What is autism? What are the symptoms?

Autism is not unfamiliar to many people. This disease is relatively common in clinical practice. The definition of autism is actually very broad. It can also be said that autism is a type of loneliness. Patients have serious social disorders and the symptoms of autistic patients are also very obvious.

1. Autism, also known as autism or autistic disorder (etc.), is a representative disease of pervasive developmental disorders. It is used to describe adult schizophrenia patients who were once ordinary people but suddenly can no longer communicate with others and are extremely isolated. "DSM-IV-TR" divides PDD into 5 types: autistic disorder, Retts syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, Asperger syndrome and unspecified PDD. Among them, autistic disorder and Asperger syndrome are more common. About 3/4 of patients are accompanied by obvious mental retardation, and some children have better abilities in certain aspects against the background of general intellectual retardation. The prevalence of autism varies, but it is generally believed to be about 2-5/10,000 children, with a male-female ratio of about 3:1-4:1, and girls' symptoms are generally more severe than boys'.

2. Non-verbal communication barriers

Children with this condition often cry or scream to express their discomfort or needs. Older children may hold an adult's hand and walk towards what they want. They lack corresponding facial expressions and often appear indifferent. They rarely use actions such as nodding, shaking their heads, or waving their hands to express their wishes.

3. Speech communication disorder

Children with this disease have obvious obstacles in speech communication, including:

① Language comprehension is impaired to varying degrees

② Speech development is delayed or not developed. Some children may have expressive speech before the age of 2-3, but this gradually decreases or even disappears completely.

③ Abnormal speech form and content: Children often imitate speech, repeat speech in a stereotyped manner, make mistakes in grammatical structure and personal pronouns, and have abnormal intonation, speech speed, rhythm, stress, etc.

④ Impaired ability to use language: Although some children can recite nursery rhymes and advertising slogans, they seldom communicate through words. They cannot bring up topics, maintain topics, or only rely on stereotyped repetitive phrases to talk, and get entangled in the same topic.