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Pervasive Developmental Disorder Autistic Spectrum Disorder
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WHAT'S IN A NAME? Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), also known as Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a neurobiological disorder that impacts three main areas of a person’s development according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV: 1) Social Interaction 2) Communication 3) Patterns of Behavior Some of the “symptoms” observed in persons with ASD include sensory processing difficulties, highly ritualized behaviors, resistance to change or exploring new objects/experience, poor eye contact, lack of social awareness, and lack of empathy (or "theory of mind"). Most autistic persons have difficulties in the areas of expressive and receptive language, and tend to exhibit secondary diagnostic characteristics such as verbal apraxia, obsessive compulsive disorder, mental retardation, and ADHD. PDD or ASD is an “umbrella” category covering other subgroups within the spectrum: 1) Autistic Disorder ("classical autism", most common in the PDD group) 2) Asperger’s Syndrome 3) Fragile X Syndrome (mainly affecting boys) 4) Rett’s Syndrome (only observed in girls) 5) Childhood Disintegrative Disorder 6) Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Not Otherwise Specified or PDD, NOS. KEY FINDINGS. • According to a study done by the Centers for Disease control in 2007, about 1 in 150 children in the United States have ASD. • There are as much as 3 to 6 times more boys per 1 girl with ASD. • Mental retardation occurs 70% of the time with persons with ASD (see Siegel, Bryna. Helping Children with Autism Learn, New York: Oxford University Press; 2003). • There is strong evidence that suggests that the likely cause of autism is GENETICS. According to a study on siblings, if a family bears a child with autism, the likelihood of the next child having autism increases about 3%. The odds of this happening increases to 12% if the first child with autism is a girl (see Dr. Siegel's book above). • The majority of persons with autism tend to process information much better VISUALLY. A BRIEF HISTORY. One of the pioneers of the research and study of autism is an American doctor named Leo Kanner when he first published his paper called “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact" in 1943. Unbeknownst to Dr. Kanner, across the Atlantic, in Germany, another doctor was conducting research on children that exhibited autistic behaviors. His name was Hans Asperger. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS. In her book Thinking in Pictures, Dr. Temple Grandin (who herself is autistic) gives us a peek into the world of a person with autism. She writes, "One of the most profound mysteries of autism has been the remarkable ability of most autistic people to excel at visual spatial skills while performing so poorly at verbal skills. When I was a child and a teenager, I thought everybody thought in pictures. I had no idea that my thought processes were different" (p. 3). Finding out the best approach to teaching an autistic student can be a complicated task but it's important to keep in mind that autism involves sensory processing issues. The brain input system of an autistic child functions differently than a normally developing peer. In 2006, I attended an autism lecture sponsored by the San Mateo County Office of Education. One of the lectures describes the autistic brain input system in terms of a "video camera." When you think of a camera, you see that there is a button to turn it on and off and adjust the volume; a device to zoom in or out; a way to widen the angle; and features such as motion stabilization and screen filters. And, if you are using that camera, you can point and focus on the specific subjects that you want to film. Now imagine that you are NOT able to turn the camera off at the right times, or adjust the volume, or the intensity of the color or brightness of the footage. Or, imagine that you can't quite focus on any particular thing and that the camera seems to be pointing where it pleases and recording sounds with with no particular order as it were. While I know this analogy does not completely depict the workings of the autistic brain, at least perhaps we can then begin to imagine what it is like for the autistic child to see the world. We can begin to understand why it may be difficult for an autistic child to prioritize information, to think sequentially, to regulate his moods, impulses, and behaviors. And if you are thinking in pictures, we may realize it is difficult to understand abstract word concepts like "under", "over", or "outside", and some of the more obscure English prepositions such as "to", "in", or "by". MY TWO CENTS. Cliché as it may sound, it is very important to keep in mind that, autistic or not, no two children (or persons, for that matter) are ever exactly alike. The approaches that you use to teach a student with ASD will depend largely on that student’s individual strengths and needs. In her book Ten Things Children Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew (Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2006), Ellen Notbohm emphasizes the importance of teaching the “whole child” and recognizing that first and foremost, a child with ASD is, well, a child—an individual with his own wants and needs, feelings and traits. Notbohm points out that although it may be difficult to observe or because it is complicated by the disability, children with ASD will, in varying degrees, demonstrate typical development behaviors like their normally developing peers. It is important to have an idea of what autism is and what autism is not. There are literally thousands of websites out there discussing what autism is and giving detailed information about current findings and research about the subject. Some of the more spirited debates or discussions you may run across will probably include the discussion of the most effective treatment approaches (ABA or TEACCH?). It is easy to get lost in the latest opinions and the numerous statistics and numbers. But it is often important to remind ourselves, as Notbohm reminds us in her book, to take a child-centered approach and to see the child (whether he is our student or son or daughter) underneath the diagnostic label. In the following page I will discuss a few tips and tools to use when working with a student with ASD in the classroom. |
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