Traits in the Child with High-Functioning Autism

Some of the traits associated with HFA that will be addressed in the ebook include: (1) emotional problems and sensory sensitivities; (2) difficulties with school-related skills; (3) issues related to health and movement; (4) social skills deficits; (5) behavioral problems; and (6) deficits in linguistic and language development.

Let's look at each of these in turn:

1. Why do children with HFA experience unique emotional problems and sensory sensitivities? For example:   

•  An emotional incident can determine the mood for the day.
• They can become overwhelmed with too much verbal direction.
• They often experience difficulty with loud or sudden sounds.
• Emotions can pass very suddenly -- or are drawn out for a long period of time.
• They have an intolerance to certain food textures, food colors, or the way food is presented on the plate (e.g., one food can’t touch another).
• They may laugh, cry, or throw a tantrum for no apparent reason.
• They may need to be left alone to release tension and frustration.    
• They usually resist change in their environment (e.g., people, places, objects).
• They experience sensitivity - or lack of sensitivity - to sounds, textures, tastes, smells or light.
• They tend to either tune out - or break down - when being reprimanded.
• They have an unusually high - or low - pain tolerance.

2. What are the difficulties associated with school-related skills that need to be addressed? For example:  

• Difficulty transitioning from one activity to another 
• Difficulty with fine motor activities (e.g., coloring, printing, using scissors, gluing)
• Difficulty with reading comprehension (e.g., can quote an answer, but unable to predict, summarize or find symbolism)
• Excellent rote memory in some areas
• Exceptionally high skills in some areas -- and very low in others
• Resistance - or inability - to follow directions
• Short attention span for most lessons

3. How should issues related to health and movement be dealt with? For example:    

• Allergies and food sensitivities
• Apparent lack of concern for personal hygiene (e.g., hair, teeth, body odor)
• Appearance of hearing problems, but hearing has been checked and is fine
• Constipation
• Difficulty changing from one floor surface to another (e.g., carpet to wood, sidewalk to grass)
• Difficulty moving through a space (e.g., bumps into objects or people)
• Frequent gas, burping or throwing up
• Incontinence of bowel and/or bladder
• Irregular sleep patterns
• Odd or unnatural posture (e.g., rigid or floppy)
• Seizure activity
• Unusual gait
• Walks on toes
• Walks without swinging arms freely

4. Why do these children lack social skills, and what can parents and teachers do to help? For example:

• Aversion to answering questions about themselves
• Difficulty maintaining friendships
• Difficulty reading facial expressions and body language
• Difficulty understanding group interactions
• Difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm
• Difficulty understanding the rules of conversation
• Does not generally share observations or experiences with others
• Finds it easier to socialize with people that are older or younger, rather than peers of their own age
• Gives spontaneous comments which seem to have no connection to the current conversation
• Makes honest, but inappropriate observations
• Minimal acknowledgement of others
• Overly trusting or unable to read the motives behinds peoples’ actions
• Prefers to be alone, aloof or overly-friendly
• Resistance to being held or touched
• Responds to social interactions, but does not initiate them
• Seems unable to understand another’s feelings
• Talks excessively about one or two topics (e.g., dinosaurs, movies, etc.)
• Tends to get too close when speaking to someone (i.e., lack of personal space)
• Unaware of/disinterested in what is going on around them
• Very little or no eye contact

5. How can behavioral problems be managed effectively? For example:

• Causes injury to self (e.g., biting, banging head)
• Difficulty attending to some tasks
• Difficulty sensing time (e.g., knowing how long 5 minutes is or 3 days or a month)
• Difficulty transferring skills from one area to another
• Difficulty waiting for their turn (e.g., standing in line)
• Extreme fear for no apparent reason
• Feels the need to fix or rearrange things
• Fine motor skills are developmentally behind peers (e.g., hand writing, tying shoes, using scissors, etc.)
• Frustration is expressed in unusual ways
• Gross motor skills are developmentally behind peers (e.g., riding a bike, skating, running)
• Inability to perceive potentially dangerous situations
• Meltdowns
• Obsessions with objects, ideas or desires
• Perfectionism in certain areas
• Play is often repetitive
• Quotes movies or video games
• Ritualistic or compulsive behavior patterns (e.g., sniffing, licking, watching objects fall, flapping arms, spinning, rocking, humming, tapping, sucking, rubbing clothes)
• Transitioning from one activity to another is difficult
• Unusual attachment to objects
• Verbal outbursts

6. What can be done to help with deficits in linguistic and language development? For example:    

• Abnormal use of pitch, intonation, rhythm or stress while speaking
• Difficulty understanding directional terms (e.g., front, back, before, after) 
• Difficulty whispering
• Makes verbal sounds while listening (i.e., echolalia)
• May have a very high vocabulary
• Often uses short, incomplete sentences
• Pronouns are often inappropriately used
• Repeats last words or phrases several times
• Speech is abnormally loud or quiet
• Speech started very early and then stopped for a period of time
• Uses a person’s name excessively when speaking to them