April is Autism Awareness Month

What exactly is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? The truth is, it is a variety of different symptoms, and each case is different. What we do know is autism is a neurological developmental disorder and NOT a psychiatric or psychological disorder. There is no known cause and no known cure, but there are treatments and interventions that can help a person cope with the symptoms.</p

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 20 years ago, 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with some form of ASD; in 2014, those statistics changed to 1 in 59. Why does autism seem to be more prevalent now than it has in the past? It’s not that there are more instances, but we are learning more about the variety of symptoms and therefor diagnosing more cases.

What is the Autism Spectrum?

The Autism Spectrum is often thought of as linear with only two ends to it: one side being low functioning and low IQ and the other side high functioning and high IQ. But this representation doesn’t do a good job of really defining the spectrum. A better way to visualize the Autism Spectrum is like this:

A person with autism has varying manifestations of these processing traits. Just because someone has poor language skills doesn’t mean they don’t understand. Low functioning does not equal low IQ; all these traits greatly vary. There’s a popular saying in the autism community: “if you’ve seen one person with autism, you’ve seen one person with autism.” No two cases of autism are the same.

Function

So how does a person with autism function with these various traits? It may appear that a person with autism doesn’t respond to verbal cues, and that may be interpreted as not functioning at all – this is not the case! Some people with autism have problems processing information as it comes to them, or they may not be able to separate your voice from the other noises and distractions in their surrounding environment.

Someone who is non-verbal may use an alternative mode of communication, like written or electronic. They may also communicate using Picture Exchange Cards (PEC) or Sign Language. And even if someone is verbal, they may only communicate using scripts or lines from certain movies. The use of scripts provides easy access to words and phrases, and this makes communication less complicated (although scripted words may or may not actually answer any questions asked).

Some people with autism will avoid eye contact while trying to hold a conversation – some reasoning behind this is because they cannot focus on multiple things at once – both listening to what you are saying and looking at you at the same time. People with autism may also not seem to respond appropriately to social cues because those are more things to focus on.

A person with autism may also begin “stimming,” which is self-stimulation. This behavior is a coping mechanism that helps with soothing. This isn’t limited to people with autism either! How often do you find yourself clicking your pen or tapping your foot? This is stimming activity!

Sensory Processing Disorder

We have five traditional senses – our ability to see, hear, taste, smell and touch. We experience sensory input all day long – and sometimes what we experience is annoying! The tag on your shirt may scratch you or there could be a screaming baby near you. When this happens, you can react in one of two ways – you can try to remedy the issue or you can ignore it.

People with sensory processing disorder are so impacted by the onslaught of sensory input that they have difficulty getting through the day. This occurs when a person’s senses are heightened. It can be one sense, a combination, or all five. There is also the possibility of being under stimulated. If this happens, someone could crave sensory input – such as banging their hand against the wall as they walk or craving the pressure of a weighted blanket.

It is important to note that people can be diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder and not have autism. However, most people with autism are impacted by sensory processing.

There are many misconceptions about autism. Hopefully this brief introduction cleared some of them up. The most important things to take away are: a person is not defined by their autism, each case is different, and we are always learning more. If you’d like to continue learning about ASD, check out the course we offer!

Spectrum image provided by Rebecca Burgess