

When it comes to healthy development, there’s a wide range of “normal.” But if your child is not meeting the milestones for his or her age, or you suspect a problem, share your concerns with your child’s doctor immediately. Every child develops at a different pace, so you don’t need to panic if your child is a little late to talk or walk. While developmental delays don’t automatically point to autism, they may indicate a heightened risk. Autism involves a variety of developmental delays, so keeping a close eye on when-or if-your child is hitting the key social, emotional, and cognitive milestones is an effective way to spot the problem early on.

The key is to educate yourself so you know what’s normal and what’s not. Your child’s pediatrician can be a valuable partner, but don’t discount the importance of your own observations and experience. You know your child better than anyone and observe behaviors and quirks that a pediatrician, in a quick fifteen-minute visit, might not have the chance to see. For children at risk and children who show early signs, it can make all the difference.Īs a parent, you’re in the best position to spot the earliest warning signs of autism. There is one fact, however, that everyone agrees on: early and intensive intervention helps. There are different opinions among doctors, parents, and experts about what causes autism and how best to treat it. Relating to others and the world around them.Communicating verbally and non-verbally.However, every child on the autism spectrum has problems, at least to some degree, in the following three areas: Some children with autism have only mild impairments, while others have more obstacles to overcome. The signs and symptoms of autism vary widely, as do its effects.

Treatment can reduce the disorder’s effects and help your child learn, grow, and thrive.Īutism is a spectrum of closely related disorders with a shared core of symptoms. Autism spectrum disorder appears in infancy and early childhood, causing delays in many basic areas of development, such as learning to talk, play, and interact with others. But no matter your child’s age, don’t lose hope. But when it comes to autism, catching it early-ideally by the age of eighteen months-makes a huge difference. Our Audiologists provide parents, health professionals and educational professionals with the information needed to understand the complexity of your child’s everyday listening challenges to support their development and learning.Recognizing the Early Signs and Symptoms of AutismĪs a parent, you never want to believe that your precious bundle has a problem. Hear Check Audiologists are experienced and recognised experts in Auditory Processing Assessment and in establishing the level of auditory processing skills in children with ASD. If this is not understood and managed, this can lead to academic underachievement in children with ASD, and possibly aggravate other signs such as inattention, hyperactivity, oppositional behaviour, anxiety, and abnormal tolerance for noisy environments. This means that for children with ASD, when information is presented verbally or via sound, they find it harder to make sense of it and so are less likely to direct and sustain their attention towards the sound. There is much evidence in research literature that shows that auditory processing skills in children with ASD are generally lower than their age-related peers. This is known as an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). This means that the pathway from the inner ear to the brain is not performing as well as it should compared to a child’s peers. Sometimes a child can have normal hearing but not be able to process what they hear. Children with ASD often have difficulty making sense or processing the sounds they are receiving.
