a Autism Spectrum Disorder | Page 5

Recognizing emotions

Babies who are later diagnosed with ASD can recognize feelings in a similar way to typically developing babies. But these children are slower to develop emotional responses than typically developing children.

Responding to and interacting with others

Babies who are later diagnosed with ASD can show feelings in a similar way to typically developing babies.

At the same age, many children with more severe ASD seem to have less emotional expression than typically developing children.

Showing emotions

From an early age, children with ASD often pay less attention to other people’s emotional behavior and faces.

A child with ASD might not comfort a sibling who falls over, or might laugh because he doesn’t recognize that the child is hurt.

Face perception

Children with ASD might have trouble understanding other people’s emotions because of the way they scan faces. People with ASD tend to scan faces in a more random way than typically developing people.

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often find it hard to:

recognize facial expressions and the emotions behind them copy or use emotional expressions understand and control their own emotions understand and interpret emotions – they might lack, or seem to lack, empathy with others.