What are the core deficit areas?
Reflective Journal: Chapter1 Heflin Text:
What are the core deficit areas?
The core deficit areas of autism spectrum disorders are defined by deficits in three core areas: social skills, communication, and behavior and interests.
Social skills/interactions: This affects children with autism mainly in reciprocal social interactions. These includes lack of showing, pointing or following objects, a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment with their caregiver, being non-responsive to their name, and poor to non-existent eye-contact.
They may resist attention or passively accept hugs and cuddling. They may not seek comfort from others. Children with autism often prefer to be left alone or to gaze at favorite objects for extended periods of time. It is difficult for them to understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions and have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling.
Communication: Communication is another core deficit for children with autism. Verbal and non verbal communication is very challenging for children with autism. They usually demonstrate a delay in, or total lack of, spoken language, and may refer to themselves by their name instead of "I" or "me." If they possess language, they usually demonstrate an inability to initiate or sustain even a simple conversation. They might engage in stereotypical or repetitive use of language like delayed echolalia or use words in an idiosyncratic manner. Interesting some of them demonstrate unusual prosody such as speaking in a stiff, nasal, jerky or sing-song tone of voice.
Behavior: The third core deficit area is behavior. Children with autism often engage in restricted and repetitive behaviors or interests. They do engage in repetitive movements or posturing such as rocking or twirling, hand or finger-flapping and toe-walking. Some may also engage in self-abusive behaviors such as biting or head-banging.
It is also noted that children with autism may
What are the core deficit areas?
The core deficit areas of autism spectrum disorders are defined by deficits in three core areas: social skills, communication, and behavior and interests.
Social skills/interactions: This affects children with autism mainly in reciprocal social interactions. These includes lack of showing, pointing or following objects, a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment with their caregiver, being non-responsive to their name, and poor to non-existent eye-contact.
They may resist attention or passively accept hugs and cuddling. They may not seek comfort from others. Children with autism often prefer to be left alone or to gaze at favorite objects for extended periods of time. It is difficult for them to understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions and have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling.
Communication: Communication is another core deficit for children with autism. Verbal and non verbal communication is very challenging for children with autism. They usually demonstrate a delay in, or total lack of, spoken language, and may refer to themselves by their name instead of "I" or "me." If they possess language, they usually demonstrate an inability to initiate or sustain even a simple conversation. They might engage in stereotypical or repetitive use of language like delayed echolalia or use words in an idiosyncratic manner. Interesting some of them demonstrate unusual prosody such as speaking in a stiff, nasal, jerky or sing-song tone of voice.
Behavior: The third core deficit area is behavior. Children with autism often engage in restricted and repetitive behaviors or interests. They do engage in repetitive movements or posturing such as rocking or twirling, hand or finger-flapping and toe-walking. Some may also engage in self-abusive behaviors such as biting or head-banging.
It is also noted that children with autism may