Hi, learners? Our guest speaker for this module is Dr. Abigail Angulo, developmental behavioral pediatrician at the University of Colorado. She will be discussing Autism Spectrum Disorder. Abigail, can you please tell us what autism is? Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD or autism for short, is a neuro-developmental, which means the development of the nervous system disability that affects social communication skills. This disorder varies widely from person to person, and is diagnosed in one in 59 children in the United States. This means close to two percent of the population carry a diagnosis of ASD. Likely, everybody knows someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder, even if you may not know what it means exactly. Symptoms can be mild or more severe and are present from a young age. Though sometimes symptoms do not become a problem until children are older. Frequently, parents or teachers may become concerned about a child, if they are not showing good eye contact or have delays in speech skills. In older children, there may be a suspicion for autism, if the child has difficulty making friends or has ritualistic or repetitive behaviors. There are many other symptoms that are included in the diagnosis in addition to poor eye contact. Tell me the difference between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Asperger syndrome? That's a great question. In the past we used several different terms to describe similar behaviors. The terms Asperger syndrome and Autism with a capital A and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified or PDD -NOS. Asperger syndrome and Autism were very similar in diagnosis, and the major difference was whether a child had a speech delay when they were young. If they had a speech delay and the other symptoms of ASD, then they were given the diagnosis of Autism. If the child did not, then they were given the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome. There were a few other diagnostic criteria, but this is the major difference. However, as children aged, we found that there were fewer differences between children who are given the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome versus those who were given the diagnosis of Autism. Frequently, a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was thought to be less severe and supports may not have been pursued by the family or others, even if the child would benefit from more intervention. By combining all of these diagnoses together into Autism Spectrum Disorder, we were better able to capture the population of individuals who meet criteria without limiting the support's based on nuances of subtle differences in the diagnosis. Interesting. Can you now tell us what the diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder are? Autism Spectrum Disorder requires deficits or abnormal function in two main categories; social communication and restricted repetitive patterns of behavior interests or activities. Individuals must have behaviors in each of these categories to meet criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder. For social communication, a child must have deficits in three main areas; social-emotional reciprocity, non-verbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, and deficits in developing and maintaining relationships appropriate to their developmental level. In short, it's not looking at if a child can talk and have friends but rather the quality of these interactions. In addition, restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior interests and activities must be present. The diagnostic criteria is somewhat complicated and uses unusual words, I'll explain what those mean next. These include stereotyped or repetitive behaviors, excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of behavior or excessive resistance to change, highly restricted and fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus, and or unusual reaction to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of their environment. That seems complex. I'm looking forward to learning more about it. Let's take a break and then when we come back you can talk about some examples.