Browsing by Author "Parkas, Henna"

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are developmental disorders that include abnormalities in social reciprocity and communication, with restricted and repetitive behavior and/or limited interests. Presence of the symptoms in the early childhood is essential for diagnosing the autism spectrum disorder, but recognizing those symptoms is often challenging. This is because of the heterogeneity of the symptoms in each individual, and the strong development that takes place in the first years of life, which may contain significant individual differences. The aim of this study is to investigate which are the factors that most strongly predict later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, and by which age those factors can be detected for the first time. Despite the many challenges considering the recognition of ASD, detecting it as early as possible would be important for interventions, because the intervention is more effective when applied as early as possible. One reason for this is the strong neural development that takes place in the early childhood. Also, because the symptoms of ASD are not separate from each other, difficulties in one domain may complicate the development of other areas, leading to accumulation effect. According to the latest research, there are many signs that may point to autism spectrum disorder in the early childhood even in the first year of life. Some examples of those signs include abnormalities in the handling of objects or the amount of the repetitive behavior. There may also be differences in the social interaction in the first year of life. In addition to diagnostic symptoms, there may be, for example, some self-regulatory problems, which together with other signs may be important for the recognition of ASD. Because there may be huge individual variation in the early signs of autism spectrum disorder, a single symptom could not reveal the disorder by itself. When trying to recognize ASD it is essential to pay attention to many different signs and whether or not those signs appear together. For example, the repetitive behavior together with the difficulties of social interaction may be alarming. The co-occurrence of multiple signs may give a reason to monitor the individual’s development more closely.