AutismRestricted, Repetitive, and Stereotyped Patterns of Behavior, Activities, and InterestsDate First Published: April 2, 2007 Individuals with autism exhibit “being stuck” in a variety of ways: performing the same act again and again, repeatedly uttering the same phrase, insisting on the same routine or ritual, or obsessing on a favorite topic. 1 Speaking of one of the boys in his study, Kanner remarked:
The nature of the restricted, repetitive behavior varies depending on developmental level as well as degree of disability, from stereotyped motor movements, such as hand-flapping, to behavior such as lining up or ordering objects, to preoccupation with a certain area of interest. 3 Across levels of ability, there persists an insistence on sameness, and a tendency for upset – sometimes extreme upset -- when the person with autism encounters an unwelcome change to a pattern or routine. See also:
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“But the child’s noises and motions and all of his performances are as monotonously repetitious as are his verbal utterances. There is a marked limitation in the variety of his spontaneous activities. The child’s behavior is governed by an anxiously obsessive desire for the maintenance of sameness that nobody but the child himself may disrupt on rare occasions. Changes of routine, of furniture arrangement, of a pattern, of the order in which everyday acts are carried out, can drive him to despair.” 