Definition of Autism

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill, and today, we're going to be talking about the definition of autism. Now, there are specific diagnostic criteria for autism disorder, autism spectrum disorders, and we're not going to have time to go through the entire list today, but you can certainly find those easily on the Internet. We will talk instead about the whole concept of what autism is and what the crux of the problem in autism is. The first thing to know is that autism is an order...a problem with development of the brain, specifically with those parts of the brain that deal with social interactions. We call this the theory of mind -- the idea that not only do I have an understanding of my own existence, emotions, and perceptions, but I understand that somebody else like me has a sense of themselves and that, therefore, their feelings and thoughts and words are important. This is probably one part of a larger problem, which is identifying wholes. People who are affected by autism spectrum disorders tend to be obsessed with or focus on the parts of things. They may notice a wheel rather than a car, for example, and that happens with their social interactions as well. They have a failure of what we call joint attention. That is, they don't look, for example, a child to his mother for direction as to whether a new situation is safe or comfortable. Likewise, autistic children may not show something to a parent to get their approval or interest or may not realize that their parent is trying to show them something or read to them or even share time with them. Again, because they don't have a theory of mind that that parent is a separate person whose thoughts are important to them. Usually, children with autism spectrum disorders have some delay in speech development, although if they have Asperger's disease, part of the definition is that they do not have a speech development delay. They may engage in repetitive activities or obsessive thoughts or interests. All children with autism spectrum disorders have varying levels of difficulty dealing with social interactions, telling what other people mean by their facial expression, tone of voice, posture or action. And therefore, they have a great deal of difficulty communicating those things back to other people and understanding the impact of their social expressions on the world around them. For more information on autism, you should check the American Academy of Pediatrics website at aap.org, and there are numerous other websites and support groups as well. But that's the beginning of an idea of the definition of autism. Talking about autism, I am Dr. David Hill."