ASD DSM-5 diagnosis criteria.

For a diagnosis of ASD:

• All 3 criteria with difficulties with social emotional reciprocity should be met;

  • difficulties with nonverbal communicative behaviours used for social interaction,

  • difficulties with social-emotional reciprocity, and

  • difficulties in developing and maintaining relationships,

• While at least 2 out of the 4 criteria for restricted, repetitive and/or sensory behaviour are to be met; the four criteria are as follows

  • stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects,

  • hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment,

  • excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or non-verbal behaviour, or excessive resistance to change,

  • highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus.

N.B. these are the diagnosis criteria used for a formal diagnosis from experts using the DSM-5 for guideline.

Meet Julie Jellyfish who will highlight the diagnosis criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

The diagnosis criteria highlighted in the posters were taken from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), which provides standardized criteria to help with the diagnosis of ASD. The poster is a guideline with some criteria exemplars.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a spectrum. Every individual on the autism spectrum is different with different challenges and abilities, the criteria and corresponding exemplars given above are different for every individual, there is not one unique trait to define ASD. Individuals show, feel and/or face different degrees of social interaction challenges, empathy, communication difficulties, behaviour, sensory processing challenges, etc. The level of challenges and the combination of criteria traits varies from person to person. Two individuals with the same diagnosis may be very different when it comes to behaviour, challenges and abilities.