Notes on autism severity and the DSM-V

I was asked briefly to comment onthe notion of " severity " of autism as currently proposed for the DSM-V. Here are some far from complete notes (some from earlier writing or work of mine) I organized in response:Currently, “severity” of autism most often refers to the attempt to quantify the obviousness of autistic traits and abilities. The more obvious these traits and abilities are judged to be, and therefore the more atypical a person is judged to be, the more “severe” autism is considered to be.Being “more severe” (having more obvious autistic traits and abilities, or being more obviously atypical) is widely presumed to be worse than being “less severe” (having less obvious autistic traits and abilities or being less obviously atypical), while being not autistic at all (no obvious autist ic traits and abilities) is considered an “optimal outcome.”However, there is no current consensus on what neurocognitive differences underlie observable autistic atypicalities and therefore fundamentally define what makes a person autistic rather than nonautistic. At this fundamental level (what autism is), there is currently no consensual way to judge who is “more autistic” or “less autistic” (which would be construed as “more severely autistic” and “less severely autistic”) or whether this would be good, bad or irrelevant.Currently there is/are no consensual instrument(s) agreed to measure autism “severity.” The major diagnostic instruments (ADO...
Source: The Autism Crisis - Category: Child Development Source Type: blogs