Early identification of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is one of the most important responsibilities held by teachers, families and professionals working with children. Some developmental differences are immediately apparent, particularly where delays in speech, limited engagement with surroundings or noticeable motor difficulties prompt early concern. These early indicators may first be explored as hearing or sensory issues, but as time passes the broader pattern becomes clearer.
For many children, however, autism remains hidden for much longer. Children at the higher-functioning end of the spectrum often meet early milestones, speak fluently and may excel academically. They appear to cope well in structured environments and their differences are subtle or masked. Without an understanding of these nuances, needs can go unrecognised until the child reaches crisis. Early identification allows schools to design supportive environments that reduce barriers and protect wellbeing.
Masking and Camouflaging
Some autistic children instinctively learn to hide their differences to fit in. They observe peers closely, copy gestures and speech patterns, and suppress self-regulatory behaviours such as fidgeting or rocking. This can create the impression that a child is coping, but the emotional cost is high. It is common for a child who seems regulated and successful in school to unravel at home, where exhaustion, meltdowns or shutdowns appear as the effort of the day gives way. Masking is especially common in girls and in cognitively able children who recognise that they are “different” and work hard to blend in.
Case Study: Emily, Age Seven
Emily was seven when her mother first raised concerns. In school she looked like a model pupil: articulate, kind and meticulous in her role as class book monitor. She worked above age-related expectations and seemed to have many friends. At home, however, late afternoons brought intense meltdowns, rigid routines and overwhelming anxiety around noise and texture. Despite repeated parental concerns, school staff felt reassured by Emily’s calm presentation. An independent autism screening placed her in the highly likely range for ASC, but a formal assessment through the Child Development Centre did not occur until she was twelve. By then, Emily had begun refusing school, her anxiety had escalated and an EHCP was required. Earlier referral could have prevented much of this distress.
Play Development
Play often offers the earliest clues. While pathways vary, most children move from solitary play into parallel play and then into associative and co-operative play in the early years. This progression reflects growing reciprocity, perspective-taking and flexibility.
Children with ASC commonly remain aligned with parallel play for longer. They may enjoy being near others but not truly with them. Play can be repetitive or ritualistic, with strong preferences for specific materials, sequences or rules. Interrupting these patterns can cause distress.
Case Study: Tom and Andrew
Two eight-year-olds, Tom and Andrew, decide to play “dragons”. They negotiate roles, adapt to each other’s ideas, disagree briefly, resolve it, and expand the story together. Their imaginative play is reciprocal and flexible, changing as each child contributes. This is typical of children with secure social and play development at this age.
Case Study: Matthew and Harry
On the same playground, eight-year-old Matthew leads an elaborate pirate mission. Five-year-old Harry follows enthusiastically. From a distance it looks co-operative, yet whenever Harry suggests a new idea, Matthew becomes distressed and resets the game to his script. The play is imaginative and rich, but the narrative is not co-constructed. This is a common pattern with children with ASC. They can play very imaginative, but this must be on their terms. If other children go along with their game, play appears to be typical. However then disagreements arise this can be signs that the play is actually not age-typical and is more parallel in nature than first thought. It is also common for Autistic children to seek to play with younger children as the social demands of doing so are often less.
These case studies illustrate the subtle differences to look out for on the playground. It is all too common that what initially looks like normal play development can be indicative of differences in play and social development. Observing children on the playground focusing carefully on the type and nature of their play is an excellent way of identifying these early signs of development difference.
Language Development
Many higher-functioning autistic children meet expressive and receptive milestones on time and may present with advanced vocabulary and precise grammar. The difficulty lies in pragmatic language—the social use of communication. In class this can appear as unusually formal speech, literal interpretation of idioms, missed non-verbal cues, talking at length about preferred topics, and difficulty timing conversational turn-taking. These differences can create friction long before autism is considered.
Social Development and Collaboration
Some autistic children prefer solitary engagement; others try hard to join in yet struggle to negotiate roles, tolerate change or mediate disagreement. In group work a child may attempt to control the task because their method feels “correct”, or they may withdraw and complete a parallel version of the activity. These responses are not defiance; they reflect differences in social imagination, theory of mind and flexibility under social load.
