Childhood autism is a kind of child mental illness that seriously affects the social function of children with autism and brings a heavy burden to their families and society. In order to timely detect and standardize the diagnosis of autism in children and gain time for its treatment and rehabilitation, the Ministry of Health commissioned the Chinese Medical Association to formulate the Guidelines for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Childhood Autism, and consulted some medical experts nationwide, so that medical personnel can master scientific and standardized diagnosis methods and rehabilitation treatment principles, and guide relevant rehabilitation institutions, schools and families to correctly intervene in children, improve their prognosis and promote their rehabilitation. In order to improve the child’s prognosis and promote the child’s recovery. I. Overview (I) Concept. Childhood autism, also known as autism in children, is a type of psychological developmental disorder that starts before the age of 3 and is characterized by social interaction disorder, communication disorder and restricted, stereotyped and repetitive behaviors. Pervasive developmental disorders include childhood autism, Asperge’s syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, atypical autism, and other unspecified pervasive developmental disorders. Currently, there is an international trend to collectively refer to childhood autism, Asperge’s syndrome and atypical autism as autism spectrum disorders, and their treatment and rehabilitation principles are basically the same. (ii) Epidemiology. Childhood autism is an increasingly common psychological developmental disorder. The results of the Second National Sample Survey of Persons with Disabilities show that children with mental disabilities (including multiple) aged 0-6 years account for 1.10‰ of the total number of children aged 0-6 years in China, or about 111,000, of which children with mental disabilities caused by autism account for 36.9%, or about 41,000. Childhood autism is more common in boys, and its prevalence is independent of race, geography, culture, and level of socioeconomic development. (iii) Etiology. Childhood autism is a biologically based psychological developmental disorder caused by a variety of factors and occurs in individuals with genetic susceptibility under the action of specific environmental factors. Genetic factors are the main cause of autism in children. Environmental factors, especially exposure during the critical period of fetal brain development, can also lead to an increased likelihood of development. Clinical manifestations (a) Age of onset. Childhood autism starts before the age of 3 years, and about 2/3 of the children have a gradual onset of the disease after birth, and about 1/3 of the children have a regressive onset after 1 to 2 years of normal development. (ii) Clinical manifestations. The symptoms of childhood autism are complex, but mainly manifest in the following 3 core symptoms. 1. Social interaction disorder. Children with childhood autism have qualitative deficits in social interaction. They lack interest in interacting with others to varying degrees, and they also lack normal interaction styles and skills. The specific performance varies according to the age and severity of the disease, and the most prominent is the impairment of interaction with children of the same age. (1) Infancy. The child avoids eye contact, lacks interest and response to others’ calls and teasing, does not expect to be picked up or is stiff and unwilling to get close to others when picked up, lacks social smiles, and does not observe and imitate others’ simple movements. (2) Early childhood. The child still avoids eye contact, often ignores calls, often does not attach to primary caregivers, lacks fear of strangers, lacks interest in interacting and playing with children of the same age, and has problems with interaction styles and skills. The child does not draw attention to what he or she is referring to through gaze and sound, does not share happiness with others, does not seek comfort, does not express comfort and concern for others who are unwell or unhappy, and often does not play imaginative and role-playing games. (3) School age. As they grow older and their condition improves, affected children may become friendly and affectionate toward their parents and peers, but still lack, to varying degrees, the interest and behavior to actively interact with others. Although some affected children are willing to interact with others, there are still problems with their interaction style and skills. They are often self-indulgent, solitary, and self-directed, and do not understand and have difficulty learning and following general social rules. (4) Adulthood. Patients still lack interest and skills in social interaction. Although some patients are eager to make friends and may be interested in the opposite sex, it is more difficult to establish friendships, romantic and marital relationships because they lack proper understanding of social situations, lack appropriate responses to the interests and emotions of others, and have difficulty understanding humor and metaphors, etc. 2. Communication impairment. Children with autism have impairments in both verbal and non-verbal communication. Among them, verbal communication disorder is the most prominent and is usually the most important reason for children to visit the clinic. (1) Verbal communication disorders. (2) Non-verbal communication disorders. Children with childhood autism often take someone’s hand and reach for the object they want, but have few other expressions, gestures, and postures for communication. They often do not use nodding and shaking their heads as well as gestures and movements to express their thoughts, and their expressions often lack changes when interacting with others. 3. Narrow interests and stereotypical repetitive behaviors. Children with autism tend to cope with daily life in a rigid and repetitive way. The specific manifestations are as follows: (1) Narrow range of interests. Children with autism have fewer interests and are often interested in different things. The child is usually not interested in toys, cartoons and other things that interest normal children, but is obsessed with watching TV commercials, weather forecasts, spinning objects, arranging objects or listening to a certain piece of music or a certain monotonous and repetitive sound. Some of the affected children may focus on words, numbers, date and schedule projections, maps, drawing, playing musical instruments, etc., and may show unique abilities. (2) Behavioral patterns are stereotypically repetitive. The child often insists on doing things in the same way and refuses to change the routine of daily life or the environment. If the routine or environment changes, the child may become irritable and restless. The child will repeatedly play with toys in the same way, repeatedly draw a picture or write a few words, insist on walking a fixed route, insist on putting objects in a fixed position, refuse to change other clothes or eat only a few kinds of food, etc. (3) Special attachment to inanimate objects. The child usually lacks interest in people or animals, but may have a strong attachment to some non-living objects, such as bottles, boxes, and cords that the child may love and carry with him/her at all times. If they are taken away, they will be irritable and cry and become anxious. (4) Stereotypical repetitive bizarre behavior. The affected child often has stereotypical repetitive and bizarre movements, such as repeatedly jumping, clapping, fluttering and gazing with the hands in front of the eyes, and walking on the tips of the feet. There may also be special interests and behaviors for some non-dominant, non-functional characteristics of objects (smell, texture), such as repeatedly smelling objects or touching smooth surfaces, etc. 4. Other manifestations. In addition to the above core symptoms, children with childhood autism often exhibit behaviors such as self-laughter, emotional instability, impulsive aggression, and self-injury. Cognitive development is mostly unbalanced, with music, mechanical memory (especially written memory) and calculation ability relatively good or even exceptional. Most children have sleep disorders before the age of 8 years, about 75% have mental retardation, 64% have attention disorders, 36-48% have hyperactivity, 6.5-8.1% have Tourette’s syndrome, 4%-42% have epilepsy, 2.9% have cerebral palsy, 4.6% have impairment of the sensory system, 17.3 Macrocephaly was present in 17.3% of the children. These symptoms and concomitant diseases make the condition complex, making it more difficult to confirm the diagnosis and requiring additional treatment and intervention.