Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Therapy

• Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts.
• Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
• Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for – example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
• Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
  
  

Severity of the disorder is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.

• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
• Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).
• Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
• These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. 
• Intellectual disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.