Your Student With Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder, or autism, is characterized by abnormalities in:
- social functioning
- language and communication
- rigid behaviors and/or restricted interests
Social Impairments
- Lack of social and emotional reciprocity
- Unusual behaviors such as a-typical facial expressions, eye contact, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
- Lack of interest and/or difficulty relating to others; especially children
- Difficulties in imitating others and engaging in make believe play
- Social expressiveness and sensitivity to social cues
- Recognition of complex emotions and mental states
- Difficulty integrating the social, communicative, and emotional behaviors required when meeting a familiar person
- Impairments in Joint Attention (the ability to coordinate attention to a social partner and an object or event of mutual interest)
(Mash & Wolfe 2007)
