What is Autism?
Autism is a complex, lifelong disability.
People with Autism share the core features of social and communication difficulties, narrow interests and repetitive behaviours.
Autism is often referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), an umbrella term that encompasses a number of conditions including Autistic Disorder, Asperger Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
People on the Autism Spectrum experience:
- challenges in communicating and interacting with others,
- thinking in a flexible way,
- processing information from their senses and
- adapting their behaviours to what can seem incredibly confusing and frustrating situations.
Despite having difficulties in these same core areas, no two people with Autism are the same.
People on the Autism spectrum may also have a significant intellectual impairment while others may have average or above average intelligence. Some may have little or no verbal language skills through to those who are highly verbal yet still have difficulty using these language skills socially.
While it is a lifelong disability, people with Autism can learn and develop when provided with appropriate supports.
