What is autism

Autism is a lifelong disability that affects a child’s ability to communicate and interact with people around them. While all children with autism share certain areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in different ways and to varying degrees.

Social communication

Children with autism can have difficulty understanding why they need to communicate. They may not be able to identify their own needs or communicate them to others. Some children with autism never develop spoken language, or speech may develop much later than expected.

Social interaction

Children with autism have difficulty understanding how to interact with other people. They may not understand the unwritten social rules that other children naturally develop. For example, they may stand too close to other children or disrupt other children’s play. Some children play alone, rarely seeking the company of others. Difficulties with social interaction mean that children with autism often find it hard to form friendships.

Social imagination

Children with autism will often have difficulty playing imaginatively with toys or with other children and adults. They have a limited range of imaginative play. They may tend to focus on the parts of an object rather than the whole thing, for example, spinning the wheels of a car rather than pushing it. Difficulties in this area also mean that children cannot predict what will happen next. For example remembering that when a parent goes out, they come back again.