about the content. This also results in a lack of social awareness and atypical language expression. How facial expressions differ between those on the autism spectrum and neurotypical individuals is not clear. Further, at least half of autistic children have unusual prosody. Autistic people may also experience difficulties with verbal communication. Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver. In the second and third years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words. Autistic children are less likely to make requests or share experiences, and are more likely to simply repeat others' words (echolalia). Joint attention seems to be necessary for functional speech, and deficits in joint attention seem to distinguish autistic infants. For example, they may look at a pointing hand instead of the object to which the hand is pointing, and they consistently fail to point at objects in order to comment on or share an experience. Autistic children may have difficulty with imaginative play and with developing symbols into language. Some autistic linguistic behaviors include repetitive or rigid language, and restricted interests in conversation. For example, a child might repeat words or insist on always talking about the same subject. Echolalia may also be present in autistic individuals, for example by responding to a question by repeating the inquiry instead of answering. Language impairment is also common in autistic children, but is not part of a diagnosis. Many autistic children develop language skills at an uneven pace where they easily acquire some aspects of communication, while never fully developing others, such as in some cases of hyperlexia. In some cases, individuals remain completely nonverbal throughout their lives. The CDC estimated that around 40% of autistic children don't speak at all, although the accompanying levels of literacy and nonverbal communication skills vary. Restricted and repetitive behaviors ASD includes a wide variety of characteristics. Some of these include behavioral characteristics which widely range from slow development of social and learning skills to difficulties creating connections with other people. Autistic individuals may experience these challenges with forming connections due to anxiety or depression, which they are more likely to experience, and as a result isolate themselves. Other behavioral characteristics include abnormal