Should the autism “spectrum” concept be abandoned?
Harold L. Doherty asks a really good question in his blog Facing Autism in New Brunswick. He asks: Should the autism “spectrum” concept be abandoned? and I think he makes a good argument – more eloquently than I can, but I’m going to try anyway.
The spectrum is much broader than it once was, now including Asperger’s Syndrome with what I call classic autism, as identified by Leo Kanner in 1943. Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is also included in the group called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
People with autism or autistic disorder are quite different than people with Aspergers Syndrome. The most obvious difference is that those with autistic disorder are much more like to have speech delays or never to speak at all, but there are other differences. There are also many similarities, and that is what makes the question difficult to answer.
Harold L. Doherty asks a really good question in his blog Facing Autism in New Brunswick. He asks: Should the autism “spectrum” concept be abandoned? and I think he makes a good argument – more eloquently than I can, but I’m going to try anyway.
The spectrum is much broader than it once was, now including Asperger’s Syndrome with what I call classic autism, as identified by Leo Kanner in 1943. Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is also included in the group called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
People with autism or autistic disorder are quite different than people with Aspergers Syndrome. The most obvious difference is that those with autistic disorder are much more like to have speech delays or never to speak at all, but there are other differences. There are also many similarities, and that is what makes the question difficult to answer.