What exactly is autism? In which parts a healthy person and an autistic person differ from?
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It’s a spectrum disorder (there’s a wide range of how it manifests) but at its core it affects the ability to read social cues, communication, expressing emotions, understanding others, etc.
It also usually comes with repetitive behaviours so a person may like to stack objects, arrange things by colours, make sounds, flap their arms, etc. There are also what is known as stimming which are behaviours that help them regulate their feelings, stress, etc. Everyone, neurotypical or not, engages in some level of stimming, but people with autism generally have much more obvious ones and use them much more often. Unfortunately they can also quite often be self harming such as scratching oneself or banging their head against objects.
They usually have their favourite person who they prefer to interact with.
Changes to routines or the environment are usually quite stressful.
So for a child with autism they might be overwhelmed with stress if their teacher is away, the classroom is rearranged, there’s a fire drill when they’re supposed to be in class, a food item isn’t available, etc.
There’s usually some sort of sensory processing disorder. So things like loud noises and lights can cause distress. This may also lead to behaviours where they touch a lot of things due to how it feels. You may see some people with autism with chew necklaces. Also may involve difficulty with fine and gross motor skills due to difficulties with processing their senses.
As to how their brain differs…….. I believe there has been trouble in trying to exactly determine this. Some people with autism don’t show much or any difference and some show a lot. It seems that in a “normal” brain of a person with autism there seems to be rapid growth of the brain in early years but little of the structuring that occurs in children of the same age. After early childhood brain development seems to slow down and different regions that control things like emotional development and cognitive thinking don’t seem to develop in the same ways as those who are neurotypical.
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