Autism

Your doctor may recommend developmental tests if your child

• Doesn’t respond with a smile or happy expression by 6 months
• Doesn’t mimic sounds or facial expressions by 9 months
• Doesn’t babble or coo by 12 months
• Doesn’t gesture — such as point or wave — by 12 months
• Doesn’t say single words by 16 months
• Doesn’t say two-word phrases by 24 months
• Loses previously acquired language or social skills at any age

Neurosensory Dysfunction in Autism Spectrum Disorder

One of the root-causes of the repetitive patterns of behaviour and the deficit in social communication in autistic individuals is the inefficient neurosensory integration. These individuals are either hyper-sensitive or hypo-sensitive as a result of confused processing of information that cannot be interpreted well by the brain.

Our neurodevelopmental approach addresses the need for the regularisation of the brain sensory functions

Tactile Pathway

• Very high pain tolerance (hypo-sensitive) for deep sense of touch: craving for deep pressure, banging into things, hitting themselves
• Hyper-sensitive to surface touch: resists being held, irritated by textures, annoyed by light touch
• Over-sensitive to temperature changes but not able to perceive either hot or cold well
• Toe walking: the child is in a “flight” response from a non-integrated primary reflex originating in the brainstem
• Smell distortions: either seeks strong smells, engages in disturbing behaviours when in contact with certain smells
• Mouth sensitivity: resists food based on texture and temperature, leading to limited food choices which affects their health
• Low muscle tone
• Lack of coordination

Auditory Pathway

• Hyper-sensitive to sounds: audiogram shows very good hearing but these children interpret sounds as a painful and shut down to auditory stimulation
• Not a lack of hearing BUT tonal distortion in the interpretation of auditory information
• Certain sounds may be painful
• Their hands are covering their ears or they act as if deaf
• Lack expressive communicative language
• Weak auditory sequential processing and short-term memory

Visual Pathway

• Little to no eye contact
• Fascination with spinning wheels or mirror
• Engage in visual sensory-play by dangling objects in their peripheral visual field or doing odd finger play
• Overuse their peripheral vision (hyper-perception of edges and motion)
  , attending to irrelevant information
• Underuse their central detail vision

The two main deficits must be present:

1. Social/communication deficits
2. Fixated interests and repetitive patterns of behavior
3. These symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)
   .
4. Symptoms together limit and impair day-to-day functioning

WARNING: The following symptoms are only descriptive of categories of behaviours. They should never be used to self-diagnose but rather to guide you toward the need for a proper professional assessment.