Autistic disorder (childhood autism) Social deficits. Examples include babies who don't like being held, and also reduced eye contact, unusual facial expressions, lack of gestures, poor understanding of others' feelings, lack of empathy, and few peer relationships. Communication deficits. Speech in autistic children shows wide variety; it may be completely absent (30 per cent), or merely show unusual or asocial qualities. Common abnormalities of speech include echolalia, odd prosody and pronoun reversal. These children have difficulty in two-way conversations, and some ask a string of questions instead. Restricted/repetitive interests and behaviors. Autistic children often show a deep interest in things others regard as very mundane; for example, washing machines or license plates.