Autism Spectrum Disorder

00:01 Now let's take a look at pervasive developmental disorders.

00:05 So can you name a couple of these' Well, there's autism spectrum disorder for one and this is a restricted pattern of behavior, interest, or activities as manifested by at least two of the following: stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, insistence on sameness basically being inflexible or rigid, being highly restricted, and also hyper or hyporeactivity to sensory input, persistent deficits in social communication and social interactions, deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, deficits in nonverbal communication, and deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships. The symptoms must be present in the early developmental period if it is going to be attributed to an autism spectrum disorder.

01:02 The symptoms can cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, and other important areas of life.

01:11 So how would you treat autistic spectrum disorder? Well, you wanna think about remedial education, behavioral therapy, neuroleptics or maybe low dose antipsychotics if the behavior is really disruptive, you may think of antidepressants such as SSRI's, and also supportive treatment and social skills training go a long way in helping to change behaviors that are maladaptive.

01:35 Asperger's disorder is another disorder in the pervasive developmental spectrum.

01:42 Children with Asperger's disorder, it is important to know, have a normal language and cognitive development. Depression in children may manifest as irritability rather than a low mood. This is an important note when you're thinking about evaluating the child for depression. So again, remember they may not say they are depressed or necessarily look depressed. They may look more irritable and that could be a key to them having depression.

02:11 This is worth noting and important for your exam.

02:15 Unfortunately, children are sometimes the subject of sexual abuse and you wanna know the warning signs for looking out for this.

02:22 So any child who has a sexually transmitted disease, you wanna be on high alert for their being some sexually abused.

02:29 If there's any anal or genital trauma, knowledge about specific sex acts, usually small children won't have a concrete knowledge about these things.

02:39 So that can be a warning sign. Also, any initiation of sexual activity with others could be a warning sign they've been abused, and sexual play with dolls is another tell-tale sign that you wanna gonna be looking out for abuse in that child.

02:54 So that's a little bit about child and developmental disorders.

02:59 You now know some of the major topics that may show up on your exam and have a little bit of understanding as to the background, diagnosis, and treatments.