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Autism Spectrum Disorder IDEA Definition

  • Autism is a developmental disability affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
  • Autism does not apply if the child has a serious emotional disturbance.

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DSM V Definition

  • Autism spectrum disorder is a single diagnostic category, with the following characteristics:
    • Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across context
    • Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities

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DSM V Definition

    • Symptoms must be present in early childhood

***Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning

    • Symptoms are not explained by intellectual disability or developmental delay

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(*** clinically significant -serious problems for them in their daily lives.)

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Characteristics

Impaired Social Relationships

    • Extreme aloofness
    • Social situation difficulties attributed to deficits in theory of mind- the understanding that people don't share the same thoughts and feelings as you do (develops during childhood)

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    • Deficits in joint attention

Communication and Language Deficits

    • Some children with autism do not speak
    • Echolalia is common among those who do talk
    • ***Concrete or literal processing of verbal information is common

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Theory of Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooAYgzcOL-o

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Characteristics

Repetitive, Ritualistic, and Unusual Behavior Patterns

    • Some children exhibit stereotypy which is a pattern of persistent and repetitive behaviors

**Insistence on Sameness

    • Children with autism are inflexible with routines

Unusual Responsiveness to Sensory Stimuli

    • 70% to 80% of individuals with autism react atypically to sensory stimulation
      • Over and underresponsiveness
        • Hyposensitive and hypersensitive

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Characteristics: Cognitive Functioning

  • ASD occurs across the full range of intellectual abilities
    • There are deficits in executive functioning
    • About 10% to 15% exhibit “splinter skills”
    • About 1 in 10 have savant syndrome
    • ***Obsessive attention on a specific object or content
    • Some possess a strong aptitude for rote memory of certain things

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  • The weak central coherence theory (WCC), also called the central coherence theory (CC), a cognitive style that is a limited ability to understand context or to "see the big picture”

This is seen as the central difficulty in autism and related autism spectrum disorders.

Over-selectivity

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Weak Central Coherence Theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_fyKQRDB0o

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Characteristics: Challenging Behavior

Some students with autism exhibit property destruction, aggression toward others, and even self-injury

Many experience a variety of sleep problems

Some have extremely narrow food preferences

Some engage in pica which is the compulsive, recurrent consumption of nonfood items

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High Functioning Autism

  • High-functioning autism is not an official medical diagnosis. It’s often used to refer to people with autism spectrum disorder who read, write, speak, and MAY manage life skills without much assistance. High-functioning autism is often used to refer to those on the milder end of the spectrum. However, while they are not Intellectually Disabled (ID), they have impairments in other areas.

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Characteristics�

Impairment in the social areas

Deficits in the use of nonverbal behaviors related to social interaction

No general language delay

Most have average or above-average intelligence

Their peculiarities and social skills deficits make it difficult to develop and maintain friendships

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As an individual with high functioning autism ages, their deficits in life skills and activities of daily living become more severe.�Why?�

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Prevalence

      • Autism occurs in as many as 1 in 35 children
        • Rise in autism prevalence is an international phenomenon
        • Autism is the fourth largest and fastest growing disability category in special education
        • Boys are affected nearly 5 times more often than girls
      • ASD appears in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups

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      • Causes
      • Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with no medical or physiological marker.

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      • In 85% of cases, the cause of autism is unknown

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      • There is a clear biological origin of autism in the form of abnormal prenatal and postnatal brain development, structure, or neurochemistry.

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      • Autism clearly has a genetic component.

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      • Combination of autism-related genes, exposure to certain environmental factors may lead to the development of autism in some children.

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Autism risk factors

           

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  • How do genetic and environmental influences give rise to autism?
  • Most appear to affect crucial aspects of early brain development. Many autism risk genes influence other networks of genes, increasing or decreasing their expression. Some appear to affect how brain nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other. Others appear to affect how entire regions of the brain communicate with each other. Research continues to explore these differences with an eye to developing interventions and supports that can improve quality of life.
  • Do vaccines cause autism?
  • There is no connection between vaccines and autism. Autism is often diagnosed around the same time children receive routine vaccinations, which has led to concerns about a connection—but decades of scientific research have confirmed that vaccines do not cause autism. In fact, vaccines play a crucial role in protecting children against such diseases as measles.

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For the most reliable information on Autism see

Autism Speaks

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Identification and Assessment

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  • Early diagnosis predicts dramatically better outcomes.

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  • Autism can be reliably diagnosed at 18 months of age
    • Screening Tools
      • Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT)
      • Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ)
      • Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ)

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Identification and Assessment

  • Diagnosis, for those who fail screening tests or whose parents or caregivers have reasons for concern undergo a complete diagnostic evaluation.
  • Diagnostic Tools
    • Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2)
    • Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R)
    • Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)

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Educational Approaches

Children with autism benefit from a highly specialized approach.

  • Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention
    • The work of Ivar Lovass
  • Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
    • Discrete Trial Training
  • Visual Supports
    • Visual Activity Schedule
    • Social Stories

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Watch this video.

 

 

  • Understanding Autism: A Guide for Secondary School Teachers

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yAAOI6JUsM

 

 

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