Diagnostic Criteria For Autism

Parents may feel overwhelmed by the assessment process and this assessment allows them to be involved every step of the way. Their role is also crucial to obtaining an accurate developmental level for the child. As part of the screening, there is an informal questionnaire and

A child will be assessed by an educational psychologist if there are concerns about their intellectual, communication and behavioural development. Assessments can be arranged by the SENCO or independently. The aim of the assessments is to find out why the child is not progressing and what support is needed in order for them to progress. Specific learning difficulties are often identified in this way such as Dyslexia, AHAD, Dyspraxia. Support and targets for the child are then set to help them achieve. The outcome of the assessments may involve the child referred to other professionals e.g. occupational therapist, optometrist, speech and language therapist, psychiatrist. The psychologist will advise the school on how to promote development for example, keeping verbal instructions simple. Keep stories and group activities short to match attention span.

The school psychologist then assigns individuals in the student study team to perform certain tests. The psychologist may do four hours of testing broken up over a couple of days, the speech specialist does around two hours of testing and the special education teacher spends around three hours with the child. The teacher and parents provide information about the child. The information gathered include intellectual function, visual motor integrations, behavior rating scales, parent and

The first review of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition was authored by KORESSA KUTSICK MALCOLM, School Psychologist, The Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Staunton, VA. The second edition of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale was developed for use a wider array of health care professionals as well as to establish general characteristics of children with autism who exhibit higher intellectual ability. They also made slight changes to the format of the rating book. The test comes in three forms; The Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition–Standard Version, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second Edition–High-Functioning Version and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Second

Social interactions and relationships. Symptoms may include: substantial problems with developing nonverbal communication skills, such as making eye-to-eye contact, different facial expressions to express their feelings, and body stance. Those with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) often fail to be able to establish friendships with children of their similar age. There is a lack of interest in

Based on the information provided by the parents, the doctor requested Milton and Margaret complete a Modified Checklist of Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), which is a list of informative questions about their child. The test resulted in the doctor requesting support from a developmental pediatrician, a neurologist, and a psychologist. After receiving reports from all of the supporting professionals, Milton and Margaret were officially informed that their daughter has a form of autism called Asperger’s.

Both the full-length and short form provide a parent and teacher rating form that can be used separately or together to evaluate the children (Multi-Health Systems, 2009). The full-format rating is broken into three subsections: screening, DSM-IV-TR, and treatment. The screening scale measures social/communication, unusual behaviors, and self-regulation makes up 60 of the 71 items. The DSM-IV_TR subsection is used by helping professionals to diagnose autism and contains 34 of the total 71 items. The treatment scale subsection contains 69 items of the total 71 and can be used by helping professionals to create a treatment plans. Each subsection yields raw scores and those scores can be used to diagnose and treat patients (Zhou et. al, 2015). The ASRS rating scale is comprised of 71 items and each response is tallied for a total score. The total score is broken into three types of scoring: ASRS scales, Treatment scales, and DSM-IV-TR scales. The rating scores on each scale yields raw scores that are transformed into T-scores incorporating the screening scales results and the standardizes scales. These T-scores are interpreted based on a 90 percent confidence interval and higher scores indicate greater problems (Zhou et al., 2017). The different scales can be scored via paper-and-pencil, the ASRS scoring software, or the ASRS Online Assessment Center. An individual’s results from the ASRS scales produces three report types: interpretive, comparative, and progress monitoring report. A user can utilize these reports to compare the different results from a multi-rater perspective, track progress, and gain insight on an individual’s symptoms and behaviors (Multi-Health Systems,

National Autism Indicators Report by Anne M. Roux, MPH, MA; Paul T. Shattuck, PhD, MSSW; Jessica E. Rast, MPH; Julianna A. Rava, BA; Kristy A. Anderson, MSW. Published 2015.

The exam that children are given to diagnose autism through behavior asses the child’s communication skills, social interactions, restricted interests and activities, and stereotypical behaviors. The most widely adopted exam for diagnosing autism is the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised. This is a form of artificial intelligence. There are also revised versions of this exam that speed up the process but may compromise accuracy.

According to Kaustubh Superkar, the leader author of the study, restricted and repetitive behavior is generally seen as the “red flag” that causes a child to be evaluated for

For many years, autism has taken control of the minds of many men, women and children causing large amounts of distress while having extraordinary lifestyles. Many factors contribute to the overall basis of what autism actually is, and it is with numerous tests and research that have led scientists to uncover the actual reasons as to why autism is so common. Some of these factors include the anatomy, physiology, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. After getting an understanding of what these components are, understanding autism can be much easier, and the ability to recognize the signs will be much more assuring.

In my research, I have found that the inconclusive results of autism studies has lead to stunted development in finding effective treatments. Journals, news articles, and medical sources have only further supported this case. Researchers and scientists alike are torn between the type of cause, whether autism comes from genetic or environmental origins. The barriers to finding the cause of autism include the requirement of early detection, the limited amount of signs that appear at an early age, and the few studies focused towards autism. More research studies and projects need to be conducted in order to prevent autism in its tracks, before it fully affects someone.

Autism can be screened using the “modified checklist for Autism in toddlers revised” (M-CHAT-R) and other similar questionnaires. Furthermore, parents and guardians may request help from a professional (doctor and other specialist) to have their child screened. The optimal age that children can be diagnosed with autism is from 16-30 months. Preceding the initial screening, follow up questions can be introduced to the patient for

ASD has been divided into three different groupings which include communications, socialization, and restrictive and repetitive patterns which are tied to particular behaviors as well as the interests of the students (Colarusso et al., 2013). According to Colarusso et al. (2013) a diagnosis of ASD is typically completed by someone in the medical field or a team from a health stand point. The standards followed to get the diagnosis comes from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (Colarusso et al., 2013).

There are two stages to determine if someone is diagnosed with autism. The first stage is a “General development screening during well and checkup . “ Those at high risk include children who have a family member with ASD behaviors have older parents, Certain genetic conditions”. (“Stage 1”). This stage help them determine all the different genetics and different traits that may have happened during the time of them being born and also as they get older.