The three forms of autism
Starting in the 1990s, scientists started to see three different types of autism. This turned out to be tricky in practice because it's hard to tell them apart. Today, medicine no longer distinguishes between different subtypes, but groups them under the term autism spectrum disorder. Because the associated diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organisation from 2022 have not yet been implemented everywhere, the «old» autism categories are still quite common.
Early childhood autism
It is considered the most severe form of autism spectrum disorder. Affected children show limitations in social communication from the first year of life : their language development is absent, delayed or only fragmentary. Abnormalities are also noticeable early on in social interaction: eye contact, facial expressions and gestures are reduced or not used to interact with other people. Some affected children catch up in their speech development, while others do not speak even as adults.
The disorder also includes repetitive and stereotypical behaviour patterns – many children, for example, rock their upper body constantly or flap their hands. Another typical symptom is an almost compulsive adherence to habits. Early childhood autism is often accompanied by cognitive impairment and is diagnosed before the age of three.
Children with Asperger syndrome have difficulty deviating from their habits, and some of them have pronounced special interests.
Asperger syndrome
Here too, there are limitations in social communication and social interaction, as well as repetitive, stereotypical behaviour patterns. However, the linguistic and cognitive development of those affected is usually unremarkable in the first three years of life. Difficulties become apparent when they spend more time with their peers, for example in daycare or kindergarten. There, children with Asperger syndrome often show little interest in other children and have difficulty interacting with them. During group activities, they appear uninvolved and withdrawn, or they rub people up the wrong way because they do not respond to others and insist on their own rules – or react impulsively when someone questions them.
Misunderstandings often arise when communicating with them: in addition to their literal understanding of language, which is typical for many of them, some have a monotonous or pedantic way of speaking. Children with Asperger syndrome also find it difficult to deviate from their habits, and some of them have pronounced special interests that are atypical for their age and social context.
Atypical autism
In practice, this is interpreted in different ways: while some experts interpret the term to mean that abnormalities are not present in all three reference areas – social communication, social interaction and repetitive, stereotypical behaviour patterns – or that these only appear later, others associate it with particularly severe intellectual impairments.
