TYPES OF AUTISM, SYMPTOMS AND CHARACTERISTICS - ECONOMÍA - 2024

The types of autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder, come in different forms depending on their characteristics and symptoms. There is a significant overlap between the different classes of autism, from the mildest to the most severe. For this reason, in the DSM-V they appear under the name of “Autism Spectrum Disorders”.

It is difficult to define concrete prototypes of autism, since two people with this disorder can be very different from each other. It is not the same a mild autism as severe or its development in children, adolescents or adults.

For example, childhood autism is usually one of the most worrisome due to its characteristics and difficulties involved when educating a child who suffers from it. Next, we will classify and develop the different types of autism and their most important characteristics.

Types of self-esteem according to the DSM-V

According to the DSM-V, autism is classified according to the severity of the condition:

"Need help"

It is the mildest level. It is described as a behavioral profile in which the person can communicate with complete and correct sentences with others. However, they are unable to carry on a lengthy conversation with other people properly.

They are perceived as eccentric, lacking in social skills and therefore have little success in this regard.

Regarding his behavior, he is characterized by being rigid and inflexible in a way that interferes with his normal life. They find it difficult to organize and plan what they are going to do, as well as to alternate certain activities.

"Needs notable help"

In this case, the individual can use simple phrases and his interaction with others is only directed by very limited interests. His non-verbal communication is very eccentric. Therefore, they have significant deficiencies in verbal and non-verbal social communication. Even if they are helped, they still have these difficulties.

The behavior is more inflexible, rejecting changes and with a large number of repetitive behaviors. They present great anxiety when they are prompted to change their behaviors or the environment changes.

"He needs very notable help"

There are serious problems in verbal and non-verbal social communication that significantly affect your daily life.

An example can be a person who interacts with others very rarely and with the aim of alleviating certain needs. It only responds to very direct and insistent social interaction and can only utter a few intelligible words.

They react extremely negatively to changes and repetitive behaviors occupy a large part of their day to day.

With or without intellectual deficit to accompany you

Autism does not have to involve intellectual deficits, in fact, it can occur with different degrees of intellectual development. 75% of people with autism have some mental retardation (Amodia de la Riva and Andrés Fraile, 2006) and coincide with more serious forms of the disorder.

With or without language impairment

As this disorder has such different manifestations, it is not surprising that there are individuals with moderately preserved language, others who remain silent for most of the time, and a third group lacks language.

They do not seem to understand what others are saying, or they do not pay attention to it and many do not utter words, only noises or babbles.

With catatonia

They may or may not present this condition, which is characterized by motor abnormalities such as stereotypes, grimaces, fixed gaze, immobility, excitement, echolalia, passivity, catalepsy, etc. At the same time there are deficits in thinking, affect and consciousness.

It appears to be frequently linked to autism and is usually controlled with drugs such as benzodiazepines. A 2000 study in the British Journal of Psychology indicates that catatonic symptoms appear to worsen with age.

Associated with another neurodevelopmental, mental or behavioral disorder

It may not be an autism spectrum disorder itself, there are different cases in which the symptoms are similar, but they are mainly due to all conditions. We will see other related disorders later.

Associated with medical, genetic, or a known environmental factor

The cause is specified here if it is known very clearly, but it is usually very difficult to know what has caused this disorder. Its appearance is usually due to a wide range of factors.

Types of autism according to the ICD-10

In the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems system, we find that autism belongs to the category "pervasive developmental disorders."

This group of disorders is characterized by inappropriate behaviors in relation to the child's cognitive age.

It includes alterations in social interaction and communication, stereotyped and repetitive behaviors, and restricted activities and interests. It can appear practically from birth or after a certain age, in childhood.

Child autism

It arises before the age of 3 and is associated with a lack of response to the emotions of others, behavior outside the social context, and a lack of social, emotional and communicative integration.

They do not use language socially, but some words in order to achieve something more good, it is as if they have no need to interact with other people.

Its characteristics are those that we have described before, although here they give an example of attachment to strange objects and persistent routine activities in the form of rituals that apparently make no sense. In addition, they worry in a stereotypical way about schedules, quantities, dates, smells, textures of objects or journeys without any specific purpose.

Their difficulty in adapting to changes can make them feel uncomfortable even when the decoration of the house or some furniture is changed.

Other associated symptoms are fears, phobias, eating disorders, sleep disorders, aggressiveness, self-harm, and lack of creativity.

Fortunately, there are certain guidelines for treating autistic children, such as activities or games, with which they develop positively while having fun.

Atypical autism

Atypical autism differs from autism in that it appears after 3 years of age or that it does not meet any criteria for the diagnosis of autism. These being difficulties in 1 or 2 of these areas: social interaction, communication disorder and stereotyped, repetitive and restrictive behaviors.

Other related disorders

In other previous classification systems or according to different authors, there are conditions very close to autism that have been defined as subtypes of it. Next, we indicate what they are:

Asperger syndrome

According to the International University of Valencia, Asperger's syndrome is a more complicated and difficult type of autism to diagnose, since it does not present intellectual disability or other visible symptoms.

