Recognize the most common autism symptoms in young children

When you’re trying to figure out the symptoms of autism in young children, it can often be confusing. How much is just normal toddler behavior, how much is a phase of some sort, and how much is cause for great concern? One thing you can use to observe and help you decide is the child’s behavior.

Routine

Young children with autism will display many behavior-related symptoms. You will have a marked need for routine, needing to do everything the same way, every time. For example, if you always ride home from the grocery store the same way, your child may notice if he takes a different route and will be very upset. It is very likely that he wants to have the same things for breakfast and lunch, and at the same time every day. Bedtime should be consistent. This need for routine is a common symptom of autism in toddlers and children.

toys to line up

A young child might line up their toys repeatedly. This is a classic autistic symptom that young children exhibit. You won’t be playing with them in the traditional way – there is a distinct lack of imaginative play.

Typical children can play house or give human qualities to inanimate objects. They could pretend they’re having tea, or at a monster truck rally, or something like that. They could pretend they have superpowers.

However, autistic children will take the same dolls or trucks that their peers played with and line them up. They will get very upset if someone tries to interrupt them. This desire to line up toys is another symptom of autism in young children.

Other Autism Symptoms of Young Children

There are several other autism symptoms that parents may notice in their young children, such as:

• Autistic children do not like to share things with others.
• A typical child will point to things of interest to parents, but a young child with autism will not.
• There will be a lot of repetitive behaviors, and your child may seem interested in unusual things, like the tilt of the light through the window or the sound something makes. They can spend hours looking at these things.
• Children with autism are not good with new situations. There will be a lot of screaming, yelling, and general meltdowns if they are forced to try something new that they haven’t done before.
• Also, due to sensory issues, nervous breakdowns are common in large crowds of people and in crowded, enclosed areas with other children, due to the noise and commotion levels.
• They are very detail oriented and will notice things that you would never notice about any object or situation.

Young children’s autism symptoms often show up in preschool

A toddler is often considered a bit quirky until it’s time for preschool or kindergarten, and then parents are surprised to see how different their child is from their peers.

Since autism in many cases has a genetic role, parents can often remember having similar, but less severe traits, and not think so much about some of the milder ones. Once at school, however, the gap between the child with autism and her typical peers is wide.

Don’t worry; Help is available if you think your child is displaying some of these early childhood autism symptoms.