AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER

1
AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER
2
Autistic Spectrum Disorder

• IS NOT
• a result of parent rejection
• a result of an emotional disorder
• a mental illness
• genius some have special skills- most do not
• curable

3
Autistic Spectrum Disorder

• IS
• a development disorder
• more common in males than females
• A life long disability

4

• In order to be diagnosed with autism, a person
  has to have deficits in three distinct areas.
• When all three deficits are present, this is
  termed -
• The Triad of Autistic Impairment

5
Triad of Autistic Impairment
Impairment of language and communication
Impairment of social interaction
Impairment of flexibility of thought and
behaviour
6
Autism Affects the Understanding of Common
Phrases, Idioms or Metaphors

• Has the cat got your tongue?
• Takes two seconds to say, but could cause a
  lifetime of fear.
• Heres your change
• Im not going to change.

7

• A diagnostic label of autism alerts us to the
  fact that a person has a different way of
  thinking and interacting with their environment.
• Not all the recognised features of autism sill be
  found in all people with ASD, but some of the
  following features will be present .

8
Impairment of Communication

• No shared attention
• Inappropriate eye-contact
• Lack of communicative intent
• Echolalia repeating words but not responding to
  their meaning
• Pronoun reversal
• Use of odd intonation and lack of understanding
  of the meaning that the intonation pattern
  conveys
• Restricted vocabulary e.g. collection of rhymes
  or jingles, text in a book or video
• Inappropriate communication to social content
• Literalism taking words literally no
  metaphorical interpretation

9
Other Features of Language Impairment in People
with ASD

• Problems with attention
• Poor auditory skills
• Difficulty with sequencing in all areas
• Lack of understanding, cause and effect
• Difficulty predicting outcomes
• Obsessional and stereotypical speech

10
Impairment of Social Interaction

• a lack of attention to people
• treating people as inanimate objects
• not responding when addressed in a group
• needing personal space, but not understanding
  that others need personal space
• little comprehension of emotions
• inability to interact with others

11
Further Features of Social Impairment

• can make personal comments without understanding
  that this may cause offence
• expects other people to know their thoughts and
  feeling
• response to peer pressure can range from
  indifference to total over-reaction
• expressions of emotion often inappropriately
  extreme

12
Impairment of flexibility of thought and
behaviour - continued

• narrow interests or obsessions which the child
  may demand to repeat over and over again, however
  difficult or inconvenient to parents and tutors.
• rigidity difficulties with change/having to get
  to the end
• unusual coping mechanisms to cope with anxiety
  e.g. obsessive drawing, flapping, making noises,
  repetitive questioning.

13
Impairment of Flexibility of Thought and Behaviour

• theory of mind- inability to see someone elses
  point of view
• central coherence seeing the individual trees
  and not the whole forest
• literalism
• difficulty with generalisation
• difficulty with problem-solving
• difficulty in creating something entirely from
  their imagination

14
Skills Required For Learning Are Affected
15
Other Features Associated with Autism

• motor stereotypes such as handflapping, flicking
  fingers in front of eyes, toe-walking
• self-injurious behaviour
• erratic patterns of eating or drinking eating
  inappropriate substances.
• epilepsy
• hyperactivity

16

• The autistic child is unable to bring order to
  his world. You must provide that order to his
  environment. Autistics might march to a different
  beat, but that beat can be meaningful.
• Uta Frith Explaining the Enigma - 1989

17
(No Transcript)