Is your child showing signs of autistic behaviors? Autism Spectrum Disorder is characterized by a child that has impaired communication and social skills. But, being autistic is so much more than that to families living with an autistic child or sibling. These wonderful children really are so bright and creative. Their struggles are real. Their little light seems to have dimmed during their toddler years and the information in their mind seemed to get trapped. Don’t despair. That bright child you saw at age one is still in there. With neuroplasticity, specialists have proven that we can rebuild lost connections in their brain. There are interventions now.

What happened?

Nobody knows for sure. Environmental differences, genetic traits and nutrition are so variable between children in different families, that it makes it almost impossible to pinpoint a cause or number of risk factors. Specialists have found some things that are consistent across the autism spectrum disorder. Certain neurological deficiencies that may not be the cause, but when stimulated with early intervention, produce fantastic results. We have linked to them below.

Specialists have also found that children that are very bright can actually have one half of their brain that matures rapidly and leaves the other half a little behind. This is often the case with autistic children. Their left brain skills matures fast. When the right side cannot keep up, the connection between the two halves weaken and disconnect. This is called Functional Disconnection Syndrome. This is why they start out super bright, then start to lose the connections.

Symptoms appear between 1-2 years of age. The child starts to show signs of sensory processing issues. They start to lose some to the tricks they learned in their first year of life. Communication and social problems start to take root. They begin having outbursts that are no characteristic of the usual ‘terrible twos’. They avoid eye contact and start to withdraw. It is time to stimulate neurological growth. Click here for more signs of Autism.

One Place To Start

Children with autism often have a retained Moro Reflex that should have disappeared in the first year of life. There are simple exercises that can integrate this reflex. This often helps reduce some of the outbursts and impulsivity of Autism. Read more about that on our post. Moro Reflex Test and Moro Reflex Exercises.