Autistic infants tend to stray away from other people, avoiding touch and become limp or stiff when picked up or help. Autistic children dont reach maturation as fast as normal children. A normal child will point to objects or smile when seeing their mother before the end of their first year, but children with autism develop this behavior much later. These symptoms may go on unnoticed by parents or doctors in infancy, but by the age of two to three it is clear that something is wrong. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that one in 500 children in America suffer from autism.
Autistic children are unable to recognize themselves or remember things that they have just done.
For example, if an autistic child were to show someone a toy of theirs, they would forget they have just showed it and show the toy repeatedly as if they have never presented it before. They may examine a simple little toy or electronic device for hours without losing interest, or rock back and forth in a particular spot for an entire afternoon. The repetition of little things seem to be a grand achievement for these children. In diagnosing, or assessing autism the child's history is taken into consideration. For instance whether or not the family has autism in any other branches of its tree can help to determine whether a child may or may not have autism.