Autism

Definition

Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal or nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

The term does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disability as defined in this document.

A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria above are satisfied.

Criteria

A child displays autism when:

1. Through evaluation that includes a review of medical records, observation of the child's behavior across multiple environments, and an in-depth social history, the following behaviors are documented:
   
   
   1. Disturbances of speech, language-cognitive, and nonverbal communication:
      The child displays abnormalities that extend beyond speech to many aspects of
      the communication process. Communicative language may be absent or, if
      present, language may lack communicative intent. Characteristics may involve
      both deviance and delay. There is a deficit in the capacity to use language for
      social communication, both receptively and expressively.
   2.  
   3. Disturbance of the capacity to relate appropriately to people, events, or objects:
      The child displays abnormalities in relating to people, objects, and events.
      There is a deficit in the capacity to form relationships with people. The
      capacity to use objects in an age appropriate or functional manner may be
      absent, arrested, or delayed. The child may seek consistency in environmental
      events to the point of exhibiting rigidity in routines.
2. The condition adversely affects the child's educational performance.
3. The autism is not a result of an emotional disability as defined in this document.

Other behaviors that the child may exhibit include:

1. Disturbance of developmental rates and sequences: The child may also exhibit
   delays, arrests, or regressions in physical, social, or learning skills. Areas of
   precocious skill development may also be present, while other skills may develop at
   normal or extremely depressed rates. The order of skill acquisition frequently does
   not follow normal developmental patterns.
2. Disturbances of responses to sensory stimuli: The child's behavior may also range from being hyperactive to being unresponsive to people and objects in their environment and can alternate between these two (2) states over periods ranging from hours to months. Disturbances may be apparent in auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and kinesthetic responses. The child may respond to stimulation inappropriately and in repetitive or nonmeaningful ways.