Objective To analyze the clinical manifestation and early signs of autism. Method The clinical characteristics of 102 children with autism diagnosed by Child Developmental Behavior Center of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou were analyzed by using questionnaire. Results Clinical manifestation Results indicated that the following signs differentiated children in the autism group from children in control group.They were lack of appropriate gaze,response to name when called,lack of pointing,sharing enjoyment or interest,lack of showing,referential looking,lack of orienting in the direction in which an adult was looking,listening to command,interesting in children,seeking comfort,lack of imitating behaviors,using person's hand as a tool,lack of nodding,lack of head shaking,failure to talk,failure to understand words,repetitive movements with bodies,repetitive movements with objects,toes walking,abnormal gaze,hyper-responsiveness to auditory,lack of playing with a variety of toys,lack of social play,lack of pretending play.Logistic regression analysis showed that there were six significant factors for clinical manifestations which are lack of appropriate gaze,lack of showing,lack of nodding,failure to talk,repetitive movements with objects,lack of playing with a variety of toys. Conclusions Lack of appropriate gaze,lack of showing,lack of nodding,failure to talk,repetitive movements with objects,lack of playing with a variety of toys which are early autistic signs.The final aim is to establish the Chinese early screening checklist and early diagnosis questionnaires in near future.