Understanding the Autism Spectrum | Autism Video Lecture | Understanding and Treating Autism - Health & Fitness

so what do we mean by an autism spectrum
disorder spectrum the word basically
means range and that's what we're seeing
with these children that the three areas
the core symptoms of social engagement
speech and language communication and
restricted patterns of behavior and play
this can vary and it's the degree to
which the child has these symptoms as
why we call it an autism spectrum it's
like when does a difference become a
dysfunction become a disorder so it's
really a matter of degree and I think we
need to describe each child individually
you can have a child who's absolutely
for example I can ask for this they have
normal speech and language communication
they're not delayed they may have
difficulty with pragmatics or staying on
topic or be concrete but they are not
delayed with speech and language their
IQ may be is actually within normal but
they can have certain particular
interests and fascinations or have some
sensory issues and motor coordination
issues so that would be Asperger's and
that also comes within the spectrum of
autism and the other hand you have a
child who's completely mute and
nonverbal and has no eye contact and
spinning as if in their own world and
very avoidant to touch so that is
another extreme of what probably dr.
caner called classic autism the new
definition where this term autism
spectrum disorders is being used is
really with the dsm-5 that has come into
effect as of May 2013 but I think we
always use that term and it's a way of
describing the child even within their
own range you can have a child who was
more severely impacted to a child who
actually the symptoms get milder so
you've improved along the spectrum they
are psychological tests that you can do
for example something like the cars
which gives you numbers of mild moderate
or severe and sometimes parents like
that and need that it's often done in
the school system to monitor progression
and symptoms
the spectrum I think also includes what
we call the autism phenotype there are
people who just have some of the
symptoms without hitting all the classic
symptoms of autism and that was
previously or still called pervasive
developmental delay BDD not otherwise
specified so that is a commonly used
term it's like depression not otherwise
specified and parents get confused by
that but it's like saying you have some
of the symptoms or your child has some
of these symptoms without hitting all
the symptoms or all the criteria and
since this is a criteria based diagnosis
it's important that we put it in this
kind of definition and the fact that
children actually move along the
spectrum helps us understand what is
helping them and what is actually making
their symptoms worse