What Are Some Of The 'Associated Features' Of Autism?

Oct. 23, 2008 -- Question: What are some of the "associated features" of autism?

Answer: Children with autism in addition to the main symptoms of autism are more likely to have difficulties with attention, concentration, organizing their behaviors. And they're also more likely to display destructive behavior such as self-injurious behavior -- being harmful to oneself -- such as banging one's head or biting and scratching oneself, or aggression towards other people such as biting, kicking, scratching or that sort of thing.

And children with autism are also fairly unique in the types of things that trigger these outbursts. Very often, they may display aggression or self-injurious behavior when their routine is changed or when a parent interrupts one of their stereotypic behaviors.

They also may display these types of behaviors when they're trying to communicate one of their wants or needs, but they're unable to do that because of their language disability.