Autism Spectrum Disorders And Disabilities

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder may be verbal or non-verbal, depending on their severity. Children who are non-verbal may display the following communication difficulties;

• might not respond when people speak or gesture towards them, even when their names are called out
• often make little eye contact with others and usually won’t copy other people’s actions, like clapping or waving
• usually don’t share interests with others, rarely pointing at anything or showing interest in giving or sharing
• aren’t very interested in chatting or playing, especially with other children

Children who are verbal may display the following communication difficulties;

• will talk about their own special interests, and rarely use language skills to communicate with others
• might focus on categorising everything around them, such as labelling all their toy trains
• might echo what they hear, repeating patterns of words without attaching any meaning to them
• rarely use nonverbal gestures, like nodding their heads or hand gestures, to communicate.