From now until June 15th, the American Psychiatric Association is accepting public comments and feedback on the proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). There are many proposed changes, but the one that those in the Autism world are most concerned with seeks to include Asperger Syndrome, PDD-NOS, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Autistic Disorder into one neat little diagnosis called “Autism Spectrum Disorder”.
Then, those diagnosing individuals with ASD will have the opportunity to rate the level of severity of each person. People are worried that these changes will affect the services their kids are qualified and eligible for.
You can read about these proposed revisions HERE.
One very big change to the DSM-5 is the replacement of the term Mental Retardation with the newer Intellectual Development Disorder. Testing to determine IDD diagnosis will focus more on mental abilities and adaptive functioning skills, rather than IQ tests.
This seems like a huge leap in the right direction, because (between you and me and the rest of the interwebz) we think IQ tests on anyone with a learning, language, or expressive disorder just can’t be taken seriously. I mean, really??
If YOU’D like to exercise your right to comment on any of the proposed changes to the DSM-5, just CLICK HERE and have at it!