World Autism Awareness Week 2015

This week is World Autism Awareness Week (WAAW).  The National Autistic Society has suggested a host of activities for the week and ways to get involved.

This week we will be looking at autism as a special educational need, the various forms of autism, support that is available and the experiences of parents of children with autism.

Today, we are focusing on the types of autism and impacts that they can have on children in school.

Autism

Autism is a spectrum disorder. This means that the impact it has on each child can vary significantly. There are three common features exhibited by all children with autism. They are:

1. Difficulty with social communication (such as facial expressions, commons phrases and sarcasm).
2. Difficulty with social integration (such as understanding and following social ‘rules’ or conventions).
3. Difficulty with social imagination (such as imaginative play, predicting what will happen next, empathy).

Atypical autism

Atypical autism is diagnosed when a child shares the majority of characteristics for autism but does not feature all three difficulties, or because a child is too young to be diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

In our experience, children with atypical autism do still demonstrate difficulties very similar to that of children with autism. This can include communication difficulties, understanding non-verbal communication, social boundaries, preferring routine or difficulties with processing sensory information. Typically, children with atypical autism benefit from the same therapies and support as children with autism.

Asperger’s syndrome

Asperger’s syndrome is an ASD. Children are diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, rather than another ASD, if they have age-appropriate intellectual and language skills.

The key distinction between Asperger’s syndrome and other ASD is that they do not usually have the accompanying learning disabilities associated with autism but they may have specific learning difficulties such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyspraxia. This means that Asperger’s syndrome and high functioning autism (HFA) can be very similar in terms of presenting needs.

Asperger’s syndrome tends to cause children to seem overly mature, with an associated difficulty expressing themselves, especially emotions, and understanding verbal and non-verbal communication. Children with Asperger’s syndrome can also tend to develop intense interests and lack flexible thinking.

High functioning autism

High functioning autism (HFA) is an autistic spectrum disorder and can appear to be very similar to Asperger’s syndrome.

Children with HFA present with the spectrum difficulties associated with ASD. Those are: social interaction, social communication and rigid thinking.

Asperger’s syndrome and HFA can appear to be very similar because one key diagnostic requirement for Asperger’s is the lack of a cognitive impairment. As children with HFA tend to have higher than average cognitive abilities, they can appear to be very similar to children with Asperger’s. However, there are key differences:

• Children with Asperger’s do not have a language delay whereas children with HFA often present with significant language difficulties.
• Children with Asperger’s tend to have difficulties with fine motor control. This presentation is far less common among children with HFA.

There is no clear dividing line between Asperger’s and HFA. The key issue is how the condition affects your particular child.

Related difficulties

Autism and ASD all feature, in varying degrees, the three key difficulties. However, in our experience, children with autism can also exhibit other difficulties. These can include:

• ADHD
• Echolalia
• Pathological demand avoidance syndrome
• Semantic pragmatic disorder
• Anxiety
• Learning difficulties
• Obsessive compulsive disorder

Available support

Autism has a pervasive impact on a child’s ability to make sense of the world. As such, any child with autism/ASD is likely to have special educational needs.

It is impossible to say, in general terms, what level of support a child with autism/ASD will require. This is because of the significant spectrum of difficulties that ASD covers and the associated difficulties that tend to accompany ASD.

In all cases of autism/ASD, a child’s needs should be clearly understood. If they are not, an EHC needs assessment should be completed to determine what support they need.