What is the difference between severe & profound autism?

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I sense that:

1. If one has "severe" autism, one is able take care of their personal needs--like toileting, washing, and such. And they are able to dress themselves. There, usually, is no speech. A person with "severe" autism is obviously autistic in the "classic" sense (stims, extreme social isolation, spinning objects, irritation at being forced to socialize, sensory difficulties). They are less "high maintenance" than people with "profound" autism; they don't have to be watched as closely as people with "profound" autism. At times, there exists some other disorder other than autism, though this is far from universal

2. People with "profound" autism are not able to take care of their own personal needs. They are obviously "autistic" in the "classic" sense. They usually have severe sensory difficulties, and sometimes self-injure. Some must wear a helmet because they bang their heads against walls because of all the frustration they face. They must be watched 24 hours a day. Usually, there is some other disorder other than autism present.

I was once watching a documentary about Flo and Kay, two autistic twin savants. They were verbal and could talk and communicate but they had daily assistance and one doctor evaluated them to see how much they understood people or not understand and he told them a fictional story about a person named *Katie. She had always wanted a bunny rabbit and always talked about it. Christmas comes and her parents hand her a present and tell her "We know this is what you always wanted" and Katie opens it and sees it's only a bible. She smiles and hugs them and goes "Thanks you guys so much for this wonderful gift, it's what I've always wanted." Then the doctor asked them why she told them that and they go "it was what she always wanted" and the doctor said they were profoundly autistic. Does that mean other autistic people would have said she was being polite and being nice because it's rude to not like your present? I only knew the answer because of stuff I have read here about people being polite and lying and pretending to like stuff. But that still wouldn't make me profoundly autistic and I guess given their middle age, it is what made them profoundly autistic vs an autistic teen giving that answer and an eight year old.

Looking the word up on google, it's just another word for severe.

I sincerely hope that doctor didn't actually assign a diagnosis based on the answer to one question about a story. That's absurd.

Profound (from the Latin word for "deep") sounds more severe than "severe" (it creates a mental image of the kid being so far down into the abyss of autism that the kid is beyond reach). So guessing off the top of my head I would guess that "Profound" is worse than "severe" (which is probably bad enough itself). But neither is an official clinical label in 2016.

About the gift story: a NT would immediately answer "to be polite to the parents" (ie see both the disappointment, and see the social motivation to conceal the disappointment). A moderately severe autistic would say "I have no idea why the kid didnt snap at her dumb parents for not giving her a bunny rabbit!" (would see the reason for disappointment, but would not see the motivation to conceal the disappointment).

But the twins in questions couldnt follow the story line well enough to even realize that there was a contradiction between the kid's expectation and the gift giving outcome. Or thats what I suppose was the lesson of the excercise.

I've seen the same documentary.

I doubt that any clinician would diagnose them with Level Three Autism. Perhaps Level Two, at the most.

They were already diagnosed.

I know that story would have confused me as a child so it makes me wonder if that is what led to me my AS diagnoses. I even remember the time I over heard a friend talking and I heard her saying to another girl how I always got her Polly Pockets for her birthday and she expressed her dislikes about it. I was so confused because she always liked mine and wanted to play with mine and when I got her one, she liked it so I got her a couple of them for her birthday so why would she be complaining about them to her friend? I never confronted her about it but I should have but she probably would have denied it and pretend to be confused. But then again I was only ten so I don't even know if my confusion was even normal. If this had happened now, I would have thought she was too polite to tell me the truth but why would she pretend to be interested in them and like them and want to play with them? That is so confusing. It would be like me saying to my dad "let's go see a football game up in Seattle" so we go and I express my like in football so he takes me a couple more times there and then I decide to complain about it to my mother and he over hears me. I mean what the heck. To me this is very weird if anyone actually acts this way. But when I told my mom this Polly Pocket story in my teens, she had a different perspective about it and she didn't say my friend was being polite. She said that sometimes kids will say they don't like something even though they do because they don't want anyone to know they like it.

