Autism

What is autism and neurodivergence? Common terms you may have heard are Aspergers, ASD, Autism or on the spectrum. They have a certain set of behaviors including inhibited communication, social and play skills. Other common behaviors are repetition, fixations, sensory challenges, auditory processing disorder and constant moving.

In the past, people were referred to as “autistic” or having Aspergers. Terms have changed over the years to not represent a condition but refer to a person.

The terms neurodivergent, or neurodivergence have become popular and words such as Asperger’s, high and low functioning are no longer being used. Neuroatypical and neurotypical are also used to describe those with autism and those without.

Common Signs of Autism

While the points below are by no means an exhaustive list of signs and are not meant in any way to be a diagnostic tool, it will give you some idea of challenges you might see with children on the spectrum.

Difficulties with social communication and social interaction:

• Difficulty in reciprocating social-emotional exchanges.
• Difficulty in approaching others socially
• Reduced sharing of interests
• Reduced sharing or recognition of emotions
• Failure to initiate or respond to social interactions
• Difficulty in recognizing and using nonverbal communication behaviors in social interaction
• Difficulty in initiating or maintaining eye contact
• Difficulty recognizing, understanding, and using gestures (e.g. waving, nodding head, raising arms to be lifted up, clapping, shaking head, showing you objects when they play, pointing to things etc)
• Difficulty developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships. (e.g. can’t adjust thinking or behavior to suit changing social contexts)
• Difficulty sharing, participating in imaginative play
• Difficulty making friends or noticing when someone is missing

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior:

• Repetitive motor movements or speech (known as stimming) or use of objects
• Inflexibility to changes in routines or behaviors. This may invoke an extreme response to even the slightest change (e.g. difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, rituals of hello and goodbye, may need to always take the same route to get somewhere or they may eat the same food every day).
• Interests that may be restrictive or may fixate on things abnormally with a high intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to unusual objects, fixated on something with high intensity).
• Hyper-reactivity (craving) or hypo-reactivity (adversely reacting to) sensory input
• Unusual interest in sensory parts of their environment (e.g. indifference to pain/temperature, not liking specific sounds (may put hands over their ears) or textures (may not like certain clothing on them, excessive smelling, licking, or touching of objects, fascination with looking at lights or movement).

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior:

• Repetitive motor movements or speech (known as stimming) or use of objects
• Inflexibility to changes in routines or behaviors. This may invoke an extreme response to even the slightest change (e.g. difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, rituals of hello and goodbye, may need to always take the same route to get somewhere or they may eat the same food every day).
• Interests that may be restrictive or may fixate on things abnormally with a high intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to unusual objects, fixated on something with high intensity).
• Hyper-reactivity (craving) or hypo-reactivity (adversely reacting to) sensory input
• Unusual interest in sensory parts of their environment (e.g. indifference to pain/temperature, not liking specific sounds (may put hands over their ears) or textures (may not like certain clothing on them, excessive smelling, licking, or touching of objects, fascination with looking at lights or movement).

Think about your child in terms of these questions. Does your child:

1. Isolate themselves? Do they prefer to be alone than with others?
2. Communicate with you either with gestures (pre-verbal) or verbally in a back-and-forth exchange? Or do they struggle to communicate?
3. Use hello and goodbye rituals? (e.g. waving hello or goodbye, or saying the words verbally)
4. Have empathy for others or do they seem emotionally disconnected?
5. Struggle to make friends or do they seem indifferent to human interaction?
6. Have emotional outbursts displaying an unbalanced emotional reaction to the situation?
7. Struggle with language development?
8. Have difficulty understanding figurative expressions? Are they literal? (e.g. “get off the grass” and they are looking for where the grass is)
9. Exhibit repetitive behaviors? (e.g. arranging the same objects in the same way over and over, flapping hands, noises that are repeated, rocking back and forth for extended periods of time etc)
10. Have difficulty with fine motor functions? (e.g. holding a pencil)
11. Have difficulty with toilet training?
12. Eat objects that are not food (commonly known as pica)
13. Have a sensitivity to sensory stimuli? (e.g. loud sounds, certain types of clothing, textures of food etc)
14. Seem unresponsive? (e.g. may seem “deaf” or “in their own world” or don’t respond to loud sounds)
15. Consistently turn their head when you call their name to see what you want?
16. Not liked to be touched, or the opposite; can’t get enough
17. Get distressed with a change in routine? (e.g. visit Grandma each Friday afternoon, but the car breaks down and you can’t go)
18. Avoid eye contact?
19. Constantly walk on their toes?
20. Imitate the actions of others?

Autism is not a Behavioral Condition

It is important to remember that even though autism may produce certain behaviors, it is not a behavioral condition. There is a clear neurodevelopmental difference between those with autism and those without. The term “neurodivergent” is now commonly used in relation to how people’s brains process information differently.

The term neurodiversity was coined by sociologist Judy Singer, who is autistic, in 1997. Neurodiversity can be broken down into two categories of people, those who are:

• neurotypical and
• neurodivergent

The idea of neurodiversity also seeks to frame these differences as ones that are not inherently “bad” or a problem; instead, it treats them in a more neutral manner and highlights different ways that neurodivergence can be beneficial.

What Options Do We Provide?

There are 3 options that we provide when working with children with a neurodiverse brain.

We provide live, virtual music and movement sessions

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Individualized sound therapy to change brain connections

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A program devised to help retained primitive reflexes

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