Tag Archives: signs

Signs of Teen Autism

This week, the greatest number of page views for this site as a result of an internet search was for my recent post centered around Tigger. He’s one popular cat, apparently. But the second most common search that yielded this website was “signs of teen autism.” I figured that subject warranted a post of its own.

I thought about it and realized that there would be primarily two groups of people who could be typing in that search:

a) either a parent, relative, or teacher trying to figure out a possible explanation for the different characteristics of their teen

b) anyone wanting to know how to recognize autism in the teen years, perhaps because they think they’ve come in contact with an ASD teen in their community

First of all, in the teen years, the signs of Asperger’s and high functioning autism are so similar that many people think that there is no difference between the two. Both have much difficulty with social skills (e.g. random, little, or no eye contact while conversing; random, little or no voice inflection; compromised ability to read facial cues and body language), often exhibit reactions to sensory issues (e.g. being easily startled by noises, covering ears; running away from bees and other flying insects), have a great need for routines and rituals, and exhibit obsessions with particular “specialty interests.” How, then, does one tell the difference between Asperger’s and high functioning autism in teens? The difference lies primarily in the child’s early development of language, although there are other differences as well. In cases of classic – or Kanner’s – autism, language development was very late, labored (took many years), or did not occur at all. My son Nigel falls into this category because his language acquisition was quite late and labored. Asperger’s, by comparison, was nicknamed “little professor syndrome” because the young children observed by Hans Asperger were quite verbal, but they often fixated on certain topics and exhibited some differences in social interaction. Because they can talk, many children with Asperger’s are not diagnosed until later, so the searchers listed above in group a) are most likely trying to identify a teen with Asperger’s.

For the group b) people, THANK YOU for wanting to find out. Thank you for caring enough to take the time to do so. We parents of ASD teens truly appreciate you.  You’ll find some characteristic signs of teen autism listed in bold green in this post (which you probably already figured out, because you’re a smart person for seeking out the information in the first place). You’ll also find some tips for interacting with an ASD teen in my post Getting to Know an Autistic Teen. If you’re looking for signs of autism in teens who are more profoundly autistic, in most cases they will not be mainstreamed in regular school classes, and when they are in the community they will be with a parent or someone else accompanying them. They exhibit little to no speech or echolalic speech. They may also exhibit more reactions to sensory stimuli especially in noisy, crowded places and may make repetitive body movements (spinning, flapping, rocking). Autism manifests itself differently in every person affected by it, so these traits, in addition to those listed in the previous paragraph, may or may not occur and in varying degrees. One thing’s for sure – you’ll find that people with autism at all functioning levels are wonderful, fascinating individuals worthy of your time, interest, and respect.

Learning to Write

As I had written in a previous post, I believed that once Nigel learned to write, that would “liberate him to no end.” Last night I came across a description I wrote seven years ago about Nigel learning to write:

Near the end of the year, Nigel began printing his name. Just a month before, he refused to hold any writing utensil, as he had been doing since age three when we first tried to get him to scribble; he seemed to have an aversion to holding pens, pencils, crayons, and markers. But now, at six, he has begun. Being a bit of a perfectionist, he gets very frustrated with himself because he has trouble making the letter G, both big and small. But he perseveres, and now, just three months later, he writes full sentences, short “letters,” even. (“Dear mom, Mom get string cheese, Love mom” – I’ve tried to tell him that he needs to say “Love, Nigel” on his letters so that the people know they’re from him, but I guess he thinks, Why wouldn’t you know who it was from? I just handed this to you, so you must know it’s from ME.)

He has also started drawing for the first time, which is fabulous. The first things he drew were little cars with smiley faces. I will always remember how happy I was when he started writing and drawing. The first night he did, he came to me and asked me to “write a letter to Tigger.” I told him I was washing dishes and I would do it as soon as I was finished. A few minutes later, I turned around and there he was at the kitchen table, hunched over a piece of paper, writing diligently, struggling with the Gs in Tigger. I looked over his shoulder just as he was finishing, and saw that he had written, “Dear Tigger, jumps note, Piglet and Pooh.” He put it in an envelope because he wanted to mail it to him.

Since then, Nigel has been writing and drawing every day. He went through a sign-making phase. He put up signs all over the house saying things like, “Warning: Do not let mom out of the house” on the back door, “No children allowed” inside the front door of Aaron’s [his father’s] house, “No smoking,” on Aaron’s closet door, “Reward: Do not let dogs out of the cage” on his and Aidan’s bedroom door, and several “Missing: Stuart Little” signs all over the living room when he couldn’t find his Stuart Little video. Currently, he has been drawing traffic lights and houses. He also recently drew an adult male lion and a lion cub, and when I asked him who it was, he said, “Simba and his dad.” I initially thought that Nigel’s writing and drawing would be a way to communicate his needs, but it has revealed more about his emotions and priorities than I ever would have imagined.