The main deficit is observed in his social skills: his social interaction is very poor, others see him strange since he talks continuously on the same topics, they do not understand double meanings or irony, they do not have empathy with others, etc.

Although his language is correct in itself, it is "too correct", creating a pedantic profile, with elaborate and elaborate syntax and vocabulary. The limitations are at the level of prosody and intonation.

As for their behavior, they are usually rigid and find it difficult to face new situations. It is also common for there to be psychomotor clumsiness.

However, these individuals may have excellent abilities for certain tasks, called “islands of competition”: such as doing calculations, memorizing dates, or playing an instrument.

Its prevalence is not exactly known and ranges from 1 in 250 children to 1 in 5000. Currently it is increasing because more and more forgotten cases are being diagnosed, as there is more knowledge about this syndrome.

Rett syndrome

The DSM-V has classified Rett syndrome as a possible type of autism, being a condition that occurs mostly in girls.

It is a rare disease that is a developmental disorder of the nervous system. It is characterized by problems in motor skills (movements and muscle tone), in cognitive functioning and in social interaction. And its symptoms begin to be observed around two years of age.

It can affect approximately 1 in 12,000 girls born according to the Spanish Rett Syndrome Association. It ends up causing a multiple disability, highlighting a severe or notable intellectual disability.

Childhood disintegrative disorder or Heller's syndrome

Also known as disintegrative psychosis, it is a rare condition that appears at 3 years or more of life. It is more common in children and usually affects 1 in 100,000 births. It stands out for deficits in language development, social interaction and motor level.

It is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder and is considered by some to be a possible frequent form of autism.

Its causes appear to be neurobiological, with brain functioning being altered.

This condition is distinguished from the others in that, up to the age of two, the child's development appears normal in all areas: understanding and expression of language, ability to use large and small muscles, and social development. However, from that age or later (up to 10 years of age) she begins to lose the skills she gained.

Pervasive developmental disorder, unspecified

Also called "atypical autism." This is where those people who meet most of the criteria for autistic disorder or Asperger's syndrome come in, but not all of those necessary for that diagnosis to be made.

They are usually individuals with milder symptoms of autism, which mainly affect social relationships and communication. People with inflexible, peculiar, stereotyped and limited activities, customs or interests may also be included here.

It is important to be cautious when establishing this diagnosis, identifying if they are peculiar personality characteristics of an individual or if they involve real problems in his life.

There was much controversy about this, therefore, these possible types of autism that we highlight here were eliminated in the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) to fit them as "Autism Spectrum Disorders".

How to detect autism?

The main characteristics of an individual with autism are:

Difficulties for communication and social interaction

In a multitude of ways, such as: failure in social interaction (does not relate adequately with others), lack of initiation of conversations, absence or deficits in non-verbal communication, does not look at the person who is speaking, it seems that their facial expressions are out of context and they don't understand the emotions of others.

Repetitive behaviors

They are very inflexible and present repetitive behaviors focused on certain interests or very specific tasks. For example, doing mathematical operations continuously, stereotyped movements, excessive interest in a specific topic, etc. All this affects the person to develop a satisfactory social, school or work life.

However, there are certain common elements; as an altered perception of the external environment in such a way that they can have a lot of sensitivity for some stimuli, while they are insensitive for others.

There are studies that affirm that autism could already be predicted at a very young age, almost after birth.

Babies normally show a preference for human figures, directing their gaze towards them. They look specifically at faces and can fix their attention on us if we talk to them. This is an important innate mechanism that allows us to survive by establishing strong bonds with our protectors.

In contrast, in babies with autism, attention is distributed equally in all elements of the environment. They see people as another object in the environment, without prioritizing them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 in 68 children has some form of autism in the United States.

If you are interested in this syndrome, do not miss our article of 40 films to better understand autism.

References

1. What is Rett syndrome? (sf). Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from the Spanish Rett Syndrome Association.
2. American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V).
3. Amodia de la Riva, J. and Andrés Fraile, MA (2006). Chapter III: Autism Disorder and Intellectual Disability. In Syndromes and supports. Overview from science and from associations (pp. 77-107).
4. Asperger syndrome. (sf). Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from Genetis Home Reference.
5. Autism Spectrum Disorder. (sf). Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from the National Institute of Mental Health.
6. Autism Spectrum Disorders. (sf). Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from WebMD.
7. Charan, SH (2012). Childhood disintegrative disorder. Journal of Pediatric Neurosciences, 7 (1), 55–57.
8. ICD-10. (sf). Pervasive developmental disorders. Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from Psicomed.
9. Defining Autism. (sf). Retrieved on September 2, 2016, from Autism Support of West Shore.
10. The different types of autism spectrum disorder (ASD): characteristics and forms of intervention in the classroom. (January 4, 2016). Obtained from the International University of Valencia.