Question

A 10-year-old boy demonstrates hand-flapping, finger-licking, and he repetitively flips coins and lines up his trucks. He tends to 'echo' the last several words of questions posed to him before answering. He mixes up his pronouns (refers to himself in the second person), tends to repeat phrases in a perseverative fashion, and is quite fixated on routines related to dress, eating, travel, and play. He spends hours in his garage playing with his father's tools. What do these behaviors represent? Select one: a. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities characteristic of ASD b. Symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder c. Prototypical manifestations of obsessive-compulsive disorder d. Symptoms of pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome (PANS) e. Complex tics

Answer 1

The behaviors described represent restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities characteristic of ASD. The correct option is C.

Step-by-step explanation:

A characteristic symptom of ASD is impaired social skills. Children with autism may have difficulty making and maintaining eye contact and reading social cues. They also may have problems feeling empathy for others. Other symptoms of ASD include repetitive motor behaviors (such as rocking back and forth), preoccupation with specific subjects, strict adherence to certain rituals, and unusual language use.

Up to 30 percent of patients with ASD develop epilepsy, and patients with some forms of the disorder (like Fragile X) also have intellectual disability. Because it is a spectrum disorder, other ASD patients are very functional and have good-to-excellent language skills. Many of these patients do not feel that they suffer from a disorder and instead think that their brains just process information differently.