even though everyone develops at slightly different paces almost everyone has the same general developmental milestones and learns the same sets of skills at about the same time more or less these are things like language and communication socializing cognitive skills like problem-solving and physical milestones like walking crawling and fine motor skills all of which progresses the brain develops if one of these doesn't develop as scheduled depending on the severity it may be described as a type of neurodevelopmental disorder neuro referring to the brain especially when certain skills related to socializing and communicating don't proceed as normally it can result in isolation which is where the name autism originated since Auto means self so autism refers to a condition where somebody might be removed from social interaction and communication leaving them alone or isolated before 2013 the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for mental disorders the fourth edition or the DSM 4 described autism as one of several pervasive developmental disorders which also includes Asperger's syndrome childhood disintegrative disorder and those not otherwise specified or pdd-nos Asperger's syndrome was used for children that appeared to have characteristics of autism like difficulties with social interactions or nonverbal communication but don't generally have significant delays in language or cognitive development and therefore Asperger's syndrome was sometimes referred to as a high-functioning form of autism childhood disintegrative disorder was used to describe late onset of developmental delays so these children developed normally for their age but then they seem to lose the acquired social and communication skills sometime between age 2 and 10 pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified is essentially a catch-all category in which patients meet some but not all features of autism Asperger syndrome or childhood disintegrative disorder researchers found however that separate diagnosis of these pervasive developmental disorders weren't consistent across different clinics since they tend to have very similar signs and symptoms as of 2013 the dsm-5 a new revised edition removed these terms and replace them with autism spectrum disorder or ASD which encompasses all the previous pervasive developmental disorders but uses a scale or a spectrum that differentiates based on the severity of two major areas social communication and interaction deficits and restrictive or repetitive behavior interests and activities for the social and communication area there are four subcategories that clinicians look for deficits the first is social reciprocity which refers to how children respond or reciprocate in social interactions so like how the behavior of one person influences the other and vice versa an example impairment in this area might be referring to being alone and not taking a role in social games a second area of potential deficit is joint attention which is the state of wanting to share an interest with someone else so it's like hey check out this awesome thing I found so an example impairment in this area might be a child not sharing their interests or amusement in an object with their parent next there's nonverbal communication which refers to difficulties either using nonverbal communication themselves or interpreting nonverbal cues from someone else so maybe the child won't put their arms out when they want to be picked up or maybe they won't be able to tell when a parent's upset even if the parents frowning and crossing their arms the last subcategory of communication deficits is in social relationships so children have trouble developing and maintaining relationships so maybe the child has a hard time making friends or they're able to make friends but their behavior tends to drive the friends away the other major area is called restrictive and repetitive behaviors and this category is pretty broad and can include a whole bunch of behaviors some being more well-known or characterized than others like lining up toys in a ritualistic sort of way or flapping ones hands or imitating words or phrases the child might be fixed on certain routines like taking the same route every day to school or they might have restricted patterns of interest like having a very specific and in-depth knowledge of the Titanic or vacuum cleaners children with autism spectrum disorder might exhibit one or more of these deficits and vary in how severe the deficit is with that in mind it's important to remember that each child with autism spectrum disorder is going to have a different spectrum of symptoms and deficits typically clinicians will try to observe these behaviors in the child looking for these possible deficits since these behaviors are often more well known by the child caretakers in the our by the clinicians let their parents or their teachers a meaningful diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder relies heavily on listening to what others are observing at home or in school they might be given severity scores in each area which can help determine how much support the child is going to need for example a severity level one would indicate the child needs some support for social communication they might speak in full sentences and engage in communication but normal back-and-forth conversation with others just doesn't seem to work for a repetitive and restrictive behaviors they might have difficulty switching between activities on the other side of the spectrum a level 3 severity means the child needs very substantial support and on the social communication side they might display very few words of intelligible speech and rarely initiate an interaction with others for repetitive behaviors they might be extremely resistant to change and their behaviors seriously interfere with their daily life it's thought that using this scale of symptoms as opposed to differentiating between pervasive developmental disorders will help give them more accurate and medically useful way to diagnose individuals for example those with what was previously described as Asperger's syndrome would likely fall closer to severity level 1 than severity level 3 generally speaking autism spectrum disorders thought to have a genetic cause which ultimately affects brain development specifically areas that affects social and communication behaviors which genes are a combination of genes that are affected in an autism spectrum disorder though is still very much a mystery in addition there are a bunch of environmental triggers that have to be explored but at the moment there are no clear risk factors that have been identified with that said there is also no cure for autism spectrum disorder and treatment or management has to be specifically and carefully tailored to each child and this includes things like specialized education programs and behavior therapy that all seek to maximize quality of life and functional independence you