© Copyright 2023 Florida State University and Autism Navigator, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reference of terms and organizations that are useful to providers and families.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 pediatricians committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults.
The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule is a semi-structured assessment of communication, social interaction, and play (or imaginative use of materials) for individuals suspected of having autism or other pervasive developmental disorders currently considered the gold standard for diagnosis. The ADOS consists of four modules, each of which is appropriate for children and adults of differing developmental and language levels, ranging from nonverbal to verbally-fluent.
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological disorder defined by impairments in social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication, accompanied by restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.
Typically between six to nine months, a child begins to vocalize repeated consonant-vowel combinations, like "ba ba ba," "da da da," called reduplicative babbling and then da, de, ba, duh, called variegated babbling. As vocal development continues, babbling sounds take on the characteristics of adult speech even though the child may not have specific meanings in mind.
Body postures or movements and positioning of the body are nonverbal ways of conveying information or expressing emotions without the use of words.
A broadband screener is a brief measure that covers a range of developmental domains (e.g., communication, expressive and receptive language, fine and gross motor, self-help, and social-emotional) designed to be used to compare a child’s development to that of other children of comparable age. It is completed with a standardized tool and is an ongoing process. Results with concerns signal a need for more specific screening or further assessment to determine if a developmental delay is evident.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for protecting public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and promoting health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations. The CDC mission is to collaborate to create the expertise, information, and tools that people and communities need to protect their health – through health promotion, prevention of disease, injury and disability, and preparedness for new health threats.
Child focused intervention refers to interventions in which a professional engages with the child directly, such as the speech/language pathologist (SLP) working with a child to increase use of words. In early intervention, this could be contrasted with coaching for parent-implemented interventions, where the professional would support the parent who would interact with the child.
Coaching is an ongoing, interactive, reciprocal process between a coach and a learner in which the coach supports the learner in applying knowledge and skills to address a mutually agreed upon goal.
Collaboration is individuals or groups working together for a common goal.
An interactive process that enables individuals with different backgrounds and expertise to organize, plan, share knowledge, problem solve and work together to the benefit of the teams’ mission.
Communication is the use of non-symbolic (eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, gestures) and symbolic (speech or sign language) behavior to share ideas, exchange information, and regulate interactions.
Core diagnostic features are the most common distinguishing characteristics or symptoms used in diagnosing a disease or disorder. The core diagnostic features of ASD include: (1) persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction; and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
Critical thinking is the process of conceptualizing, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to guide a belief, make a decision, or act on something.
Developmental milestones are markers or guideposts that enable parents and professionals to monitor a child's learning, behavior, and development. Developmental milestones consist of skills or behaviors that most children can do by a certain age. While each child develops differently, some differences may indicate a slight delay and others may be a red flag or warning sign for greater concern.
Developmental surveillance is the ongoing process of identifying children who may be at risk for developmental delays. Surveillance should occur at every well visit through childhood and include eliciting and attending to parent concerns, maintaining a developmental history, making accurate and informed observations of the child, identifying the presence of risk and protective factors, and documenting the findings.
Developmentally sensible refers to learning opportunities and activities that include a contextual match between the child’s skills and emerging abilities and reasonable expectations for the child’s participation.
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature or cause of a medical symptom or developmental delay. Since there is no biological way of confirming a diagnosis of ASD at this point in time, diagnosis should be based on the observation of the behavioral features using the DSM-IV-TR® framework, until publication of the DSM-5 anticipated in 2013. A diagnosis should include information about the child's developmental and medical history, current activities, and behaviors, and is often done by an inter- or multi-disciplinary team of professionals from several different specialties. Often, this will include at least one physician, such as a neurologist, psychiatrist, or developmental pediatrician; a psychologist specializing in child development; a speech-language pathologist; an occupational and/or physical therapist; a social worker; and special educator. It is highly recommended that diagnosis include multiple measures and observations in the settings where the child interacts and learns.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a handbook used widely by medical professionals in diagnosing and categorizing mental and developmental disorders. It is published by the American Psychiatric Association and lists the criteria, or characteristics, of many disorders. The DSM-5, expected to be published in 2013, uses the term ASD to represent a single spectrum and associated features.
Professionals from a specific branch or area of service or teaching provide services, supports or interventions specific to their discipline. In early intervention, disciplines that are commonly included include special education, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, physical therapy, nursing, behavior or early childhood education.
