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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Let’s consider one possible case:
There was a young boy who was a genius and was the subject of a Ph.D. dissertation when he was 6 years old. He was given test after test for days, documenting him as a genius. Now, in school, he had a very distinct problem with social interaction with other children and adults. Great, slap him with Autism Spectrum Disorder. But, wait, if a symptom is caused by a physical problem rather than mental, you can’t count that symptom as being ASD. Oh, well, that makes a difference in this case. This boy’s right eye was located on the right side of the eye, looking that direction all the time – it didn’t track with the other eye. Neither teachers or students would look at him or interact with him because they were so put off by that eye. There just went our ASD label based on no/not much, social interaction, out the window.

Let’s don’t give up trying to put that label on this kid. He concentrated totally on his task and was making things that worked all the time. He was constantly busy creating and that was more fun than doing stupid kid games with other kids, so he didn’t do that. He did what he loved. Math was natural to him, physics was natural, gee, he sounds like Albert Einstein, oh, well, Einstein was sick with that, too. This kid is now a man and has never stopped creating. He has no use for a TV because his fun and relaxation is creating. He is a family man, too. Thank goodness no school or mental authority got hold of him and slapped him with a mental disorder.

There are true autistic children who require help. Let’s consider when a person “should” or “could” have a mental disorder label for any reason. If a person is running his/her life successfully, no mental diagnosis for anything should be given and it won’t be if that person never gets a mental examination anyway. If you are never tested, you get no label. If you never have your child tested, he/she gets no label. If you “refuse” to have your child tested, that child gets no label.

Here are the symptoms and the number of them that would have to be satisfied before an Autism Spectrum Disorder could be applied to a person. An interview with parents, the child, observation of the child, and testing would have to be done before this label could be applied. I have psychologically evaluated maybe 2,000 people over my career, and tested two children with severe autism. I evaluated many hundreds of children for placement or not, in Special Education, and those two children required an autism label.

New Diagnostic Criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder

To be diagnosed with ASD, an individual must have displayed symptoms starting in early childhood, and those symptoms must impair the individual’s ability to function in day-to-day life.

Social and Communication Deficits:

In order to receive a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, a person must have all three of the following deficits:

1. Problems reciprocating social or emotional interaction - This can include difficulty establishing or maintaining back-and-forth conversations and interactions, inability to initiate an interaction, and problems with shared attention or sharing of emotions and interests with others.

2. Severe problems maintaining relationships - This can involve a complete lack of interest in other people, difficulties playing pretend and engaging in age-appropriate social activities, and problems adjusting to different social expectations.

3. Non-verbal communication problems - This can include abnormal eye contact, posture, facial expressions, tone of voice, and gestures, as well as an inability to understand these non-verbal signals from other people.

Repetitive and Restrictive Behaviors:
In addition, the individual must display at least two of these behaviors:

1. Extreme attachment to routines and patterns and resistance to changes in routines

2. Repetitive speech or movements

3. Intense and restrictive interests

4. Difficulty integrating sensory information or strong seeking or avoiding behavior of sensory stimuli

There is now one disorder, not five as the last DSM was. Language Delay has been removed and not part of this diagnosis anymore.

I’ll write a short post about the two autistic children I tested so you can understand some of the behaviors of these children.

Someone on this thread talked about the research done, how it was done, to make these decisions about children who might be autistic. I found that research and will put the link on here if I kept that and I think I did.