What to do to detect autism early?
If autism is detected early (before 3 years old), children will have more opportunities to become normal people and integrate into society.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Huong Giang, Department of Rehabilitation, National Children's Hospital, parents can detect autism early by observing the child's unusual signs.
Early signs of autism in children 0-6 months:
- Indifference to sound (feeling like the child is deaf).
- Abnormal behavior: hyperactivity (irritability, difficulty sleeping, crying a lot, difficult to comfort, frequent abdominal cramps due to bloating, unexplained discomfort) or the child is indifferent, quiet, seems to like to be alone, rarely requires parental care.
- Poor concentration: Not paying attention or concentrating as much as other children of the same age. Little or no look at the face of the person talking.
- Motor abnormalities: reduced activity, abnormal posture when held.
Early signs of autism in children 6-12 months:
- Develop unusual behaviors: playing alone, playing with fingers and hands in front of face, using objects in unusual ways such as scratching, clawing or rubbing...
- Don't pay attention to others.
- No pronunciation or very little.
- Motor abnormalities: Decreased or increased tone, decreased activity or hyperactivity.
- Little or no use of non-verbal communication skills (waving hello, goodbye, pointing...)
Early signs of autism in children over 12 months:
Children with disabilities in social communication skills:
- Loss or lack of response to sound
- Absence or reduction of non-verbal communication skills (eye contact, hand and foot gestures, facial expressions of joy or sadness, nodding and shaking head...). Abnormal eye contact (may turn away, avoid staring, have a blank, vacant gaze or avoid looking when communicating...)
- No or little sound, no laughter. No speech, slow speech, poor speech, fluent speech but rarely initiates speech, does not speak when meeting strangers...
- Decreased group activity, difficulty participating in games, poor playing skills, stereotypes, apathy.
- Abnormal behavior: hitting oneself, hitting others, unusual movements of hands and feet (waving hands, twisting hands, walking on tiptoes...), self-stimulation (screaming, waving hands, running in circles, touching genitals)...
Parents can also refer to the 5 red flags for early detection of autism from the American Academy of Neurology: - No babbling, no gestures, no signs by about 12 months. |
According to VnExpress-NT
