These new guidelines include:
1. Social communication and interaction
- Marked deficits in nonverbal and verbal social communication
- Lack of social reciprocity
- Failure to develop and maintain peer relationships
2. Restricted repetitive behavior, interests, and activities
- Stereotyped motor, verbal, and sensory behaviors
- Routines and rituals
- Restricted fixated interests
3. Symptoms are present in early childhood
In order to receive a diagnosis, a child must meet all the criteria in the first category, at least two in the second category, and the entire third category.
A diagnosis is the first step in securing services for a child with autism, Finkler said. Most education programs have 14 recognized education classifications, and depending on a child’s diagnosis, that child qualifies for special education services under one of those recognized educational classifications. Many states maintain a separate category for children with autism, much as they maintain a category for cognitive impairments or learning disabilities.
As the DSM-5 takes effect, “we need to look at the education departments of each state and see if their criteria for qualifying for services under the new diagnoses will be impacted,” Finkler said. Initially, when the APA released the proposed new criteria in 2012, parents worried that children who previously met the criteria might lose their special education eligibility, but several autism advocacy groups, including Autism Speaks and the Autism Society of America, conducted surveys and determined that most students who already have an autism classification would not lose their services.
One potentially problematic area is the elimination of the specific Asperger’s label. “That is an extremely active group—both the individuals and families. To not have that label any longer is going to have an interesting impact on this particular group,” Finkler said.
Follow Managing Editor Laura Devaney on Twitter @eSN_Laura.
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