Admittedly, I’m not an expert on the changes being made and I don’t own a crystal ball in order to predict how each person and family will be affected.
However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that at least part of the motive behind these changes, is to curb an epidemic without actually addressing the problem.
Having said that, I do have one thing to say to those making these changes.
“By changing the definition of what Autism is, you’re not making anything better. Sure, fewer people will be diagnosed, but that’s only because you’re choosing to ignore the rest that are not as obviously affected by it”.
Maybe the change is needed but perhaps it should be put off until we better understand the impact these changes will have.
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It's just ironic because they're not changing the definition of autism at all. The core symptoms being the social/emotional difficulties are remaining untouched, and they're adding another core symptom: the sensory aspects. A lot of it isn't going to be changed, it's just re-worded and better classified so that those who are falling through the cracks right now could possibly get the help they need too. I think the key factor here in it all is the line about it impacting daily life. It can't be that bad of a problem to need a diagnosis and therapy and such if it isn't impacting you daily, to where you weren't thinking about a diagnosis in the first place. It's one thing to have autistic traits, and another to be impacted by those traits.
I guess I'm going off on a random tangent here without meaning to.
Agreed. This will cut costs for schools and insurance companies at the cost of the families, children and community. That they want to separate more classic autism from less obvious aspergers and PDD NOS is not a BAD thing, but to just push those kids back into the shadows again? Not acceptable! If we're changing the definition of ASD on the DSM V, then we need to also ADD a category to capture those we're excluding.