Autism Spectrum Disorders Flashcards
Define autism.
Biologically based neurodevelopmental disorder
Impairments in two domains
- deficits in social communication and social interaction
- restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities
What are the social communication criteria for autism spectrum disorders?
Persistent Deficit Social Communication (must have all THREE)
- Lack of social/emotional reciprocity
- Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal communication used for social interaction
- Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
What are the behavioral criteria for autism spectrum disorders?
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least TWO:
- Stereotyped motor movements, use of objects or speech.
- Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or non verbal behaviors
- Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus
- Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment
What are examples of lack of social emotional reciprocity in autism spectrum disorders?
Lack of the following:
- Spontaneously point at things around them just to show you things
- Show things that interested them to engage your attention
- Shared enjoyment with others.
- Picking up on social cues and responding positively to others.
- Comfort others if sad or hurt
What are examples of lack of verbal/nonverbal communicative behavior?
Lack of the following:
- Varying facial expressions
- Eye Contact
- Gestures: nodding head and using hands
- Reciprocal smile
- To and fro conversation that involves taking turns and building on what you have said
- Talking just to be friendly
What are examples of lack of developing & maintaing peer relationships?
Lack of the following:
- Reciprocal Friendships
- Act differently in different contexts
- Copy others in play
- Joining in on social games
- Play pretend or make believe games
- Play imaginative games with another child in such a way that you could tell that patient each understood what the other was pretending
What are examples of stereotyped or repetitive most or movements in patients with ASD?
At least 2:
- Odd phrases
- Invents/Makes up words
- Metaphorical ways of saying things (saying hot rain for steam)?
- Echolalia => saying the same thing in the same way repetitively
- Stereotyped mannerisms (hand flapping, finger flicking, spinning, bouncing, etc.)
- More interested in parts of a toy or an object
- Taking toys apart or lining them up.
What are examples of insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or non verbal behaviors?
At least 2:
- Rituals/routines (ex. need to take same route, need to eat the same thing)
- Rituals that insist others go through
- Extreme distress with small changes in routine or difficulties with transition
What are examples of highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus?
At least 2:
- Interest that preoccupies her/him and might seem odd to other people (traffic lights, drainpipes, or timetables)
- Special interests that are unusual in their intensity but otherwise appropriate for their age and peer group (trains, dinosaurs)
- Objects (other than a soft toy or comfort blanket) that patient had to carry around
What are examples of hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment?
At least 2:
- Negative response to certain sounds or textures
- Excessively smell or touch things
- Visual fascination with lights or movement
- Indifferent to pain/temperature
What are the major criteria of Autism spectrum disorder?
- The symptoms must impair function
- The symptoms must be present in the early developmental period.
- Symptoms are not better explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay
What is social communication disorder?
- Difficulties with social use of communication or language
- Not a variant of ASD
- SCD has an absence of restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior
What is the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the U.S. ?
- 1:68 births in the U.S.
- International rates: average prevalence rate of 1%-2.6%
What are the major risk factors for autism spectrum disorder?
- Boys 5x»_space; girls (5:1).
- Increased risk with increasing parental age
- Pre-term babies (Born prior to 26 weeks)
- Genetics (About 15% of cases caused by disorders of known genetic mechanism)
What are the genetic predispositions in a family?
- 1 child with ASD: 20% recurrence risk (RR)
- Multiple siblings with ASD 32.3% RR
- Twin studies
- Identical twins: > 70% RR
- Fraternal twins: 20% RR
