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Information Needed for Diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis of autism can be a tricky affair. According to both commonly used diagnostic manuals (DSM-IV-Tr1 and ICD-102) a person must show significant impairment in 1.Social behaviour 2.Communication And show 3.Repetitive, restricted or stereotyped patters of behaviour (considered perhaps an impairment in imagination) (Wing, 1992) In addition to these three areas, it is necessary to show that the impairments have affected the individual’s development from early childhood. Other diagnostic guidance found in the literature includes: Theory of Mind Deficits (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985) An inability to: 1.Predict the actions of others 2.Recognise devious intent 3.Recognise that what is in one person’s mind is not in another person’s mind Theory of Central Coherence (Frith, 1989) Autistic people are unable to integrate pieces of information into a coherent whole. Thus they: 1.Notice bits of things rather than how those bits go to make up one thing 2.Find it difficult to apply information learned information to a new problem View of Differences by People with Autism (Grandin, 1996) People with autism prefer to highlight the internal ‘hard-wiring’ differences that result in a diagnosis of autism rather than concentrate on the outwardly observable behaviours. She highlights differences in: 1.Information processing problems (storing, organising and retrieving information), 2.Cognitive differences (applying information and seeing ‘the whole’ rather than the ‘bits’) 3.Sensory / perceptual differences (experiencing things differently) How We Do It The Missing Link Support Services, Ltd use the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised along with observations of an individual during the interview, and where possible a history of the person’s development from a family member or friend. The assessment interview usually takes about 2 hours to complete. People coming for an assessment may wish to prepare by downloading and completing this form. |
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