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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I understand that treatments for each level might be different, but based on my experiences with autistic people it really does seem like a spectrum. I know one kid who will close his eyes and rock back and forth as far as physically possible. He can hardly have a back and forth conversation, and laughs and talks to himself loudly at inappropriate times. He cannot come up with his own answers to assignments that require original sentences. Another autistic kid I know has back and forth conversations in some context, but not others (he can ask for clarification when receiving instructions, but in casual conversation either doesn't respond or responds with something completely off topic). He rocks back and forth in a less exaggerated manner with his eyes glazed over, and blurts out comments. Other kids just talk at me but can have reciprocal conversations with friends, just in a really off manner and don't ask follow-up questions, and they flap their hands at random moments.

Maybe these are just all level 1, but the first kid and the last kids I mentioned seem to have different levels of support needs. [/quote]

The traits you are describing sound significantly more severe than the many, many parents who post on here about their HFA ASD kids - whose only "symptoms", for example, are sensitivity in large crowds, can make eye contact (but prefer not to), and have difficulty navigating social norms in casual chit chat.  You are describing three kids with pretty clear autism symptoms, and in fact they all share symptoms with each other - but have varying levels of severity.  You describe them as level 1, but given what my own level 1 kid looks like (and the other HFA ASD kids i see described here), i thought for sure you were describing Level 2 , if not level 3.  The HFA ASD kids i see frequently described on this site are much milder than your descriptions, and share NO traits with the buckets you describe above.

That is the issue.  [/quote]

The only symptoms of the last group I mentioned were talking “at” me, having weird conversations with friends, and some of them flapping their hands every once in a while. Before I learned about level 1 autism I would have thought they were just a little weird. Except for that class, they are in regular classes and some do very well in school. And they aren’t in the same class as the kids I mentioned who have more severe autism; this is a class specifically for HFA.

I did pick out symptoms that were similar (rocking, rocking, and hand flapping) but from what I understand, where are many different behaviors that can be considered repetitive or restrictive. What is the hand flapping was instead constant repetitive and unusually hand movements? Is that the issue people are having? That the repetitive behaviors are different from rocking or hand flapping?

Also, I have been told on this website that DD received a misdiagnosis, but if I list *all* the symptoms, both the ones listed in the DSM and others associated with autism like having a meltdown with transitions, the diagnosis has never been questioned. So keep in mind that you cannot possibly know everything an evaluator knows and it’s more likely that an evaluator has the information to make an accurate diagnosis. [/quote]

The information the evaluator has is the info in the dsm. That’s what we are saying is the issue. 
If I created a disorder whose main ‘symptoms’ ranged from ‘a little difficult’ to ‘cannot communicate at all’ you’d think I was insane yet here we are. 
If you break down why any human is annoying it comes down to doesn’t pick up social cues, isn’t easy going, cannot regulate feelings.’ But sometimes people just aren’t that cool - the prob w the dsm is you can literally get an asd dx based purely on subjective criteria [/quote]

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