficit for children with autism include: social skills, communication, and behavior. Below is a summary of the challenges that young children with autism often demonstrate when they are young.

Social skills:

At this age, your child should imitate words, use simple gestures (for example, waving bye-bye), and possibly smile at people. A child with autism may have a hard time learning how to interact with other people. A child with autism may not show interest in social games like hide and seek or pat.

Communication:

Approximately 40 percent of children with autism do not speak. This is a great challenge for all children with autism. Children usually start saying their first words around 12 months. For children with autism, they don’t develop words, they may just repeat what you say, or 25 to 30 percent may have words and then lose them around 18 months to 2 years.

For children with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome, they may develop language like typical children; however, they have difficulty using language as do other typically developing children.

Behavior:

Young children with autism will also frequently develop unusual behaviors, such as repetitive movements. Repetitive movements are actions that are repeated over and over again. An example of repetitive motion might be waving your arms or rocking from side to side. This can also be called “stimming”. In addition to repetitive motion, children with autism can also thrive on routines. They want an activity or routine to repeat itself the same way every time. If the routine is changed or interrupted, a child with autism may have a breakdown.

Just remember, all children develop differently. This is a general guide, for more diagnostic information; talk to your child’s pediatrician.