In short, what characterizes the autistic behavioural pattern?
Social behaviour – unresponsiveness to people, lack of attention to people, reacting parts of people as detached objects, lack of eye contact, treating people as if they were inanimate objects, lack of behaviour appropriate to cultural norms, attention to the non social aspects of people, lack of awareness of the feelings of others, lack of social perceptiveness, Failure to develop a concept of mind – MIND BLINDEDNESS. Language – Abnormalities in speech i.e. they cannot produce sounds that are recognizable as words is called as FUNCTIONALLY MUTE CHILDREN. In those children with autism who do develop speech, a variety of unusual features are sometime (but not always) seen. These include Echolalia (words/phrases, which are echoed either immediately after they are heard or sometime later and persist even after the age of 3yrs), Neologism (coining new words to give meaning to things) or saying ‘you’ when they mean ‘I’ or calling themselves by their first name. Repetitive, obsessive behavio