Cognitive Development
Autistic cognitive profiles are often uneven in ways that can be both striking and easy to overlook. Many autistic children demonstrate remarkable strengths—an exceptional memory for facts, strong pattern recognition, and deep, immersive knowledge in areas of interest. Their learning can be rich, detailed and sophisticated, particularly when the subject aligns with a preferred topic. Alongside these strengths, however, sit very real difficulties that are less immediately visible. Skills such as inference, flexible thinking and perspective-taking often develop differently, creating barriers that may be misinterpreted as behaviour rather than signs of underlying need.
One important area is Theory of Mind—the ability to understand that other people have thoughts, intentions and beliefs that differ from one’s own. While neurotypical children begin to grasp this around the age of four, autistic children may take longer to develop this understanding or may interpret social cues differently. This can lead to misunderstandings with peers, difficulty grasping the subtleties of group dynamics, or confusion when someone behaves unpredictably. A child might believe a peer is “wrong” simply because they think differently, or they may struggle to recognise when someone is joking, frustrated or uncomfortable. These misunderstandings are not deliberate; they reflect a developmental difference in how social information is processed.
Executive functioning is another area in which differences are common, even in autistic children who appear highly able. Executive functions are the mental processes that support planning, organisation, working memory, task initiation, cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation. For many autistic children, these processes require much more effort. A child may fully understand a task yet feel unable to begin because the first step is unclear. They may know what they want to write but be overwhelmed by how to organise their ideas. Multi-step instructions can be difficult to retain, especially when transitions or sensory demands interrupt their focus. Moving from one activity to another—even a preferred one—can feel disorientating or abrupt, and simple changes in routine may be experienced as significant challenges.
These executive functioning differences can be misleading. A child may produce exceptionally high-quality work once they begin, creating the impression that they are capable of complete independence. Yet the effort required to reach that point can be immense. What looks like avoidance, daydreaming or defiance may in fact be a child struggling to plan, struggling to shift attention, or simply unsure how to start. Recognising these subtle cognitive differences is essential, particularly in children whose academic strengths mask the underlying barriers that affect their learning and emotional wellbeing.
Case Study: Olivia and the Story Writing Task (Executive Functioning)
Olivia was a highly able nine-year-old with exceptional vocabulary and strong reasoning skills. During a lesson where the class were asked to write a story from a picture, the teacher was surprised to see Olivia sitting completely still, staring at a blank page. Ten minutes passed and she had not written a single word.
Assuming she was choosing not to work, the teacher reminded her several times and eventually became frustrated, telling Olivia off for “not listening.” Olivia became anxious but still could not begin.
Later, in discussion with the SENCO, it became clear that Olivia had not been refusing to work at all. She simply could not work out how to start. Without a clear structure, she was overwhelmed by possibilities and unable to plan or initiate the first step. Her executive functioning—specifically task initiation and planning—was the barrier, not her ability.
When given a simple scaffold with three boxes for beginning, middle and end, Olivia immediately generated ideas and wrote an excellent story. What initially looked like defiance was actually a subtle sign of ASC-related executive functioning differences, masked by high academic ability.
The above is a real-life example of how difficulties in executive functioning can be misinterpreted by professionals. It is important to recognise that things such as task initiation, planning and working memory can present themselves as a child seeming disengaged. Whilst these are not part of the diagnostic criteria for Autism difficulties in these areas are very common and are often one of the subtle signs that can appear in school.
Physical and Sensory Development
Motor coordination differences are common and can be subtle. Handwriting may lag behind verbal ability; PE skills may require significantly more repetition to master.
Case Study: Ben in PE
During a Year 3 lesson on jumping sequences, Ben practises “two feet to two feet”. Most classmates acquire the movement quickly; Ben needs almost the whole session to coordinate the sequence and maintain balance. His effort is evident, his understanding secure, yet the motor planning demands are greater. With repetition and clear modelling, he succeeds, illustrating how motor differences can sit alongside strong cognition.
Motor difficulties are again not part of the diagnostic criteria for Autism but are very common in children and can be part of the puzzle in early identification.
Sensory processing differences frequently provide some of the earliest and most consistent indicators of autism, even in children whose language, cognition and social presentation appear typical. These differences relate to how the brain receives, organises and interprets sensory information from the environment. While all children experience sensory preferences, autistic children often process sensory input in ways that are heightened, reduced or fluctuating, and these patterns can have a profound impact on their emotional regulation, learning and behaviour.
