The Importance of Early Diagnosis in Autism

Your baby may not be diagnosed with a congenital discrepancy, but observing your baby’s development and behavior makes it easier to diagnose early. In this way, you will contribute to minimizing the negative effects in case there is a real problem.

What does autism mean?

The word autism, which was first used by Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger for children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder , means “too much about oneself” in Greek. Because autism can manifest in so many different ways, it is now referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder.

What are the symptoms of autism?

American child psychiatrist Leo Kanner listed the prominent features of the children he described with early childhood autism as follows:

• Delayed or no language development
• Or loss of existing
• Frequent repetition of words and sentences
• Differences in eye contact and facial expressions,
• Having little interest in the environment and not understanding the flow within a group.
• Exhibiting restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior.

At what age does autism appear?

Autism symptoms hinder a child’s development and often appear in the first three years. This condition is called early childhood autism.

Although many clue behaviors are found in the first year of infancy, experts tend not to make a diagnosis before 18 months. As a reason, they show that autism symptoms can decrease up to the 24th month. In fact, the first 18 months are extremely important for child development, and after this period, some abilities of the child may regress or even disappear. If an 18-month-old baby has some signs of autism, diagnosing autism and initiating therapy allows the child to catch up to peers quickly, even up to 24 months.

Follow these tips for babies from 6 months!

The duty of parents; their babies look for the following clues in their behavior after the 6th month.

• Being overactive or passive
• Not making eye contact,
• Anorexia,
• Delays in motor skills
• Parents who experience situations such as responding negatively to the parents’ touch request or insensitivity to sounds should definitely get an expert opinion.

What characteristics does a person diagnosed with autism have?

• He perceives his surroundings differently.
• Can understand other people with effort and communicate only adequately.
• He has difficulty in matching the voice of the other person with his face.
• Has difficulty adapting to new situations and desires to keep daily activities in a constant order.
• Obsessed with details, has trouble grasping an event as a whole.
• Generally; Hypersensitive or indifferent to light, smell, sound, or touch.
• Being hypersensitive or indifferent to objects indicates that the individual diagnosed with autism has serious problems in perceiving his environment as a meaningful whole.

How is autism diagnosed?

There is no medical test to diagnose autism. Diagnosis is mostly made by observation, examination and developmental tests. By the time the child is about 12 months old, differences in movements can now be clearly observed. If problems like the ones we mentioned above are seen, first of all, a child psychiatrist should be consulted, and then a child neurologist should be consulted. After the necessary examinations are made here, the condition of the child, if there is autism, his development and type are revealed.

If specialists deem it necessary, they can also provide drug support. But these are usually given to restrain unwanted physical movements, not to cure autism!

Each child’s education and care program is prepared individually. Because although most of the autism symptoms seem to be common, there are also different symptoms that vary from child to child. For this reason, it is imperative that every behavior observed in the child is reported to the experts by the family and a therapy and training program is determined accordingly!

What is the importance of early diagnosis in autism?

Autism, unfortunately, is a lifelong problem. But slowing the progress and controlling the situation is possible thanks to early detection. That’s why it’s very important to immediately consult a specialist and accept the situation when symptoms appear! Studies have shown that children who are diagnosed early and provided with the right education and care program show a 50% reduction in autism symptoms.

Thanks to early diagnosis and then the right training;

• Autism symptoms can be controlled.
• Developmental delay can be prevented.
• In the following years, he may improve enough to be no different from his other friends.

Early diagnosis and treatment with education are important for your child’s development!

Early diagnosis of autism, which is a very critical move for children to catch up with their peers, is a fact accepted by the entire scientific world today. Many scientific articles and studies show that early diagnosis and appropriate therapy reconnect children to life.

Therefore, the most sensitive point that needs to be emphasized is the parental instinct. Studies show that families detect clues to autism early on. If you have a problem and the above-mentioned symptoms are encountered, in short, if you suspect that there is something wrong with your child, you should definitely get expert opinion. Remember, early diagnosis is very important for your child to catch up with their peers!