Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Why Is It Called a “diagnosis”?
Question by Victoria G: Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Why is it called a “diagnosis”?
ASD is a list of symptoms. The etiology, or cause is unclear. The symptoms, individually, may have various causes, ranging from hearing impairment to seizure disorders. Similarly, the “severity” of the symptoms has a tremendous range – from social anxiety to non-verbal aggression. If another “diagnostic” term were possible, what should it be?
I am not quesioning the existence of Autism! Nor am I implying that other conditions cause autism, rather that other conditions too often lead to an (improper) ASD Dx.
I am questioning labelling the LABEL a diagnosis, and seeking alternative descriptors.
With a sore throat you could have a cold, or you could have been yelling too much at a sports event, or you could have throat cancer. Note that the causes are all different – leading to different treatments. Also, severity leads to different approaches.
Best answer:
Answer by justmeinthisworld
1st of all-hearing impairment and seizure disorders do not cause autism-
if a child who is deaf is ignored–and not given opportunities to interact–they may act ‘autistic’–but that is not really autism—-but that can happen with a hearing child..
There is a higher rate of seizures with autsim—but autism itself is not cuased by seizures-
seizures may cause neruro dmage ann dogntitive diability–but are not really a cause of autism
why is ‘the flu’ or diabtes a diagnosis—becuase that is the medical label for taht condition
there are many ‘differential diagnosis’ to autism
lack of speech could be many things: aparaxia, deafness, mutism, general dealy, expressive language disorder, frequent ear infections, etc…..
ADHD, OCD, allergy, reaction to abuse, etc are other possible conditions that need to be looked at.
What do you think? Answer below!