Answer to Question 1
Those with ASD are presumed to fall at the extreme high end of a continuum of cognitive abilities associated with systemizing (understanding the inanimate world), and at the extreme low end of abilities associated with empathizing (understanding our social world). Both abilities are present in all males and females, but males are presumed to show more systemizing and females more empathizing.
Answer to Question 2
Features of atypical development, that are very similar to those found in ASD but are less severe, have recently been detected in infant siblings of children with ASD by the infants' first birthday (Ozonoff et al., 2014). Possible early indicators of ASD may include: uses few gestures to express social interest, doesn't respond when name is called, rarely makes eye contact when interacting, limited babbling, particularly in a social context, and displays odd or repetitive ways of moving hands and/ or fingers (Zwaigenbaum et al., 2009). Children with ASD have been found to differ from typically developing children on most of these indicators between the ages of 12 and 24 months. However, in one study, only early communicative gestures were found to distinguish children with ASD from those with developmental delay or language impairment.
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