Happy Platinum Birthday Judy

Wishing the remarkably bad-ass and quite amazing Judy Heumann a wonderful platinum birthday and many more to come.
(and an early 101th birthday greeting as well)
Short video of my greeting.

 

And make sure to see the longer The Heumann Perspective videos/ podcast tribute for her birthday.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/VQdR4iJ4vfA (I'm at ~15:30)

Judy's Website: https://judithheumann.com/happy-75th-birthday-judy/

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/56b34dwz

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/wrk6dbfy

#disabilityrights #disabilitylaw

A Simple Guide to the ICD and Autism: Understanding ICD-11

Lexicon [Measures] - DSM & ICD

PlainSpeak. In Plain Language for the Lay Audience

While the USA uses the DSM, most of the world uses another tool called the ICD. The ICD, or International Classification of Diseases, is a guide created by the World Health Organization (WHO) to help doctors all over the world diagnose and understand diseases and health conditions. 

The Early Years: ICD-6 to ICD-9

• ICD-6 (1948): The sixth edition of the ICD was the first to include mental disorders, but it didn’t mention autism. Autism wasn’t recognized as its own condition back then.
• ICD-7 (1955) and ICD-8 (1965): These editions added more mental disorders but still didn’t have specific criteria for autism. Autism was often mixed up with other psychiatric conditions.
• ICD-9 (1979): This edition started to recognize autism under a broader category called "Pervasive Developmental Disorders" (PDD), showing that people were beginning to understand autism better.

Defining Autism: ICD-10

• ICD-10 (1992): This edition made a big change by giving more detailed classifications for autism. Autism was listed under "Pervasive Developmental Disorders" (F84). It included:
  • Childhood Autism: Kids with problems in social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors.
  • Atypical Autism: Similar to childhood autism but with unusual age of onset or different symptoms.
  • Asperger's Syndrome: Problems in social interaction and repetitive behaviors, but no significant delays in language or thinking.
  • Other PDDs: Including Rett's Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

The Modern Era: ICD-11

• ICD-11 (2018): The latest edition made important changes to how autism is diagnosed, similar to the DSM-5 used in the USA. Key updates include:
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (6A02): The ICD-11 combined all previous types of autism into one category: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This shows that autism is a spectrum with different levels of severity and symptoms.
  • Two Core Domains:
    • Deficits in Social Communication and Social Interaction: Ongoing difficulties in social communication and interaction.
    • Restricted, Repetitive Patterns of Behavior, Interests, or Activities: Repetitive movements, strict routines, very focused interests, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.
  • Severity Specifiers: These help to indicate how severe the condition is and how much support a person might need in daily life.
  • Associated Features: This allows for noting extra features like intellectual development disorders and language impairments to give a fuller picture of each person’s unique situation.

Impact of ICD-11 on Autism Diagnosis

The changes in ICD-11 help make autism diagnoses more accurate and consistent worldwide. By recognizing autism as a spectrum disorder, the ICD-11 understands that people with autism can have a wide range of symptoms and levels of severity. This approach supports more personalized and appropriate treatments, tailored to what each individual needs.

As our knowledge about autism grows, the ICD will keep evolving to make sure people with autism get the right diagnosis and support. This evolution helps ensure that everyone with autism can live a fulfilling life.

Executive Dysfunction Theory

 

While no single theory fully explains all aspects of autism, each attempts to provide insights into different cognitive and behavioral characteristics.

• This theory posits that autists have challenges in executive functions, which are cognitive processes that regulate, control, and manage other cognitive processes. These include planning, working memory, attention, problem-solving, and cognitive flexibility.
• Implications: Difficulty in adapting to new situations, problems with organizing tasks, and a tendency to engage in repetitive behaviors and routines.

Read more on [Executive Dysfunction Theory and Executive Dysfunction]

Posts on other [Theories of Autism]

Media Mention

https://www.stridelearning.com/insights/how-can-schools-best-support-students-on-the-autism-spectrum.html

"In the book, I talk about this where I said that I'm more of a fan of the term high support needs and low support needs, because I tend to think that functioning labels really flatten the experience. Because if you call someone low functioning, what it does is it gives a lot of incentive to almost patronize them or to say they're not going to amount to much, so we don't need to invest that much in them. Whereas I think that if you call people high functioning, it almost kind of erases the very legitimate needs that they have. That binary doesn't do anybody good, I don't think. A perfect example that I used when I was writing this book is that I profile a woman by the name of Aria. That's a pseudonym.

She's married, she has kids, all that, but she had trouble graduating college and she had trouble finding work. Whereas there's this young man I profiled, his name is Hari Srinivasan. He is non-speaking. He just graduated from Berkeley a few months ago. He's now started graduate school at Vanderbilt University. At that point, when you think about those things, you have to ask yourself, "Okay, by those standards, who's the high functioning and who's the low functioning one?" You realize that that binary just is... It doesn't work."