The Telltale Signs of Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes significant behavioural changes, such as problems associated with social interaction. Symptoms vary for each autistic individual, but some of the primary symptoms are similar and last lifelong, making life rather difficult. Some of the symptoms include-

1) Avoid eye contact and prefer to be alone

2) Have an issue in understanding one’s feelings, as well as expressing their own in simple terms

3) Have delayed speech

4) Repeat words and phrases to a significant level

5) Give unrelated answers to questions; etc

As symptoms differ for each individual, there is no ‘typical’ body language exhibited by the autistic, making it more difficult for the “typically-developing” (TD) peers to understand them. While also poses hindrances for the people with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) to easily express their feelings and actions.

Primal research conducted by numerous universities- one such being The Durham University- suggests that adults with ASC exhibit a sense of difficulty in identifying emotions and meanings from body movements. Initially, it was believed that people with ASC only had trouble attributing mental states to the body language exhibited by another individual, causing the different perceptions of body language portrayed. However, the research also highlighted that visual processing could contribute to not comprehending others’ body language. One such visual processing problem is the struggle to perceive motion, like that of spatial elements spread across a wide area. Finally, the findings from the study suggested that people with the disorder have trouble reading body language as they have different perceptions of the exhibited body movements to that of the “typically-developing”.

Further research also indicated that children with ASC did not identify emotions from eyes alone nearly as well as their TD peers. Researchers also looked at the correlation between the theory of mind (ability to see a situation from another person’s perspective) and emotion detection. They found that the ASC diagnosed theory of mind results correlated significantly with body emotion detection, but not from eyes.

Overall, the study highlighted that children on the autism spectrum can interpret emotions from body posture to a certain extent but may struggle to identify emotions from faces and eyes alone. Therefore, many autistic individuals avoid eye contact, finding it distracting or even threatening, prohibiting them from obtaining any form of social information from eye contact either.

Decoding the Signals believes that the TD peers can easily contribute and work together towards helping our fellow peers diagnosed with ASC by simple actions such as offering them help and explaining to them the conventions of the action they just showed. This would not only help the autistic but also help them feel less different and peculiar. It will provide you and them with a rather friendly and welcoming environment to exist and enjoy in, accepting one another.

Bibliography:

https://www.autismtruths.org/index.php?p=Signs_and_Symptoms_of_Autism_Interactive_Autism_Network#:~:text=People%20with%20autism%20might%20have%20a%20hard%20time%20using%20and,match%20what%20they%20are%20saying.

https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=8449

https://hussmanautism.org/children-with-autism-identify-emotions-in-body-language-as-well-as-their-neurotypical-peers/#:~:text=New%20research%20indicates%20that%20children,are%20blind%20to%20others'%20feelings.