Early Childhood Technical Assistance is an organization supported by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) under the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). ECTA serves Part C-Infant and Toddlers with Disabilities Programs and Part B-Section 619 Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities in all 50 states and 10 jurisdictions to improve service systems and outcomes for children and families.
Early intervention is a federally funded program through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), available locally, for infants and toddlers from birth to age three with disabilities, as well assupport to their families. The goal of EI is to provide quality, early support and services to enhance the capacity of families to meet the developmental and health-related needs of children.
Echolalia is the repetition of words, phrases, or intonation of the speech of others. Delayed echolalia may occur several minutes, hours, days, or even weeks or years after the original speech was heard and is sometimes referred to as "movie talk" because the child can remember and repeat chunks of speech like repeating a movie script. Mitigated echolalia, which can be either immediate or delayed, involves variation in the repetition in the form, prosody, or context it is used. Children with ASD often display echolalia in the process of learning to talk.
Emotional reciprocity is the back-and-forth, give and take flow of emotions. The term reciprocity refers to how the feelings of one person influence and is influenced by the feelings of another person. Emotional reciprocity is the dance of feelings (e.g., affection, anger, hurt, etc.) between two people working together on a common goal. Adjustments are made by both partners until success is achieved. The skills involved in emotional reciprocity in very young children begin with eye contact, exchanging smiles, and then progress to use of gestures. This builds to being able to share conventional feelings with words, and later more expansive expression through conversation. Impairment in emotional reciprocity may be seen in lack of eye contact or expressions, not taking an active role in social games, preferring solitary activities, or using a person's hand as a tool or a person as if they are mechanical objects. This may lead to not noticing another person's emotional distress or lacking empathy for others.
Emotional dysregulation refers to an emotional response that is poorly modulated.
Emotional regulation is a person’s ability to recognize emotional states in another person or in oneself and to respond to the demands or supports of the environment. It is the child's ability to notice and respond to internal and external sensory input, and then adjust his emotions and behavior to the demands of his surroundings. Emotional regulation includes the body's involuntary reactions (heart rate, respiratory rate, etc.) to events or perceptions, as well as voluntary responses. Voluntary responses may be behaviors that the child does to soothe, or excite himself, such as spinning the wheel of a toy car, rubbing a smooth surface, rocking, or hand flapping. This may also include the use of communication to get help modulating emotion, such as reaching to request comfort when afraid. Many children with ASD have difficulties with emotional regulation and often have abnormal or inappropriate responses to the ordinary demands of their surroundings. They may also have problems adjusting to change, and transitioning from one activity to another, responding with strong negative emotions, tantrums, stereotyped, or even self-injurious behaviors.
The ability to understand how another person feels or what he/she may be thinking or feeling.
Engagement is “sustained attention to an activity or person” (National Research Council, 2001). It is a critical part of development as it helps children to feel trust, intimacy, and warmth – the foundation of social and emotional development. Engagement helps children to regulate themselves while it encourages them to focus on their caregiver. Hearing the warmth in a parent’s voice can help an overexcited child calm down; seeing a parent’s warm, gentle smile can give solace to a child who is upset. Engagement also helps gives children a sense of purpose or direction in their actions. When engaged, children have a desire to gesture and communicate. Children on the autism spectrum have difficulty with engagement. It is crucial that they learn how to engage. Children are actively engaged if they can (1) regulate their emotions; (2) take an active role and participate productively; (3) flexibly shift attention between objects and people; (4) communicate with words, gestures, and facial expressions; and (5) generate creative ideas.
Evidence based pertains to practices, programs, or materials that have been subjected to objective, publicly verifiable examination of their effectiveness with specified people or groups. Focus is on the quality of the research used to evaluate the practices, programs, or materials.
Expressive language is the use of symbols including verbal behavior, or speech, and signs, to communicate meaning, thoughts, ideas, and feelings with others.
Eye gaze is looking at the face of others to check and see what they are looking at and to signal interest in interacting. It is a nonverbal behavior used to convey or exchange information or express emotions without the use of words.
Facial expressions are movements of the face used to express emotion and to communicate with others.
