Professional Development

Autism is a disorder that embraces impairment in cognition, perception, language acquisition and social behavior. A person diagnosed as autistic usually possesses the following traits:

• likes to be alone and ignores the presence of other people; refuses to have eye or body contact with other people
• repeats some movements endlessly, such as hand flapping and twirling
• responds to a stimulus in an inappropriate way, either too weakly (minimal response) or too strongly (screaming, jumping, running, etc.)
• insists on daily routine and play arrangements
• shows severe deficits in verbal communication