Some children experience hypersensitivity, meaning sensory input feels intense, overwhelming or even painful. In school this often becomes most apparent in busy, noisy environments. Assemblies, lunch halls and corridors can feel chaotic, with the combined effect of echoing sound, movement, lighting and proximity creating extreme discomfort. A child may place their hands over their ears, seek an exit route or become visibly distressed without being able to explain why. Auditory hypersensitivity is particularly common, with children reacting strongly to sudden noises, scraping chairs, hand dryers, alarms or buzzing lights—sounds that others may barely notice.
Visual hypersensitivity can also play a significant role. Bright lights, flickering screens, busy displays or the visual clutter of a classroom can make it difficult for a child to focus. Some appear distracted or avoid looking directly at tasks because their visual field feels saturated. “Good behaviour” may simply mean they are working hard to filter out overwhelming visual information.
Children who are tactile hypersensitive may struggle with the feel of clothing, seams, socks, labels or uniforms. School jumpers, tights or PE kits can cause genuine discomfort, leading to behaviour that is often misinterpreted as resistance. Touch from others—such as brushing past in a queue—can feel startling or painful. These difficulties may also affect participation in sensory play, messy activities or group work where close proximity is unavoidable.
Differences in olfactory sensitivity (sense of smell) are also common. Smells that are barely detectable to others—kitchen odours drifting into the classroom, perfume, cleaning products, or even the scent of another child’s lunch—can feel overpowering. Children may become nauseous, anxious or distressed without being able to name the trigger. Similarly, gustatory sensitivity (sense of taste) may lead to highly restricted diets or anxiety around food-based activities. These children are not being “fussy”: their nervous system reacts differently to taste and texture.
Other autistic children experience hyposensitivity, meaning they receive reduced sensory input and actively seek stronger sensations to feel regulated. Proprioceptive seeking, for example, leads to behaviours like leaning heavily on tables, crashing into soft furnishings, applying excessive force when writing, or hugging too hard. These children may break pencils unintentionally or fiddle constantly with objects because their bodies are trying to generate the sensory feedback they are not receiving naturally.
Differences in vestibular processing (balance and movement) may mean that a child appears clumsy, unsure of where their body is in relation to space, or constantly in motion. They may spin, rock, pace or climb to restore a sense of equilibrium. What looks like hyperactivity may in fact be a child working to regulate their sensory system.
Across all sensory systems, children often develop repetitive movements or “stimming” behaviours—rocking, pacing, tapping fingers, flapping hands or flicking objects. These are not signs of misbehaviour; they are essential tools for self-regulation. These behaviours typically increase when a child is excited, anxious or overwhelmed, acting as a stabilising mechanism to help them manage competing sensory inputs.
When sensory differences go unrecognised, children are often misunderstood. A meltdown caused by auditory overload may be viewed as defiance. Avoiding a task involving messy materials may be misread as refusal. Reluctance to wear a uniform may be seen as stubbornness. In reality, these behaviours reflect genuine discomfort or sensory overload.
Understanding sensory processing differences—across all seven senses—is crucial for early identification. When teachers recognise the signs and adjust the environment accordingly, children experience school not as a place of constant sensory challenge but as a space where they can settle, engage and thrive.
Case Study: The Uniform
Ben usually wears his jumper to school fine but today he is refusing to wear it. He becomes very emotional and dysregulated when told to put it on and teachers perceive it as him being disruptive and send him to the deputy head. When parents are told they explain that he often has difficulty with clothing at home.
This situation is a common one and links to masking but also to the cumulative affect of sensory overload. Throughout the day, sensory challenges can build up causing decreased tolerance and heighted sensitivity. The child in this case was not being awkward or disruptive. They were becoming overloaded and this was manifesting in hypersensitivity.
Diagnostic Criteria and What to Look for in School
Clinical frameworks (DSM-5 / ICD-11) describe two core domains: differences in social communication and interaction, and restricted, repetitive behaviours, interests and sensory differences. For educators, the value lies in noticing how these present in everyday contexts.
When to Assess
No single behaviour indicates autism. It is the pattern across time and context—play, language, social interaction, cognition, motor skills and sensory processing—that builds a meaningful picture. Listen to families, observe across settings, gather concrete examples and notice mismatches between home and school. When concerns persist, consult the SENCO, begin structured observations and consider autism screening or referral. Early, thoughtful identification allows us to honour strengths, reduce barriers and ensure children learn in environments that feel safe, predictable and genuinely supportive.