Family-centered practice recognizes the family as the constant in the child’s life and represents a way of delivering programs and services that reflects the family’s culture, beliefs, and priorities. It is based on a core set of values, beliefs, and principles that recognize families contribute to all aspects of early intervention through their active participation. Central to family centered practice is the identification of the family’s priorities, strengths, outcomes, and the strategies to address them.
A national not-for-profit organization dedicated to teaching parents and pediatricians how to recognize the early signs of autism.
Flexible thinking is the ability to look at things from different angles and consider alternative means to a given end. Young children learn to initiate and adapt to change by using a variety of materials and seeking out new things, accepting variations when a preferred object is not available, transitioning from one activity to another, and accepting changes in everyday activities and schedules. Inflexible thinking is a common feature in children with ASD with their rigid adherence to sameness and difficulty with transitions.
Functional play is when a child uses objects for their appropriate or usual purpose, like rolling a toy car or ball, stirring with a spoon, or brushing a doll's hair with a brush.
In contrast to the traditional nature vs. nurture dichotomy, it is becoming more widely accepted that variation in any given trait is related to gene (nature) and environmental (nurture) interactions. Studies of gene-environment interactions in ASD seek to find relationships between the environment and prevalence of autism as well as the sensitivity to a variety of risk factors within a family, community or culture.
Generative language is the ability to use language to create novel thoughts, messages, or ideas.
Generativity is the ability to think and go beyond the previous or usual response and develop a new, different, or creative idea. Young children show generativity through creative actions in play and with gestures or by formulating words or word combinations to convey new ideas or creative ways to share ideas. Children with ASD may be good at rote learning by repeating back chunks of information and may have a harder time learning to be generative or generate novel or creative ideas.
Gestures are hand, head and body movements, used to communicate to someone else, such as a give, reach, wave, point, or head shake. They are nonverbal behaviors used to convey or exchange information or express emotions without the use of words.
Healthy or typical development describes the physical, mental, and social development of a child who is acquiring or achieving skills according to the expected time frame.
Heterogeneity is the diverseness or variety of fundamental characteristics.
Hyper-responsiveness is abnormal sensitivity or over reactivity to sensory input. This is the state of feeling overwhelmed by what most people would consider common or ordinary stimuli of sound, sight, taste, touch, or smell. Many children with ASD are over reactive to ordinary sensory input and may exhibitsensory defensiveness which involves a strong negative response to their overload, such as screaming at the sound of a telephone. Tactile defensiveness is a specific sensory defensiveness that is a strong negative response to touch.
Hypo-responsiveness is abnormal insensitivity or under reactivity to sensory input, in which the brain fails to register incoming stimuli appropriately so the child does not respond to the sensory stimulation. A child who appears as if deaf but whose hearing has tested as normal is under reactive. A child who is under reactive to sensory input may have a high tolerance to pain, may be sensory-seeking, craving sensations, and may act aggressively, or clumsily.
Idiosyncratic language refers to unique, unusual, or personalized language with meaning that only makes sense to those familiar with the situation.
Imaginative play, also known as symbolic play and make-believe play, is where children pretend to do things and to be something or someone else. It usually involves taking on the role of someone else and pretending an object is something else (e.g., pretending that a block is a cookie and pretending to eat it) or pretending without the object there (e.g., blowing on a spoon to cool it pretending it has hot soup).Social imitative play involves cooperating with others in their pretend roles in play, also referred to as socio-dramatic or dramatic play, or sharing attention to others over the pretense in play. This kind of play typically begins to develop between the ages of 2 and 3 years. Imaginative play helps children learn and understand more about their world and interactions with others.
Incidence is the rate of occurrence of new cases of a particular disease in a population being studied.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a U.S. federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children (birth to age 21) with disabilities. Of particular interest to early intervention providers are the regulations included in Part C that services are required to be provided in the child's natural environment to the maximum extent possible.
Insistence on sameness refers to a rigid adherence to a routine or activity carried out in a specific way, which may become a ritual or nonfunctional routine. Children with ASD may insist on sameness and may react with distress or tantrums to even small changes or disruptions in routines. A child's insistence on sameness may reflect difficulty with change in activities or routines or being able to predict what happens next, and therefore, may be a coping mechanism.
Intentional communication is a deliberate attempt to convey a message to get something, get someone to do something, draw attention to self, or draw attention objects or events. This is an area of significant difficulty for children with autism because they are often unaware of or may be uninterested in communicating with others.
