I was told that the section on communication was merged with the section on social interaction in the DSM V because research had shown these impairments to co-occur often. Is this true? Or not? Where might I find some research done by/for the APA which influenced this decision to merge? I would really appreciate some input here.
Hi Leah,
Kanner actually thought language difficulties in ASD were secondary to social issues and removed it from his core criteria for ASD in the 50s. Rutter then demonstrated strong associations between language and later outcomes and language re-emerged as a core criteria when autism became its own diagnostic category in the DSM-3.
There has been a lot of work showing overlap between social and communication difficulties in autism including studies showing that language did not differentiate well between autism and AS. For example:
Tager-Flusberg, H. (1999). A psychological approach to understanding the social and language impairments in autism. International review of psychiatry, 11(4), 325-334.
Lord, C., & Pickles, A. (1996). Language level and nonverbal social-communicative behaviors in autistic and language-delayed children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35(11), 1542-1550.
Howlin, P. (2003). Outcome in high-functioning adults with autism with and without early language delays: implications for the differentiation between autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 33(1), 3-13.
Cheers,
Kristen
Thanks for your help, I will most definitely look into this a bit more with these references!
I think that Liezls answer should be put into perspective. It applies only to the autism side of the spectrum and the ASD's with below average intelligence. It is also quite hard to disconnect from comorbidity.
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