April 11, 2024, PHL17, Philadelphia: Should Parents Have Their Child Assessed for Autism? Tip from an Expert
Statistics show that 1 in 4 teenagers live with undiagnosed autism, but what should parents know before having their child assessed?
Laryssa Horodysky from Durand joined PHL17’s Jenna Meissner to talk about the signs of autism that all parents should know.
Behavior analyst Laryssa Horodysky: . . . So I actually recently heard a stat that one in four teenagers go undiagnosed, which shocked me.
I think, in this day and age, there is so much more autism awareness, so much more education.
I dug a little bit deeper and it makes sense. In 2013, the DSM was kind of altered a little bit.
So you always hear that autism is a kind of spectrum disorder. So there’s like a true gradient.
Those that have been most affected are that higher functioning. What used to be Aspergers Syndrome or PDDNOS. So they had some characteristics of autism like tendencies, but not enough for the full diagnosis. . . .
Those are the individuals that aren’t getting as many services. Also gender, girls typically aren’t diagnosed as much as boys because they can kind of mask symptoms a little bit more. . .