Interest-driven learning means learning to do something because you need it in order to do what you want to do. The drive for learning is motivated by children’s unique interests. Interest-driven learning has many benefits for young children. When children have selected an activity or object that is interesting, they are more likely to be motivated to interact and use the materials, and more likely to stay actively engaged longer, making it a richer learning opportunity. Research has also shown that children return to activities of their interest more frequently than those identified and directed by adults. Finally, young children often identify a wealth of learning opportunities when they discover a topic of special interest to them.
Joint action routines are activities and routines that are organized around a common focus of attention and interaction between two or more people to encourage communication skills in children. Joint action routines have a joint focus organized around a meaningful outcome and it must be predictable, logical with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and it should be repeatable over time.
The ability to use intentional communication acts such as gesture, body language, facial expressions, or words to direct the attention of others for the purpose of direction attention or sharing interest in an event or object. Children seek to share attention with others spontaneously during the first year of life.
A natural environment is an everyday setting, activity or routine in the home or community where children and families participate and learn. It includes typical routines and activities such as play, mealtime, grocery shopping, cooking, washing dishes, and interacting with family members. In the IDEA Part C Regulations, services and supports are to be provided in the child and family’s natural environments to enhance the parent’s capacity to support their children’s development.
The National Institutes of Health, a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for making important discoveries through medical research to improve health and save lives. NIH’s mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.
Neurodevelopment is the physical process from birth until death that shapes the nervous system.
Nonverbal communicative behaviors are those things people do to convey or exchange information or express emotions without the use of words. These include eye gaze (looking at the face of others to check and see what they are looking at and to signal interest in interacting), facial expressions (movements of the face used to express emotion and to communicate with others nonverbally), body postures (movements and positioning of the body in relation to others), and gestures (hand and head movements to signal, such as a give, reach, wave, point, or head shake).
Object knowledge is the understanding of how an object moves around when you cannot actually see it move. Babies’ understanding of the properties of objects is a precursor to understanding how objects relate and how things work in the everyday world. Toddlers demonstrate that “practice makes perfect” when they seek repetition to build competence with objects. Their interest in combining novel and familiar materials increases the diversity of their object knowledge and opportunities for creativity.
Observational learning is a type of learning in which a person learns new information and behaviors by observing the behaviors of others. Children learn by observing others’ behaviors, expression of emotion, interactions, play, and language. They figure out what to imitate from the people around them and how to expand on imitated behaviors.
Obsessions are repetitive thoughts that are persistent and intrusive. In young children, preoccupations with specific kinds of objects or actions may be an early sign of obsessions. See restrictive, repetitive, patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) is dedicated to improving outcomes for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities ages birth through 21 by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorizes grants to states and to institutions of higher education and other non-profit organizations to support research, demonstrations, technical assistance and dissemination, technology and personnel development, and parent-training and information centers.
Over reactivity to sensory input is abnormal sensitivity or hyper-responsiveness. Many children with ASD are over reactive to ordinary sensory input and may exhibit tactile defensiveness or sensory defensiveness — a strong negative response to their overload, such as screaming at the sound of a telephone.
Checklists describing child developmental behaviors or criterion referenced measures that gather written information from a parent in response to general developmental or specific questions are examples of parent report tools. Parent questionnaires may include open-ended identification of behaviors, concerns or structured and prompted answers. The advantages to having parents answer questionnaires as a part of the screening or assessment include: inclusion of parent’s expertise, time savings by the physician, healthcare or early intervention provider, information can be collected at a time preferred by the parent, ease of access and, the exercise of thinking through responses to a developmental questionnaire increases a parent’s accuracy.
People knowledge is the memory of individuals they have met and their experiences with those individuals. People knowledge helps children make judgments about what to do based on those experiences. Children’s capacity for empathy, perspective taking, and predicting others’ behavior are examples of how they make connections by using their people knowledge.
The term perseveration refers to repeating or "getting stuck" carrying out a behavior (e.g., putting in and taking out a puzzle piece) when it is no longer appropriate.
Perseverative speech is imitative or self-generated utterances that are produced repeatedly without evidence of intent. Children with ASD who learn to talk usually have repetitive use of language. Perseverative speech refers to repeating the same phrase or word over and over or bringing up the same topic repeatedly with a sense of "getting stuck" when it is no longer appropriate.
