What Is The core "Symptom" Of the Autistic Spectru

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Title is pretty self explanatory.

What makes autism, autism? What one underlying symptom must you have in order to be considered autie/aspie/ etc?

Is it weak central coherence?

Lack of interest in other people?

Or something else entirely?

And why?

Edited because my title FAILED. Edited a second time because the post did, too.

Last edited by Almandite on 30 Mar 2009, 1:21 pm, edited 4 times in total.

repetitive behavior / interests I would say. Rocking, hand flapping, special interests. Or doing something the same all the time, routines.

Oooh, that is an interesting theory! Never heard that one before.

Why do you say that?

Extreme irritability with disorder being probably the biggest symptom that gets the doctors thinking autism.

It's the only thing that really makes sense and that everybody shares somewhat of. Things like "no interest in people" couldn't work because a lot of people with AS don't share that. If I had to pick another one it'd be strange eye contact-- either too much or too little.

The triad. It's not 1 symptom, it must be the triad of symptoms. Social impairment + communication impairment + repetitive behaviours. All three define autism.

Preferring to be in your own little world
hyperfocus
egocentricity

I'm wondering if the triad has some underlying link that ties everything together. Do you think the three parts are connected somehow, or all arise from one core difference? Or do you see them as distinct and un-related?

It's possible that our sensory issues are what underlie everything else, including our difficulties communicating. If we take in far more detail than most people do, then it's not going to matter how much central coherence or executive functioning you have, you're still going to be swamped anyways.

I think the repetitive behaviours are just a coping strategy, rather than a deep symptom, so it's possible that future diagnostic criteria may leave it out. (Plus it might be sexist.)

alienation....pure and simple.x

I see two core "traits":

Core Deficit: Lack of Theory of Mind
Core Need: To Harmonize Information


Related core "symptoms":

Lack of Theory of Mind --> Social deficits; lack of social reciprocity
Need to Harmonize Information --> Routines, narrow obsessions, irritability with disorder and change

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/overvi ... iteria.htm


This is the criteria they use in the U.S. If you scroll down, it gives you the criteria for Asperger's, which is slightly different.

When my son was 6, some parents online told me that the things I described about him sounded a lot like Asperger's, and I should check that out. So, I read the criteria, and I thought, "Well...I'm not so sure" because it wasn't easy to pigeon-hole him into that. He had a lot of odd behaviors, but I didn't see him as meeting the criteria in category "A".

But when he was evaluated by a professional (who did a very extensive evaluation, so I trust her judgment), she said, "Definite Asperger's".

Now, if I look at the Asperger's criteria in regard to myself, I feel the same way. The "A" category criteria are all things that I know describe me a little bit, but it's hard to be sure. There are some people who know me, who would insist that none of those things apply to me, because I'm pretty "normal" around them. If I can't be somewhat "normal" around someone, I stay away. I've never really known anyone who sees me in a variety of settings, though, so they wouldn't be able to say. B1 and B3 describe me, but I keep that to myself. I laid in bed awake for hours last night, replaying the Alan Rickman and Geraldine McEwan scenes from "The Barchester Chronicles" in my mind, as I tend to do often...but people don't KNOW that I do that. LOL! Well, okay, you do, now! I'm not sure if I know anyone who would describe me as doing those things, because I'm not going around squinting my eyes and saying , "That...ODIOUS woman!! !" all the time. I'd like to, though! Except it interferes with my ability to get a good night's sleep, and I sometimes burn dinner because of the same kind of distraction.

And C, well...I've been fired from a lot of jobs because I was "slow" or had a "bad attitude", even though I was the ONLY ONE who DIDN'T have a bad attitude. So, there's that.

Sorry, here I am trying to diagnose myself. D'oh! That's not what your post was about!

I guess my point is there are official diagnostic criteria, but it's subjective. How does someone determine what a "significant impairmant" is?

It isn't any one symptom, its a list of symptoms. I will give it a try to define it. Keep in mind this is just my attempt to define it. I'm not perfect, nor and expert.

To me Autism is a fundamental lack of understanding other people, disinterest in other people, and/or a biological or social deficient which causes and / or manifests itself as an over focus on self and at least to some degree causes an alienation of what is considered normal within social functioning. This alienation causes a significant shift into how individuals channel and / or displace their functional and mental processes (or energies). Obsessive interests and repetitive stimulation is a way to release and/or displace such "energies". Due to the fundamental lack of social functioning individuals fail to learn and / or understand social skills acquired naturally within certain developmental mile stones that NT children progressively "learn" and / or understand. The lack of theory of mind is a secondary observation caused by the person being progressively alienated from NT development. Using my theory of AS and Autism you can see how even someone with ADHD or another "Co-Morbid" disorder could cause them to develop this significant lack of Theory of Mind. I believe that there is a spectrum rather then a few narrow definitions for this reason. The cause of the fundamental split from normal development is likely to be the answer. A person who might have had severe ADHD would undoubtably be different then a person who had severe sensory problems, but both would develop a similar lack of the theory of mind that we see common among autistics and AS.