This is the proposed criteria:
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Must meet criteria A, B, C, and D:
A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays, and manifest by all 3 of the following:
1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; ranging from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back and forth conversation through reduced sharing of interests, emotions, and affect and response to total lack of initiation of social interaction,
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction; ranging from poorly integrated- verbal and nonverbal communication, through abnormalities in eye contact and body-language, or deficits in understanding and use of nonverbal communication, to total lack of facial expression or gestures.
3. Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships, appropriate to developmental level (beyond those with caregivers); ranging from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts through difficulties in sharing imaginative play and in making friends to an apparent absence of interest in people
B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects; (such as simple motor stereotypies, echolalia, repetitive use of objects, or idiosyncratic phrases).
2. Excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior, or excessive resistance to change; (such as motoric rituals, insistence on same route or food, repetitive questioning or extreme distress at small changes).
3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus; (such as strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
4. Hyper-or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment; (such as apparent indifference to pain/heat/cold, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, fascination with lights or spinning objects).
C. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)
D. Symptoms together limit and impair everyday functioning.Now it is very important to remember that this may changed between now and May 2013 which is the expected release date.
Now, most of what people have had to say has been quite negative, that this is going to exclude many "high functioning" kids. This is not so, it may actually help those of us with a child that is an aspergers kid, or high functioning. What they're trying to do is make sure that these kids don't get excluded from treatment. More than once, I've heard of children being denied and education diagnosis in schools or regional center help because they were diagnosed with "aspergers" and it wasn't considered "real autism" and thus not bad enough to need services. This is what the APA (American Psychological Association) is trying to correct.
If you read through the criteria, it has everything the DSM IV TR criteria had, however it is together under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Which it is now, but the separation of Autism, Aspergers, Rhetts, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and PDD-NOS has caused a lot of confusion.
Now I've also seen Aspies and Aspie parents that don't like this because it is going to mean their child or they will be "labeled" with Autism.
*rolling eyes* They are already "labeled" as autistic people!!!
All a subdiagnosis does is refine it into a more specific type of autism. Unfortunately, people do not even try to understand the diagnosis once they have it in hand.
My advice? Know what the diagnosis means, do your own research and get to know it better.
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