Perspective taking is the ability to perceive someone else’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations. The first element of effective perspective taking is understanding how something looks from the other’s point of view. The second element of effective perspective taking is the ability to convey empathy toward others.
Pervasive Developmental Disorders is an umbrella term used in the DSM IV to describe the spectrum of disorders referred to as Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The terms PDD and ASD are often used interchangeably. DSM V will use the term ASD.
Pointing is an important gesture used to request or to draw attention to an object to comment on it or share interest in it that typically develops by the age of 12 months.
Pragmatics is the use of language in social contexts. Challenges in pragmatics are a common feature of spoken language difficulties in children with ASD. See also Social Reciprocity, Joint Attention, and Expressive Language.
A preoccupation with a part of an object is a persistent, unusual interest or fixation in one aspect of something that is usually to the exclusion of interest in people, or in using the object in social interactions or in a functional way. Young children with an ASD may manipulate parts of an object, such as spinning the wheel of a toy car, flicking a handle, or opening and closing a door, rather than use the whole object functionally or in pretend play. Like preoccupations with restricted interests, preoccupations with parts of objects can interfere with a child's normal activity or social interaction, and can be related to anxiety.
Prevalence is the percentage of population that is affected by a particular disease or a disorder at a given time. Incidence, in contrast, is a measurement of the number of new individuals identified with a particular disease or disorder during a particular period of time.
Prosody is the rhythm and melody of spoken language expressed through rate, pitch, stress, inflection, or intonation that signals meaning or adds emotion. Some children with ASD have odd intonation (flat, monotonous, stiff, or "sing song" without emphasis on the important words) or make unusual sounds.
A prospective study looks forward in time and watches for outcomes such as development of a disease or disorder during the study period and relates this to other factors such as suspected risk or protection factor(s).
Receptive language is the ability to understand or comprehend words and sentences that others use. Typically by 12 months a child begins to understand words and will respond to his/her name and may be able to respond to familiar words in context. By 18 to 20 months a child will be able to identify familiar people by looking when named (e.g., Where's mommy?), give familiar objects when named (e.g., Where's the ball?), and point to a few body parts (e.g., Where's your nose? Where's your mouth?). Receptive language skills commonly emerge a little ahead of expressive language skills, but it is easy to overestimate what a child understands. Often young children figure out the message by responding to nonverbal cues (e.g., pointing gestures or situational cues) and this may make it appear like they understand the words.
Red flags for ASD are the early indicators or warning signs for ASD.
The regulatory and sensory systems control a child's ability to take in or "register" and respond to internal sensory input (such as thoughts and feelings, heart rate, etc.) and external stimuli (sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touch, and balance) and then adjust his emotional and behavioral response to those stimuli and the demands of his surroundings. Many children with ASD have regulatory and sensory deficits, but other children do as well, so the presence of this kind of impairment is not part of the criteria for a diagnosis of an ASD. Regulatory and sensory deficits are associated features that are common in children with ASD, but not necessarily indicative of the disorder.
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities are common in children with ASD. Children with ASD may appear to have odd or unusual behaviors such as a very strong interest in a particular kind of object (e.g., lint, people's hair) or parts of objects, or certain activities. They may have repetitive, stereotyped, and unusual movements with their body or with objects, repetitive or stereotyped speech, or repetitive or idiosyncratic thoughts about specific, unusual topics.
Repetitive motor mannerisms, or self-stimulating behaviors, are stereotyped or repetitive movements or posturing of the body. They include mannerisms of the hands (such as hand flapping, finger twisting or flicking, rubbing, or wringing hands), body (such as rocking, swaying, or pacing), and odd posturing (such as posturing of the fingers, hands, or arms). These mannerisms may appear not to have any meaning, or function, although they may have significance for the child, such as providing sensory stimulation (also referred to as self-stimulating behavior), communicating to avoid demands, or requesting a desired object or attention, or soothing when wary or anxious. These repetitive mannerisms are common in children with ASD.
Restricted patterns of interest refer to a limited range of interests that are intense in focus. This may also be referred to as stereotyped or circumscribed patterns of interests because of the rigidity and narrowness of these interests. This may be particularly apparent in very verbally fluent children with autism or Asperger Syndrome who often become obsessed with a single topic for months or even years. Restricted interests, obsessions, and compulsions can interfere with a child's normal activity or social interaction and can be related to anxiety. In young children with ASD, similar restricted patterns may be evident in repetitive movements with objects. Rather than playing with toys in simple pretend play or using objects in appropriate ways, children with ASD line up or stack toys or objects in the same way over and over again, persistently knocking down and rolling objects, or wobbling or spinning objects, and/or may show an intense focus and interest in how these actions or objects look.
