Week 3 - Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Flashcards
What are the diagnostic criteria for ASD?
- Persistent deficits in each of the 3 areas of social communication & social interaction across multiple context
- Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity
- Deficits in non-verbal communicative behaviours used for social interaction
- Deficits in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships
- Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at
least two of the following
- Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech
- Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of
verbal or nonverbal behavior - 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
- Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period
- Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important
areas of current functioning - These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental
disorder) or global developmental delay
What are the severity levels for ASD?
Level 1 - Requiring support
- Social communication: without support in place, difficulty initiating social interaction, decreased interest in social communication
Example: a person who is able to speak in full sentences but whose to-and-fro conversation with others fails; attempt to make friends unsuccessful
- Restricted, repetitive behaviour: inflexibility cause significant interference with functioning in one or more context, problems with organization and planning hamper independence
Level 2 - Requiring substantial support
- Social communication: marked deficits in verbal and non-verbal social communication skills, social impairments apparent even with support in place, limited initiation, reduced / abnormal response to others
Example: a person who speaks simple sentences, whose interaction is limited to narrow special interests and who had markedly odd non-verbal communication
- Restricted, repetitive behaviours: inflexibility, difficulty coping with change, behaviour frequent enough to be obvious to observer, distress and / or difficulty changing focus or action
Level 3 - Requiring very substantial support
- Social communication: severe deficits in verbal & non-verbal communication, very limited social interactions, minimal response to social interactions
Example: a person with few words of intelligible speech who rarely initiate interaction. when they do initiate, makes unusual approaches to meet their needs only
- Restricted, repetitive behaviour: extreme difficulty in coping with change, behaviour markedly interferes with functioning in all areas, great distress / difficulty changing focus or action
What are the conditions that are viewed as ASD?
- Atypical autism
- Autism
- Childhood autism
- Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)
- Pervasive Developmental Disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS)
- Aspergers
What are some common comorbidity of ASD?
- ADHD
- Depression
- Anxiety (social interaction & routine)
- Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)
- Sensory processing difficulties
What are the areas of performance skills that are affected in ASD?
- Gross motor
- Praxis (difficulty planning and producing movement)
- Communication skills
- Social emotional regulation
- Sensory processing skills (poor auditory filtering, sensory seeking, hypersensitive)
What are the areas of occupational performance skills that are affected in ASD?
- Social participation
- Initiating, forming friendships, romantic relationships
- Play
- Engage in more sensorimotor & exploratory play than typically developing peers, prefer solitary and functional play, difficulty with generating flexible & novel ideas for play
- Sleep
- Difficulty falling asleep, staying awake, often wake early; associated with bedtime routines; sleep problems associated with other ASD symptoms and behaviour problems
- ADL (sensory issues)
- Toileting, feeding, oral care, dressing, showering
- Education
- Require accommodation for them to fully participate in academic tasks, classroom & social activities; special education required due to social difficulties & behavioural concerns instead of cognitive abilities
What are the family impact brought about by ASD?
- Specific needs for routine & predictability: activities often revolves around the needs of the child, difficulty balancing between need for predictable routine and flexibility for other members, family may avoid social events & activities outside of home (social isolation)
- Higher stress level: as compared to children with other disabilities
What are the impact of ASD on school?
- Preschool
- ADL skill development, play & social skills, building relationship with people around them, school readiness
- Primary school
- Transition to new routines, places & people, academic demands (multiple instructions, exams, problem solving), social demands (CCA, interacting after school hours)
How to identify ASD?
- Developmental surveillance: on-going process of identifying the child at risk of DD, deviance or abnormality
What are the signs & symptoms of ASD in young children?
- No babbling, pointing or gesturing by 12 months
- No single word by 18 months
- No spontaneous (non echoed) 2 words phrases by 24 months
- Any loss of language or social skills at any age
*Child with 1 or more of the following features must be referred promptly
What are the screening tools for ASD?
- Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT)
- Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT)
What is the recommended age to screen for ASD in high risk populations?
18 or 24 months
Signs to look out during screening at 6 to 12 months
- Does not babble, point or use gestures by 12 months
- Has lost any language skills
- Does not respond readily to affection
- Has poor eye contact
Signs to look out during screening at 15 to 22 months
- Does not babble, point or use gestures by 12 months
- Does not speak a single word by 18 months
- Has lost any language skills
- Does not respond readily to affection
Signs to look out during screening at 24 to 36 months
- Does not use spontaneous 2 word phrases by 24 months
- Has lost any language or social skills
- Does not point to show interest
- Does not follow when someone is pointing something out to them
- Does not respond readily to affection
- Prefer to play alone
