‘Do you want eye contact or a conversation?’ This was the question asked by someone with Asperger syndrome when he was approached with “Hi, I’m so-and-so, I’d like to know your opinion on…” Perhaps, this ‘introductory question’ might sound strange to someone who doesn’t know much about autism, but if you are familiar with ASD, you’ll find it very logical and appropriate in this situation. Avoidance of eye contact is a common characteristic in autism and it is often seen as on

Research shows that young autistic children have more typical behaviour (89%) than atypical behaviour, for example, they look at people’s faces, react (turn) toward voices, respond to their name when called, etc. (Gabrielsen et al . 2015). During the first six months, infants with ASD present a similar to typically developing infants’ pattern of face-gazing accompanied by vocalizations (Chericoni et al . 2017; Young et al . 2009). However, already at the age of nine months,

Seeing or tasting sounds, hearing colours, being touched by sights… Alyosha was about 9 years old when he tried to account for a panic attack by saying: “I was scared. I saw a yellow ‘z-z-z’ sound.” This was confusing, until I realised he had synaesthesia. Synaesthesia (Greek syn – ‘together’ and aesthesis – ‘perception’) or ‘cross-sensory perception’ is an involuntary physical experience when the stimulation of one sensory modality triggers a perception in one or more diffe

- ‘Mum, on my way home from school I met a very nice lady. We chatted. She sent you her best wishes.’ - ‘But who was this nice lady?’ - ‘I don’t know, but she knows us all: she asked how we all were doing…’ - ‘Why didn’t you ask her name?’ ‘Oh, mum, it’s so embarrassing…' There is a neurological condition that, though not specific to autism, appears to be quite common in (at least, some) autistic individuals. It’s called prosopagnosia, or face blindness. People with this cond

Heel-to-toe, here we go When my son started walking (at the age of 12 months), his posture and gait was very strange: Alex started walking on his tip-toes, and while walking (or running), my little ‘ballet-dancer’ didn’t swing his arms – his arms were dangling along his body. Not knowing much at the time, I tried to correct his idiosyncratic movements the way I could: Whenever and wherever we went, I was singing (while coordinating his arm-leg movement – his right leg stepp

“[After the assessment] I was surprised to learn that most of [the infantile reflexes] were still present and uninhibited in me at the age of almost thirty in spite of having learned to compensate for and cover them up. One which was still present was an infantile reflex that babies have to assist them in passing out of the womb! It was also found that I had different infantile reflexes present in different quarters of my body and that some were partially inhibited and some n

Why motor problems are a sign of ASD and how identifying them at a young age can lead to better results for the child.