A retrospective study looks backward in time, usually through medical records and interviews with patients (or parents of patients) who are known to have a disease or disorder, and examines exposures to suspected risk or protection factors in relation to an outcome that is established at the start of the study.
Rituals are specific and often a series or sequence of behaviors that a child performs repeatedly in certain situations or circumstances, such as turning the lights on and off several times when entering a room. See also restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
Screening is a quick and simple way to monitor a child's typical development. Screening tools are brief measures (often in the form of a parent questionnaire) that distinguish children who are at risk for developmental delay or disorders, such as ASD, from those who are not. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends routine developmental screening and surveillance of all children from birth through school age to identify those at risk for atypical development. Screening can be conducted by healthcare providers, clinicians, educators, childcare providers, and parents. A screening should be used on all children whether or not they are showing obvious signs of developmental delay or disorders, in order to determine whether the child should be evaluated for a specific diagnosis. A screening is not a diagnosis but indicates a child's need for further assessment and follow-up.
Self-directed learning is a process by which individuals take the initiative and responsibility, with or without assistance from others, to increase their knowledge, skill, or performance using any means, in any place, at any time, at any age.
Self-injurious behavior, or self-injury, occurs when the child causes bodily harm, such as bruises, redness, or cuts intentionally. The most common forms of SIB include head banging, hitting the face, biting the hand or arm, and excessive scratching or rubbing. SIB can range from mild to severe and can potentially be life threatening. A child who engages in SIB may be seeking attention, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, seeking self-stimulation, or may be hypersensitive to certain sounds. SIB may be biologically or neurologically based.
Self-stimulating behaviors or "stimming" are stereotyped or repetitive movements or posturing of the body. They include mannerisms of the hands (such as hand flapping, finger twisting or flicking, rubbing, or wringing hands), body (such as rocking, swaying, or pacing), and odd posturing (such as posturing of the fingers, hands, or arms). Sometimes they involve objects such as tossing string in the air or twisting pieces of lint. These mannerisms may appear not to have any meaning or function, although they may have significance for the child, such as providing sensory stimulation (also referred to as self-stimulating behavior), communicating to avoid demands, or request a desired object or attention, or soothing when wary or anxious. These repetitive mannerisms are common in children with ASD.
Sense of space is having spatial awareness of the environment.Knowledge of the environment and the places where objects and activities occur encourage children to explore actively and feel secure to find their own way. Babies’ early sense of space is the foundation for learning more sophisticated relationships between symbols and objects. Connections between objects and space can be observed in children’s block play and it is predictive of later abilities in math and science.
Sensory defensiveness, or hyper-responsiveness, is an abnormal reaction to ordinary sensory input. Children who are over reactive may display strong negative emotions to stimuli.
Sensory input includes both internal (e.g., heart rate, temperature) and external (e.g., sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touch, and balance) sensations. A child's response to sensory input depends on his ability to regulate and understand these stimuli and to adjust his emotions to the demands of his surroundings.
Shared affect is the sharing of positive emotions between a child and caregiver.
Children seek to share attention with others spontaneously during the first year of life. Shared attention is first accomplished by the caregiver looking at what the infant is looking at. Infants learn early to seek joint attention spontaneously by shifting gaze between an object of interest and another person and back to the object (also called 3-point gaze), following the gaze or point of others, and using gestures to draw others' attention to objects (e.g. holding out and showing an object or pointing to an object), either by pointing to it or by eye gaze. This desire to share attention on objects builds to sharing enjoyment by looking at others while smiling, when enjoying an activity, drawing others attention to things that are interesting, and checking to see if others notice an achievement (e.g., after building a tower of blocks, looking up and clapping and smiling to share the achievement). Ultimately, children learn to talk and use language to share enjoyment, interests, and achievements and later to share ideas and experiences. Impairment in joint attention is a core deficit of ASD.
