What Is Considered Mild Autism? | Autism Video Lecture | Understanding and Treating Autism - Health & Fitness

so what is considered mild autism as the
word mild implies it means there's a
little bit of autism per se so what does
that mean on a gradient when a child has
symptoms we look at the core symptoms of
speech and language delay for example or
a difficulty with social referencing and
social engagement social communication
and again then the restricted repertoire
of play and repetitive behaviors so if a
child has a little bit of speech delay
or some difficulty with speech and
language or a little bit of echolalia or
some difficulty with social engagement
or his has some repetitive stereotypic
behaviors and play which can be
redirected easily you are hitting
criteria of autism but the involvement
is mild and with the new dsm-5 diagnosis
they actually want you to look at levels
of severity a lot of schools do the cars
which is the childhood autism rating
scale and they do have a differentiation
of mild moderate and severe so mild
really would come in that category when
you look at symptoms and their severity
and based on that you can actually say
mild autism to clarify the diagnosis of
pervasive developmental disorder not
otherwise specified was often used for
kids with what we now say mild autism
because they have just a few of the
symptoms they don't classically hit all
the autism criteria but they have some
of these differences that parents can
say for example covering their ears or
sensitive to sounds or not picking up
with in social relationships not picking
up and cues having difficulty
understanding jokes for example being
very literal or what they call poor
pragmatics and/or having particular
fascinations everything is Thomas the
Tank Engine they can be transitioned but
they have particular tendencies which is
different from another neuro typically
developing child a lot of these children
do get diagnosed with BDD not otherwise
specified or mild autism and it's really
a matter of degree
I think the important thing is to get
formalized testing done so you really
know where your child falls in the
spectrum and you have a sense of how
impaired your child is or how little
impaired your child is and then you
compare your child to her or himself so
that they are being measured along their
own spectrum not just with a reference
to other children