AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS
The main features of ASD are considered to be difficulties with communication and social skills. In practise that means that:
- Even if your child developed speech at the usual time he may not speak like his peers.
- He may find it very hard to make friends or play with others and may misread or misinterpret other peoples expressions and actions.
Many of those problems are due to his or her sensory differences though there are many other potential problems that can make life difficult too.
Click on a video link to see what ASD feels like from the inside..
ASPERGER'S SYNDROME
Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal', must necessarily be 'inferior.'
Hans Asperger (1938)
What's in a name?
In 2013 the American Psychiatric Association published a fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in which the criteria for ASD were modified.
By May 2013 Asperger's Syndrome (and others like Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and Disintegrative Disorder) no longer had separate diagnoses.
Confusingly though, in August 2013, a new study published in the online journal BMC Medicine suggested that autism and Asperger's actually possessed some biological differences.
Meanwhile those already diagnosed with AS still tend to refer to themselves as having Asperger's syndrome.
To find out what it is like - just click on the videos.