Social competence is the ability to integrate social, emotional, and cognitive skills to achieve successful social interactions. A child's social competence depends upon a number of factors including the child's social skills, social awareness, and self-confidence. Children who have a wide repertoire of social skills and who are socially aware and perceptive are likely to be socially competent. Children with autism typically have impairments in social competence in the areas of eye contact, joint attention, body language and position, and social play and interactions (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
Social communication refers to the use of communication and language to relate to others. An important aspect of social communication includes pragmatic skills, which involves turn-taking; reading facial cues; and keeping appropriate social distances. Children with autism typically need special instruction to develop social communication skills in order to make and maintain friendships.
Social-emotional development allows young children to interact with others and show their emotions to express themselves. Social-emotional development includes the ability to initiate and maintain secure relationships. During this development a child learns how to approach other children, how to negotiate issues, how to take turns, and how to communicate effectively.
Social-imitative play is pretending to act out the actions of daily routines (e.g., stirring food or brushing hair) or the actions of others (e.g., a parent talking on the telephone) that have been observed in the context of play. In typical development, by about 18 - 24 months a child should be engaging in simple pretend play, like feeding a doll, or putting it to bed. This forms the foundation for make-believe play. The lack of spontaneous social imitative or make-believe play appropriate to a child's age or developmental level is one of the criteria for a diagnosis of ASD. Children with ASD may become preoccupied with the toy itself or parts of a toy or object (like spinning the wheels on a car over and over) rather than engaging in pretend play or social imitation.
Social interaction is the use of nonverbal or verbal behavior to engage purposefully in interaction with others.
Social reciprocity is the back-and-forth flow of social interaction. The term reciprocity refers to how the behavior of one person influences and is influenced by the behavior of another person and vice versa.
Language develops over time from the earliest stage of producing cooing sounds through being able to produce complex, multi-word sentences. The five stages are: preverbal communication, first words, word combinations, sentences, and complex language.
The stages framework or the "five stages of grief" is a hypothesis introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross[1] asserting that when a person (or a survivor) is faced with the reality of impending death or other extreme, awful fate, he/she will experience a series of emotional "stages": denial; anger; bargaining; depression; and, acceptance. While this theory is frequently applied to families of children learning their child has a significant disability, evidence has not supported this stage like progression of emotions prior to acceptance.
Stereotyped behaviors refer to an abnormal or excessive repetition of an action carried out in the same way over time. This may include repetitive movements or posturing of the body or repetitive movements with objects. See also restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
Stereotyped or restricted patterns of interest refer to a pattern of preoccupation with a narrow range of interests and activities.
An important aspect of social-communicative functioning is a child’s ability to disengage and shift attention from one object (the stimulus) to another. Children on the autism spectrum have difficulty disengaging and shifting their attention. Often, when children with ASD are pushed to shift their attention to another object before they are ready, this can result in great distress, and they may exhibit acting out behaviors or even tantrums.
Symbolic language is a form of communication that uses a word, sign, picture, or something else to represent a concept or meaning. For example, sounds indicate meaning in our speech while letters represent meaning in our writing.
Symbolic thought is the ability to use abstract concepts to represent something that is real. Art is thought to be the earliest evidence of symbolic thought in man – during prehistoric times, cave art typically represented large wild animals or human hands. Symbolic thought typically develops in most children by the age of eighteen months when signs and symbols are used reliably to refer to concrete objects, events, and behaviors.
A temper tantrum is an unplanned, unintentional expression of anger, often with physical and verbal outbursts often when a child is unable to express his or her emotions due to inadequate verbal skills or emotional dysregulation. Many children who have ASD are unable to communicate in a way most typically developing children do. Instead, they may develop inappropriate ways to communicate, through aggression, self-injurious behavior (SIB), or tantrums. The tantrums may be much more intense and more frequent than those of typically developing children. Often, a tantrum may be due to a child seeking attention, feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, or hypersensitive to the environment, or the child may be trying to escape from a difficult task, protesting against a change in routine or schedule, or trying to regulate himself in a more predictable way.
Typical or healthy development describes the physical, mental, and social development of a child who is learning according to the expected time frame. A child who is developing in a healthy way pays attention to the voices, faces, and actions of others, showing and sharing pleasure during interactions, engaging in verbal and nonverbal back-and-forth communication and is self-directed and flexible in participation.
Vocabulary burst is a period of time for toddlers, generally between 18 and 21 months of age when the rate of word learning notably increases.
A word is the smallest unit of semantic and pragmatic meaning.