Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder which is defined by social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors (Hirota et al., 2023). Social communication impairments include deficit in social-emotional reciprocity, deficit in non-verbal communication behaviors used for social interactions, deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships. Restrictive and repetitive behaviors include patterns of behavior, interests, or activities that involves repetitive motor movements (for example, lining up toys, flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases), inflexible adherence to routines or ritualized patterns or verbal nonverbal behavior (for e.g., extreme frustration or distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, inflexible in trying new food or taking different route), highly fixated interests (Hirota et al., 2023).
The prevalence of autism among children aged eight-year-old has increased from approximately 1.1% in 2008 to 2.8% in 2020 in the United States. According to the surveillance conducted by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM), the prevalence of ASD is higher in males than in the females (Hirotal et al., 2023).
Early Behavior Signs of Possible Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) include (Hirota et al., 2023):
Absence of Developmentally Expected Milestone Attainment that includes:
• Avoids or does not maintain eye contact
• Does not respond to name by 9 months of age
• Does not show facial expressions of emotions by 9 months of age
• Rarely shares enjoyment with caregivers
• No simple interactive games by 12 months of age
• Uses no or few gestures
• Does not share interest with others
• Does little or no imitation of other people or does not pretend
• No pointing (to show caregivers something interesting) by 18 months of age.
Emergence of Aberrant behaviors include (Hirota et al., 2023):
• Lines up toys in a particular order and increase distress when the order is changed
• Uses repetitive words and phrases
• Moves their fingers, hands, or body in an unusual way (for e.g., hand flapping, finger flicking, spinning self in circles)
• Shows excessive interest in particular objects.
• Has obsessive interests in certain objects and attachment to unusual objects
• Has unusual reactions to sensory stimuli (e.g., avoiding eating food with certain textures)
• Has strong interest in and seeks unusual sensory experiences (e.g., squinting or hand flapping to certain sound/ noise/lights, excessively rubbing certain textures, licking or smelling objects).