Autism

An autism diagnosis means different things depending on who is doing the diagnosing, suggests a new study.Researchers found that clinics varied in what skills and behaviors they considered when evaluating kids with an autism spectrum disorder and deciding where on that spectrum they fell.In kids with severe social problems, "everyone agreed that the child had (autism)," said study author Catherine Lord, head of the Institute for Brain Development at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital. "But it does suggest that in those borderlands of autism spectrum disorders, there is a lot of confusion."That means that families of kids with an autism spectrum disorder should focus more on a kid's specific difficulties and strengths, rather than on a label, she said.Those labels or classifications range from autism, on the more severe end of the spectrum, to Asperger syndrome, a milder disability, and "pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified," or PDD-NOS,...

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