Children with social communication difficulties have problems understanding what other people mean. Communication is not just the words we use; but how we use our body language, facial expression and tone of voice to communicate with someone else. Children with social communication difficulties may find it hard to understand the messages we give to each other without speaking, such as the meaning we put into our voice, the expressions on our faces, and gestures such as waving, pointing or shrugging.
Eye contact is another important part of communication without speaking, and most of us do this without thinking about it. Children with social communication difficulties may not know instinctively how and when to give eye contact.
Children with social communication and social interaction difficulties can also find it hard to understand what other people are thinking or feeling; finding it difficult to see things from someone else’s point of view. They may do things which seem out of place; such as talking in a very loud voice to the person who is standing next to them, talking intensely at length about things that interest them to someone they have never met before, and taking turns can be challenging. This can often make it hard to make or keep friends and join in games.
Social Communication Difficulties are the core impairment (the difference) in Autism. They lead to the developmental differences commonly seen in children with Autism in these areas:
- Differences in the development of and the use of Communication and language
- Social and emotional understanding
- Flexibility of thought, behaviour and play
- Sensory differences
Within the population as a whole, people have a range of abilities in these areas. If a child has marked characteristics and these cause them significant problems, it may be useful to think about how best to describe the difficulties (the diagnostic process). For a diagnosis of ASD it is necessary to have significant difficulties in most or all of these areas. Children have individual strengths and difficulties; the way they present can vary widely. Some children have some difficulties in one or more of these areas, but not all of them, and so don’t have a full diagnosis of autism; but understanding their difficulty can still be helpful.
Some children can be diagnosed with an ASD when they’re quite young – in some cases from the age of about two years. But not everyone is diagnosed early in life. It’s common for older children and adults to be diagnosed with an ASD; particularly those children who have fewer problems with speaking and learning.