| Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed by specialists or teams of specialists who usually have significant experience. They use various tests to help determine if someone has the symptoms of the disorder. Then they select one of three levels of severity and can select from a slew of specifications (such as intellectual disability) that may or may not be present. But even all those tools don’t provide enough information to help a parent, teacher, or therapist accurately envision a particular individual’s strengths, challenges, behaviors, or needs. Just as significantly, they have no real role to play in choosing the most appropriate treatments or predicting outcomes over the lifespan. In fact, an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis tells you remarkably little about any individual person, their particular challenges and strengths, or the therapies that would help them cope with or overcome symptoms. |
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