What Is Considered Mild Autism? | Autism

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So what is considered mild autism? As the word mild implies, it means there's a "little bit" of autism, per say. So what does that mean? On a gradient, when a child has symptoms, we look at the core symptoms of speech and language delay for example, or difficulty with social referencing and social engagement, social communication and, again, the restricted repertoire of play and repetitive behaviors. So if a child has a little bit of speech delay or some difficulty with speech and language, or a little bit of echolalia or some difficulty with social engagement, or has some repetitive stereotypic behaviors and play which can be redirected easily, you are hitting criteria of autism but the involvement is mild. With the new DSM-IV diagnosis, they actually want you to look at levels of severity. A lot of schools do the CARS, which is the Child Autism Rating Scale and they do have differentiation of mild, moderate, and severe. Mild would really come in that category when you look at symptoms and their severity. Based on that, you can actually say mild autism.

To clarify, the diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified, was often used for kids with what we now say, mild autism. Because they have just a few of the symptoms, they don't classically hit all of the autism criteria, but they have some of these differences that parents can say, for example: covering their ears, or sensitive to sounds, or not picking up in social relationships, not picking up cues, having difficulty understanding jokes, for example, being very literal or what they call poor pragmatics, or having particular fascinations-everything is Thomas the Tank engine. They can be transitioned, but they have particular tendencies which is different from another neurotypically developing child.

A lot of these children do get diagnosed with PDD, not otherwise specified, or mild autism and it's really a matter of degree. I think the important thing is to get formalized testing done so you really know where your child falls in the spectrum, and you have a sense of how impaired your child is, or how little impaired your child is, and then you can compare your child to her or himself so that they'll be measured along their own spectrum, not just with a reference to other children.

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[ResidentEvilGirl]

yea, social stuff is hard for me, not too brag but, I worked hard to learn how too tie my shoes. I'm 11, and I just learned yesterday.

[silvakarla]

What makes a person different or imperfect is exactly what makes them a beautiful human being. 😚

[JIMBO]

being borderline autistic myself. I feel this should be shared more. its a real struggle dealing with strangers or ignorant others.

[chanelbosch]

My brother has mild autism i'm watching this to learn more about his way of learning and to guide my brother for his future.

[reesyi]

I got mild Autisum an I push my self every day for it not to affect but the hardest thing I find is social situations

[KIKI-syfl]

My 4yo son is on waitlist for an assessment. I'm suspecting he's high functioning. Do I worry about his social skill? Yes I wouldn't say no. However I'm also amazed by his determination and high interests in numbers and elevators. Not to mention he loves learning cooking as well. The more I look at it the more I would like.to see it as a trait rather than those "labeling". These people really have some great skills, we the society just need more understanding and accepting different kind of mindset. Now there are people prefer visual learning, tactile learning or audio learning...maybe it's time to develop more new learning method cus human society is changing.

[galitaMiina]

When I was 2-3, mom said I would always play by myself all alone under an orange tree. Just sat there, playing with some ants and lined up the rocks, or played cooking with the dirt. When I was in kindergarten, many teachers told me to engage more with friends coz they always found me sat alone in the corner, didnt even bother to play with toys or other kids. I remember I loved to sat alone in the forest nearby my grandma's house every single day just to felt the wind. Up until now, I HATE loud noises, running water, heavy rain, and cant sleep when there is someone talking next to me or in the same room. I have difficulties in falling asleep. Now I realised that my 1year old son is totally just like me

[doomsdaytaco]

I fall under minor autism. I'm a bit slower than others when learning certain things and I have difficult with emotions sometimes, but I have improved a lot throughout my teenage years

[Jenbear]

Thomas bought back memories. My son was obsessed. He knew every train, their colours, numbers and jobs. When he knew all that he moved onto Chuggington and when he knew all them he moved onto real trains. I so sick of hearing about couplings, bogeys, pentagrams, and everything train.

[agerven]

I Do understand what the lady is saying and think it is important. But equally important, i.m.o., is not only to concentrate on diagnosis by children, but also to diagnose them again in say 5 and 10 years. And at that time see how many of them score where on the spectrum and how severe on typical parts on the spectrum.
What seems to be happening at the moment, at least in some institutes, is overdiagnosis as opposed to a history (talking 30 to 50 years back) of underdiagnosis or no diagnosis at all, for the ages 0-5.
By re-diagnosing children with mild or medium autism 5 years later we will have a better indication of the validity of the first diagnosis and, in addition, a better indication of how and where to place them in primary / secondary school. And re-diagnosing them again 5 (in total 10) years later we can re-evaluate the validity of the first two diagnoses and get a good indication of how to roadmap them through puberty and associated social behavior.
As a 60 year ASD (asperger) none of this was available or known in my youth. I'm so happy and glad that all this knowledge is available now, and a diagnose really helps children and parents putting themselfs in perspective and helping these young adults in finding a nice place in life.

[aman]

i have mild autism and im pretty intelligent but its socializing anf holding a job thats difficult for me for example lets say i was promoted from storage management to cash register i only do what im told which means i would never leave the cash register i was assigned to. know what i mean i hope ya do i cant think of a better way to explain it

[ChrissyCute]

I have mild autism and loads of people misunderstand me so I stay away from most people

[angel_godislovegarcia]

Just last year I took a test on Autism in this occupational therapy service and the test was really difficult for me it took about 3 weeks for my occupational therapist Ashley Love and my docror of medication to come up and diagnose me with mild Autism, since then alot of people always tell me that I don't look autistic this bothers me alot, I don't want a cure for Autism because its apart of who I am, may God bless you all

[onekitkat]

I got diagnosed when I was 13 and when I told my friend she told me, “You don’t sound or look autistic.” I honestly didn’t think I had autism until my parents had me diagnosed because of the severity I was always exposed to. My cousin has very severe autism and another kid in our school did at the time too. She still doesn’t believe me and I’m 18 now but I know what I know about how mild my autism and that I still have it.

[hopefaithpeacejoy]

Currently the distress is spitting..3 and half. Absolutely no filter, empathy..understands its not ok. Very sensory, loving.. and yet very aggressive, throwing everything, biting and hitting. Sooo challenging!!

[lauren]

My brother has mild autism and is one of the nicest boys in the world

[monicarai]

Now when I look back on my life I can see what I suffered with as well. But my parents were too busy pushing me to be number 1 to notice I had an issue. What a life huh. Glad I'm here now and I can help my daughter. I got her early intervention. Never regretted it for a single moment. She's doing so much better now. Touchwood

[Elephant]

We are all handicapped in some ways. Its part of the human condition.

[mr.grumps]

I love how everyone in these comments say they have mild autism, but 90% of you have never gone to get it diagnosed. You can't watch a video on youtube and then tell everyone thats what you have without a diagnosis....