There are 5 types of autism spectrum disorders:
Autistic Disorder
Asperger’s Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
Rett’s Syndrome
Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
Autistic Disorder
Asperger’s Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
Rett’s Syndrome
Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
Autism
Autism is defined as a developmental difference that significantly affects an individual’s verbal and nonverbal communication as well as his social interaction abilities and interests. On average, the disorder can be detected after 15 months of age. Autism is often referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), because it is indeed a spectrum of multiple types of similarly related disorders.
Asperger's Syndrome
Asperger’s syndrome is different from autism in the fact that children diagnosed with this type of the disorder develop verbal skills; in most cases even have very rich vocabularies, but experience difficulties understanding nonverbal communication and the pragmatics of language, which could often lead to impaired social skills. Nonverbal communication is often misinterpreted or undetected, because children with Asperger’s Syndrome cannot understand body language, facial expressions, and emotions. They also have difficulty interpreting cues about people’s feelings from behavior. They are often unable to understand the meaning behind most metaphors and take sarcastic remarks literally. As a result, even though many individuals may be very high functioning cognitively (e.g.. Temple Grandin, an internationally renowned author) they often experience significant social integration deflcits.
Child Disintegrative Disorder (CDD)
CDD is described as a rare disorder, which mostly affects males. The child has a typical development, which is followed by an onset of some of the main symptoms of autism, such as marked losses of motor, language and social skills. Symptoms may appear as early as age 2, although most develop the symptoms between 3 and 4 years of age.
Rett's Syndrome
Rett’s syndrome affects mostly females. The disorder manifests again after a period of typical development followed by a deceleration of head growth accompanied by an increase in autism-related symptoms. Other symptoms include regression in mental and social development, loss of language, seizures, and loss of hand skills that results in a constant hand wringing motion.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)
Children who manifest one or few characteristics of an ASD or who tend to have different, unusual communication and social skills than their peers could be diagnosed with PDD-NOS. As a result, children who suffer from a qualitative difference from their peers in communication, socialization, or interests and activities may receive a diagnosis of PDD-NOS.“Different children manifest different combinations of symptoms, but all share a core deficit in forming relationships and communicating”.