Autism is considered to be a lifelong neurological developmental disability that affects how a person makes sense of and relates to the world around them and to other people.
Autistic people are described as having rigid and restricted interests and behaviours; impaired social communication and interaction and sensory challenges which can either be hyper (low) or hypo (high) and a fluctuation between these two from one minute to the next and/or all at once at varying intensities; receiving feedback from all their senses: Auditory (hearing), Kinaesthetic (feeling), Olfactory (smell) and Gustatory (taste).
They are also thought to have impaired ‘theory of mind’ (TOM) (being unable to ‘read’ another’s thoughts, intentions or actions); have a lack of imagination and empathy.
This description is an objective one, originally described by Keo Kanner and Hans Apserger based on their observations of autistic children’s behaviours in the 1930s and it is how autism and Asperger syndrome is diagnosed – on observed behaviours, with the addition of an experienced clinician’s clinical expertise.