This document provides detail of what Autism is and understanding the main symptoms, variations and diagnostic criteria relating to Autism Spectrum Disorder.
What is autism
The presence of impaired development in social interaction and communication and a
markedly restricted repertoire of activity and interests. It also characterized by a range of
restricted, repetitive patterns of stereotypical behaviour. Deficits are suffiently severe to
cause impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or order important
areas of functioning and are usually a pervasive feature of the individuals functioning
observable in settings.
The triad of impairment
Some people with autism don’t want to form friendships or relationships
Selectively mute or lack functional language
Difficulties in receptive language
Understanding jokes or irony or may use it incorrectly, take jokes literally, difficulties
to understand slang
Difficulty understanding facial expressions
Rigid and restricted behavioural patterns and very set in their routines
Their interests are very restricted
Can develop obsessive interests
Students with autism often fail to understand instructions about a class activity and
it may not be apparent as the person may fail to ask for clarification
Consistently speaks about their interests
Poor eye contact and body language
Maybe in the assessment :
A ‘Category’ or a ‘Continuum’?
• Category (DSM/ICD Interpretation) – The Medical Model of Illness.
• A pathological disease.
• Either you ‘have it’ or you ‘do not have it’. An illness model with clear clinical criteria.
• Useful for establishing entrance criterion to the clinical diagnostic ‘Disorder’ for
health insurance.
• Continuum (Community/Real-world interpretation)
• There are ‘degrees of autism’ – differing presentations.
• The heterogeneity of presentations is widely acknowledged; occurs with a variety of
symptoms.
• Individual expression of some of the general characteristics of autism.
• Presentation can fluctuate over time considerable and be mild to severely disabling.
• Introduced first by Lorna Wing’s book ‘The Autistic Spectrum’. “Nature never draws a
line without
smudging it.”
• Whether you use a category or continuum perspective depends on your purpose.
• E.g.: Establishing a diagnosis, allocating resources, understanding causes, deciding on
interventions, identifying with the condition post-diagnosis.
Autism is a spectrum
Some autistic people are verbal, some are non-verbal
Others have severe physical impairments
Some have low muscle tone and fine motor skill problems
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