To children with autism difficulties or delays appear.These are reported by parents before the child is two years of age. If the child is not four years of age or older the diagnosis cannot be made. The improvement outcome for children with autism is the placement in early intervention programmes before four years of age. If the diagnosis of autism is made after four years of age those children may be missing the opportunity for early intervention.



The early characterizes of autism in infants and preschool children are described by recently studies. These studies are based on the parents interview for establish the initially problems which cause them the concern, and by the observation of children in controlled play and assessment situations.

To children with autism appear early features in social life like: poor social interaction, lack of interest in other children, lack of seeking to share own enjoyment, failure to develop peer relations and to join in activities of others and to direct adult's attention to own activity, does not show affection, seek or offer comfort, dislikes social touch and being held, lack of social responsiveness, ignores people, lack of social play, being in own world, prefers being alone, indifferent with others, no social smile, lack of eye contact, of gesture or of facial expression, no greeting behaviors.

The children with autism have problem with communication like: lack of verbal communication, no social chat, lack or limited range of facial expression, loss of previously acquired words, problems with language comprehension, does not express emotion, poor imitation, use of other's body as a tool, lack of infant babble, echolalia, no gaze monitoring, no pointing to express interest, no use or understanding of gestures. In the emergence of autism appear the following symptoms: stereotyped and repetitive routines, behaviors, interests; verbal rituals, hand and finger mannerisms, unusual preoccupations, unusual attachment to objects; play and sensory, lack of spontaneous play, lack of imitative play, no pretend play, sensitivity to noise, insensitivity to pain/cold.

Others symptoms are unusual sensory interests, deafness suspected, mouthing of objects, unusual looking at objects, distractibility, behavioral variability, sleep problems, self-injury, food fads, unusual fears, lack of curiosity, lack of response to name; running away, overly quiet, indifferent to animals, having an intelligent looking face. In young children with developmental delay some of the features listed above are also present. Studies that have compared the behavior of young children with autism with those who have developmental delay without autism provide the best information on the features and symptoms of autism in infants and preschool children. In very young children the absence of stereotyped and repetitive behavior does exclude the possibility of autism.

The obsessional behavior may be dependent upon more advanced language and cognitive skills and emerge later as the child makes developmental gains. In the first two years of life in young children with autism differences between speech delay and developmental delay may occur. Delayed speech is often reported by parents of young children with autism. Speech delay is not specific to autism because delayed speech is also present in young children with global developmental delay caused by intellectual disability and those with severe to profound hearing loss. The children with speech delay or hearing loss compensate for their lack of speech by the use of non-verbal communication skills such as using gestures, eye contact and facial expression to get their message across.

The children with autism can also respond to praise, can empathize, imitate engage in make believe play. The child with autism continues to have ongoing problems with delayed and disorder language, social and communication skills, empathy and pretend play skills regardless of developmental level. Sameness, distress over change in routines, adherence to rituals and routines, abnormal comfort seeking and unusual attachment to objects that are present in child with autism. Other problems present in older children are impaired conversational skills and problems with speech production. Standard diagnostic criteria should be modified from children under two to take into account the presentation of autism in infants and preschoolers. The access to early intervention programs may be useful in an early identification of autism.

In cases of children with autism the following aspects must be regarded: lack of social smile, lack of appropriate facial expression, poor attention, aversion to being touched, not responsive to name, unusual looking of objects, ignoring people, preference for aloneness, lack of or impaired eye contact, lack of gesture, lack of emotional expression and lack of age appropriately with toys.

Children with autism should not be avoided by the others and they must be treated like normal people.

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