The fastest growing disability right now is Autism. According to Gargiulo (2014), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects one’s ability on their social interaction skills. An individual with ASD also displays repetitive interests and behaviors and an impaired development in verbal and non-verbal communication. Some of the many characteristics of individuals with ASD are aggressiveness, hyperactiveness, short attention span, impulsive, hard time concentrating, often causing injury to themselves, little or no eye contact, and obsession with a certain toy or object. They may or may not have an understanding of the concept of Theory of mind which is knowing that others have their own mind that consists of their
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Other minor tests includes the ability to sit in a spot still, pay attention, follow basic instructions, and verbally respond that can also assess the level of severity of an individual with ASD. An intellectual assessment consists of several tests that measure the intellectual ability of an individual with a list of adaptive levels of functioning that are then used to assess them and decide the level of severity for this disability. Although there are no specific tests to identify autism in an individual, their physical indicators can be used to help figure out the level of severity and what characteristics are the big main indicators. These physical characteristics can be noticed even in as young as a few months old baby and can be confirmed before the age of 3. To identify an individual with autism, these two steps need to be followed; the first one is developmental screening and surveillance. Developmental screening is a thorough evaluation that diagnoses autism and surveillance is monitoring individuals that might have this developmental disability. The second step is professionals’ evaluations that typically consist of clinical and educational observations, caregiver interviews, psychological testing, and speech language assessments. There is not really just a single test or assessment used to identify autism in an individual, but combining all of these techniques and using them all to determine a child having this disability or not can be very helpful. Like mentioned before, the earlier an individual is diagnosed, the better it will be for them in the
Other minor tests includes the ability to sit in a spot still, pay attention, follow basic instructions, and verbally respond that can also assess the level of severity of an individual with ASD. An intellectual assessment consists of several tests that measure the intellectual ability of an individual with a list of adaptive levels of functioning that are then used to assess them and decide the level of severity for this disability. Although there are no specific tests to identify autism in an individual, their physical indicators can be used to help figure out the level of severity and what characteristics are the big main indicators. These physical characteristics can be noticed even in as young as a few months old baby and can be confirmed before the age of 3. To identify an individual with autism, these two steps need to be followed; the first one is developmental screening and surveillance. Developmental screening is a thorough evaluation that diagnoses autism and surveillance is monitoring individuals that might have this developmental disability. The second step is professionals’ evaluations that typically consist of clinical and educational observations, caregiver interviews, psychological testing, and speech language assessments. There is not really just a single test or assessment used to identify autism in an individual, but combining all of these techniques and using them all to determine a child having this disability or not can be very helpful. Like mentioned before, the earlier an individual is diagnosed, the better it will be for them in the