Has your child recently received an Autism diagnosis? Do you want to learn more about diagnostic criteria and severity levels? This blog post will address what qualifies children for each of the three severity levels and the social communication and behaviors of each level. Knowing more about your child’s specific diagnosis can allow you as a caregiver to best support your child and build empathy towards their experiences.
Autism is defined as persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction in multiple contexts, restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities present in the early developmental period. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in functioning and cannot be better explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay. Specifications can include intellectual impairment; language impairment; neurodevelopmental, mental, or behavioral disorder; with catatonia; genetic or medical condition or environmental factors.
Severity levels will focus on social communication needs and significance of restricted, repetitive behaviors.
Level One: Requiring Support
- Trouble understanding and following social rules
- Rigid or inflexible behavior
- Some stress during transitions
- Appearance of disinterest in social interactions
- Some emotional or sensory dysregulation
- A need for personal organization strategies
- Attention span differences
- Therapy can be helpful for learning self regulation strategies
- Accommodations like extra time for tests and intermittent support from an education assistant can be helpful
Level 2: Requiring Substantial Support
- Atypical social behavior, like walking away mid conversation
- Missing nonverbal communication cues like facial expressions
- Using fewer words or noticeable different speech
- High interest in specific topics
- Noticeable distress when faced with change
- May need school accommodations like reading help of social skills support as well as an education assistant to help with social interactions during recess and lunch breaks
- May benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, and social skills coaching
Level 3: Requiring Very Substantial Support
- Severe communication deficits, such as being nonspeaking
- Prefer solitary activities
- Interact with others only to meet an immediate need
- Seem unable to share imaginative play with peers
- Limited interest in friendships
- Repetitive behaviors like rocking, blinking, or spinning
- Extreme distress when asked to switch tasks
- May need one-on-one time with an education assistant and may use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools, like picture symbols
Remember that children can have one level for social communication and a different level for restrictive/repetitive behaviors. Each of those criteria has its own degree of support.
Resources:
Autism Diagnosis Criteria: DSM-5 | Autism Speaks
The 3 Levels of Autism: Symptoms and Support Needs | Psych Central
Understanding the Three Levels of Autism (verywellhealth.com)