Rohini Knudson
SPED Professional Portfolio
Core Characteristics of ASD
Social Characteristics
Autistic individuals show differences in the way they perceive, interpret and respond to social interactions which makes it difficult for them to interact with and form relationships with people.
These differences may manifest as a range of behaviors from social aloofness or passivity to active but odd social interactions and social relationships unusual for one's age.
Cognitive Characteristics
Autistic individuals are known to have learning difficulties when being taught as they may not be engaged in or focused on the specific task or stimulus that their teacher expects them to focus on.
Some of them are known to be visual learners which is a different learning style than the typical ability to learn via language.
They're known to be literal thinkers and may not respond as expected to ambiguous language constructs such as idioms and metaphors.
Repetitive Behaviors and Restricted Interests
Autistic individuals sometimes engage in repetitive speech or movement behaviors like echolalia, hand flapping, spinning or body rocking.
They like predictability and routine and disruption of their routines might result in them engaging in meltdown behaviors.
They are known to be quite passionate about very specific interests and might learn a lot about their area of interest if given the opportunity to do so.
Communication Characteristics
Autistic individuals show limited use of receptive and expressive non-verbal communication such as eye-contact, gestures, tone of voice, etc..
They also show differences in the use of spoken language, ranging from no speech to perfect grammar and large vocabularies but limited comprehension.
They often fail to adhere to the pragmatics or social rules of conversation such as turn taking, personal space, engaging in small talk, adapting language and topics of conversation to setting and partner, etc.
Sensory Characteristics
Autistic individuals show unusual responses to sensory stimuli like light, sound, taste and touch ranging from extreme avoidance to actively seeking out sensations.
Sensory seeking is sometimes associated with self-stimulatory behaviors also known as 'stims'. These include behaviors such as spinning, rocking, making sounds or focusing on visual stimuli to an unusual extent.
The video above shows a boy who flaps his hands repetitively while playing with beads (video from University of Kansas, 2024).
In the video to the right, autistic animal behaviorist and autism rights activist, Dr.Temple Grandin, suggests that autistic 'special interests' could be the key to social connection for autistic individuals. Her speech and her own story are a testament to the power of an autistic individual's passion and focus on interests to unleash the true potential of their minds and to help them achieve self-realization.