That is a very good question!

Thanks for asking!



If you at least had symptoms of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior that caused you great distress from early childhood, you are considered to have the mildest form of Autism.





A mild form of Autism includes social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior from early childhood.





Moderate form of Autism includes clear deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills in addition to apparent social impairments from early to late childhood.





Severe Autism may include, lack of social skills, extremely impaired communication, repetitive behavior.





Profound Autism may include, intellectual disability (an IQ of 69 or below). Symptoms may include impaired social communications or interactions, bizarre behavior, and lack of social or emotional reciprocity. Sleep problems, aggressiveness, and self-injurious behavior are also possible frequent occurrences.[10] LFA is not a recognized diagnosis in the DSM-5 or ICD-10.

Asperger's Syndrome is often referred to as "High Functioning Autism" ( the mildest form of Autism ), and many experts agree that Autism should be diagnosed on a spectrum.



It can be so obvious that it's diagnosed at a very young age, or so mild that, like some living beings, a living being could largely "blend in" and only be diagnosed after learning, hearing about it or you can have Autism that was never diagnosed for the rest of your life





Symptoms of severe to profound forms of Autism and other profound developmental disorders may include:





1. Intellectual disability (an IQ of 69 or below).

2. Impaired social communications or interactions, bizarre behavior, and lack of social or

emotional reciprocity

3. Delusional interests and bizarre behaviors

4. Sleep problems, aggressiveness, and self-injurious behavior are also possible frequent

occurrences

5. Lack of eye contact, inadequate body language and a lack of emotional or physical

response to others' behaviors and emotions

6. lack of communication (both oral communication – i.e. nonverbal autism – and body

language), Repetitive use of words or phrases, and lack of imaginative play skills.

7. Respond only to very direct external social interaction from others

8. severe deficits in communication skills (verbal and nonverbal), inflexibility of behavior, extreme difficulty coping with change, and extreme difficulty

with shifting focus and attention. Individuals with level 3 autism would initiate very limited amounts of social interactions and would respond only to

direct social approaches from others.











Wikipedia states that it is common for individuals with PDD-NOS to have more intact social skills and a lower level of intellectual deficit than individuals with other PDDs.







Characteristics of many individuals with PDD-NOS or anyone like me are:







● Communication difficulties (e.g., using and understanding language)[6]

● Difficulty with social behavior

● Difficulty with changes in routines or environments

● Uneven skill development (strengths in some areas and delays in others

● Unusual play with toys and other objects

● Repetitive body movements or behavior patterns

● Preoccupation with fantasy, such as imaginary friends in childhood











Other symptoms of Autism includes:



● Making little or inconsistent eye contact

● Tending not to look at or listen to people

● Rarely sharing enjoyment of objects or activities by pointing or showing things to

others

● Failing to, or being slow to, respond to someone calling their name or to other

verbal attempts to gain attention

● Having difficulties with the back and forth of conversation

● Often talking at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not

interested or without giving others a chance to respond

● Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is

being said

● Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound sing-song or flat and robot-like

● Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to

predict or understand other people’s actions











Asperger's Syndrome is multifaceted, with varying degrees of severity in the key symptoms:



● Difficulty in social interaction, often due to issues with nonverbal communication

● Specific subjects of interest, often manifesting as a borderline obsession with a few

areas and/or hobbies

● IQ can vary, but is generally higher than average

● Surpressed and/or difficulty expressing emotions







I used to have profound developmental disorders from my early childhood.



It got milder, because I had IEP plans and meetings.







When I was 0-8 years old, I had some symptoms of Profound Developmental Disorder.



When I was 9-10 years old, I had some symptoms of PDD-NOS.



When I was 11-19 years old, I had some symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome







Now I feel like I have Learning Disorders, with Broad Autism Phenotype.





Now as an adult, I am very good at reading and understanding emotions, facial cues and body languages.