A Checklist of Autism Typical Behaviors - A Quick Look

​Someone might have autism if she...​

• Walks on the tippy toes.
• Walks into walls. 
• Stomps like she is wearing Frankenstein shoes, loud and forceful
• Is unable to figure out personal space. Gets too close or stands too far away.
• Has poor eye/hand coordination. Simple tasks like tying a shoe or braiding hair may be nearly impossible.
• Displays odd large motor coordination. For example, throwing a ball and skipping may be very difficult if not impossible.
• Pulls her hair (or eyebrows or eyelashes) out. Chews hair. Knots hair. Won’t allow hair to be brushed and/or washed.
• Is a very picky eater who might actually throw up at the smell of a food, or tantrum when a food she doesn’t like is brought to the table.
• Describes beverages as too thick, gooey or some other odd adjective.
• Develops an eating disorder.
• Consistently or often suffers from stomachaches, headaches and irritable bowel syndrome could occur.
• Covers ears at sudden or loud noises.
• Startles at sudden noises or when someone touches her.
• Flaps, turn circles, and acts out in odd ways when stressed by too many visual or auditory distractions.
• Vomits or complains at certain smells.  
• Touches or avoids touching everything she sees from cracks in mud to dangerous jellyfish. 
• Refuses to touch or go near almost every thing in the environment from silk fabrics to craft dough.
• Wears shoes, belts, scarves and other accessories as tight as handcuffs on a prisoner.
• Refuses to wear anything tight or will only wear extremely tight.
• Talks in one big monologue.
• Shows signs of an above average vocabulary at an early age.  
• Reads at an early age is typical, though when a comprehension test is given it becomes clear the child is word calling having memorized the words without realizing what the sentences mean and the story is saying.
• Sounds like a robot or brilliant professor giving a lecture without much change in speech rate or pitch and tone.
• Interrupts people when they are talking.
• Walks away in the middle of a conversation as if it is the perfectly normal thing to do.
• Resists talking, but points, grunts or draws to show you what she wants.
• Shares infrequently, if ever.
• Is rarely invited to play with other children.
• Plays with animals more often than other people.
• Has few friendships or only one friend at a time.
• Shows extreme sensitivity to teasing.
• Shows ill temper or illness at parties, theme parks and other large group activities.
• Plays with imaginary friends and in pretend worlds only she can see.
• Has an unnatural reaction to pain (doesn’t respond, responds too dramatically)
• Plays pretend in an odd way. For instance, dolls are arranged by size or hair color.  Favorite things get displayed on a shelf in a certain way and are not played with in traditional ways. Large collections are categorized in some way.
• Illustrates poor handwriting. For example, cursive might be particularly difficult, words might not have spaces between them, and sentences will often lean upwards or downwards, but rarely straight across unlined paper. 
• Can’t hold the writing tools correctly, holding them too hard and almost like one would hold a knife they are ready to slice into a watermelon.
• Insists on wearing only one piece of favored clothing.
• Can’t wear clothes with tags and other scratchy things in the seams.
• Misunderstands jokes, sarcasm, innuendos and double meanings, metaphors, plays on words, etc.
• Doesn’t comprehend beyond the very literal.
• May laugh at the wrong thing or laugh at the wrong time, for example, at a funeral or during a religious service.
• Is unable to put herself in someone else's shoes, making empathy and understanding other people's point of view difficult if not impossible. 
• Talks too bluntly. 
• Has narrow and deep and sometimes, all encompassing interests.
• Makes poor eye contact or will be piercing like a wolf on his prey.
• Has an excellent memory, particularly visual memory.  Tends to think in pictures.
• Shows splinter skills where some of our talents are super high on the achievement chart and others are very low. 
• Melts down when there is a change in a routine.
• Can’t cut with scissors.
• Can’t dance, tumble or do skills like jumping jacks​.

Please note this is a 'might have autism' checklist. Nothing is official until a well trained professional in the field of developmental disabilities completes a thorough assessment.