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Diagnosing Autism

Diagnosing Autism by Davrielle

Hello everyone! I'm Lexie or Davrielle on Wattpad. Some of you may know that I am a mommy of two beautiful tots. Some of you may not even know me at all, so let me introduce myself.

I've been on Wattpad for about five years this June. One of my children was diagnosed with autism at an earlier age than most children. He was developing fine, them when he hit the 16-18 month mark, it was like, POOF! He lost all of his skills. No imitation, no verbalizations. Nothing more than just ahhhhhh! ahhhhhh!

This is common in children with autism. We thought at first that maybe the birth of his sister was stressful for him, but it wasn't that. I think maybe having the new baby messed up his routine a little, but it wasn't the reason.

The reason was autism, and I'm here to share with you all how Joey was diagnosed at 22 months last year.

So first off, let me clarify something for you because many people today are confused by how autism is being diagnosed today. Partly, it's due to several people being diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, only for these people to find out that Asperger's isn't really Asperger's anymore. When did this change?

In May 2013, the DSM-5 was published. This is the standard psychiatric book that most psychologists and psychiatrists use to diagnose people. This is the official book of the American Psychiatric Association, and because I'm an American citizen, this book set the standard used to diagnose my son.

In the DSM-5, they put all autism at 3 distinct levels for people to understand that Asperger's is indeed autism among other things.

The definition of autism is paraphrased, but it is: a marked delay in communication and socialization. There is a major deficiency in communication, among other factors, such as self-help.

When Joey was 22 months, we brought him to a local university and he was observed for three hours by a doctoral student. We were asked tons of questions about his behavior and we took at least 3 or 4 questionnaires, which were all far from simple.

The most popular one is the BISCUIT, which is commonly used in diagnosis autism. I couldn't even tell you the other tests that were used. There were so many!

Why are levels so important? They are used for therapy and diagnosing. Say, if a patient with autism were to see a doctor and that doctor said, "Oh he doesn't have autism. Look at him. He's normal looking. It's Asperger's Syndrome." Then the child would be dismissed, as pre-2013 doctors saw autism as people with severe delays.

This was a very common problem with children who needed support and many kids were not getting the help they needed, suffering in school because of a doctor's mistake.

So to prevent these kinds of things from happening, the DSM-5 updated autism with levels as official diagnoses for doctors and therapists to understand.

I was explained over the phone that level 1 is what people would consider Asperger's. It's the mildest, high functioning level of autism. People with this condition display many of the same classical symptoms of autism, with the main difference being that they can communicate and take care of themselves. Ie, take their clothes off, communicate when hungry. People with level 1 autism are very intelligent and usually do well academically. They are not good at socialization, which is almost always an issue with autism across the board because as I mentioned before, the definition of autism is a marked delay in socialization.

Level 1 means requiring support. It basically means that the child doesn't need tons and tons of therapy, but they might benefit from going to lots of social functions, or going to social classes, where they can learn how to talk among their peers. A speech therapist can help with communication as well.

Level 2 is the mild-moderate side of autism. These children can probably talk, but have so many other issues. They have trouble doing things on their own, and their communication skills are off. They might not be high-functioning.

This level is defined as requiring substantial support. It means that these children could probably benefit from lots of therapy, and if they are verbal, they can also try social functions. Maybe ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy to correct some troubling behaviors, such as self-injurious ones.

The next level is the most familiar one to me. Sadly, this level was the one that was diagnosed for Joey. It is level 3 and it's the most profound level. People with prominent developmental delays and accompanying language impairments are diagnosed with level 3 autism. They are non-verbal, non-communicative, and markedly different from their other peers.

Classical autism is basically people that you see that are not talking, hitting themselves, rocking and moaning. The stereotypes of autism are usually stemmed from classical autism, which is why it gets its name. Usually people with full-blown autism have textbook symptoms.

Level 3 requires very substantial support. Children diagnosed here get several benefits and qualify for a lot of things to help them function better in society.

There are many other factors in diagnosis autism, but I thought I would just explain to you all the DSM-5 standards for diagnosis autism today as of 2013. It could even change in future years, the DSM is always evolving.