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Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction

Amerantin (former member)
8 months ago

DSM-5 says that to meet the diagnostic criteria for ASD there must be persistent deficits in all three of the areas below.

  1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
  2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
  3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.

So why is it some of us are completely alone and isolated while others seem to have friends, partners and active social lives?

How do people who meet the above criteria achieve this?

Parents
  • 8 months ago

    My partner and friends are all neurodivergent too, so that helps. They're not all autistic, but there's enough overlap in experiences with people with things like ADHD that it's a lot easier to find common ground and not misinterpret each other's words/behaviour.

    It's also worth bearing in mind that although the diagnostic criteria say that autistic people have deficits in these areas, that's only true in comparison to neurotypical people. If you think of those 'deficits' as being the natural autistic way of communicating it makes a lot more sense that we often do much better with this stuff when we're around other autistic people.

Reply
  • 8 months ago

    My partner and friends are all neurodivergent too, so that helps. They're not all autistic, but there's enough overlap in experiences with people with things like ADHD that it's a lot easier to find common ground and not misinterpret each other's words/behaviour.

    It's also worth bearing in mind that although the diagnostic criteria say that autistic people have deficits in these areas, that's only true in comparison to neurotypical people. If you think of those 'deficits' as being the natural autistic way of communicating it makes a lot more sense that we often do much better with this stuff when we're around other autistic people.

Children
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