What Does ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’ Imply?
We’ve been hearing a lot more about autism lately. Why? There are several possible explanations. In addition to the term autism, there is increasing reference to autistic spectrum disorders. The concept of a spectrum reflects many descriptive studies that illustrate how each specific sign of autism can be mild or severe, and that the number of overall signs may be numerous or few. The term ‘autistic spectrum disorder’ has become much more commonly used than the term ‘pervasive developmental disorder’ (PDD) which is the medical-psychiatric term for basically the same thing. Distinctly different forms of pervasive developmental disorders are diagnosed using a set of 12 criteria listed in a manual called DSM-IV-TR. This is the current diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association (4th Edition, text revision). Different forms of pervasive developmental disorder include autism itself (autistic disorder, in DSM-IV-TR terminology), pervasive developmental disorder,
