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Alright Dr. B here with demystifying the DSM and we are in the neurodevelopmental chapter of the DSM and I would like to talk about autism today. Unfortunately, this is a diagnosis that we are continuing to see a rise in. Lots of young children are being diagnosed with autism. What that is from is not what this video is about, but it's something that every practitioner and even parents and should all know what autism is. If you have a child with autism, what you should be trying to do and. If you're if you have young children, they probably have someone in their classes that has a diagnosis of autism, so it is important that kind of everybody knows what autism is and what it is not. It is not an intellectual disability, and this is important to kind of clarify. One of the things that you often hear is that, or people assume that individuals with autism also have a low IQ or an intellectual disability. Someone can have both, but not all of them. So, an autism diagnosis by itself does not mean an intellectual disability, and that's super important. The other important piece of this, it is a communication social disorder and it's possible even those who have a dual diagnosis of an intellectual disability and an autism diagnosis. This it may just be the way in which we're testing their intelligence that shows that they are at low IQ. Because we're you know that the way that we test is socially what's appropriate for us, right? If you have a social and communication disorder, you may not test well on this kind of intellectual type disability testing so very clearly that these are two separate disorders. And in autism there is a social and in communication. It's on this huge spectrum to where you can have someone who I love to use Sheldon on The Big Bang theory as an example, and I don't know if the character was supposed to be, you know, presenting as the kind of this Asperger's. High functioning autism, but this is the social disconnect. You know social when people are talking or when there's something going on in a large group, or even in one-to-one conversations. They may be missing what the rest of us pick up naturally, and we don't typically teach these things in our educational system, right? Because we if you don't have autism, you pick these things up naturally, right? You assimilate to your culture. And the the best-known therapy for children with severe autism moderate to severe autism. Is ABA applied behavioral analysis. Which is just It's the behavioral piece of cognitive behavioral, but only the behavioral piece where it's all about rewarding the behaviors that. Autism in a twofold we should have an applied behavioral analysis assessment. Not all children will benefit from it, but a lot of them will. It is the strong standard of care and early intervention for a diagnosis of autism is to get that applied behavioral analysis type therapy So be nice to parents of children with autism.You have no idea that the stress and the struggle and the judgment that they get when their child is having a meltdown in public. It is not easy to find the balance between therapy environment and medication, but there is a possibility to do that and so finding help and getting these kids into the appropriate treatment is a community. --Dr. Cristi Bundukamara, Ed.D, PMHNP-BC --- A Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Doctor of Healthcare Education has experienced unimaginable trials that have caused many feelings such as depression, anxiety, anger, & overwhelming stress. However, she has developed a new pathway to becoming Mentally Strong & Choosing to be Happy. With purpose, Dr. B has developed the phases that were refined within the Mentally STRONG Method that she created and wants to share with you.