Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communication difficulties and restrictive repetitive behaviors. The presentation is highly variable from child to child. ASD is very common, with 1 in 44 children in the US now qualifying as having an autism spectrum disorder. During this 2 part series we are joined by Dr. Sarah Dufek, a clinical psychologist at the UC Davis M.I.N.D institute.

In today’s podcast we review screening for autism in the outpatient setting with a tool called the MCHAT, we discuss how early can autism be diagnosed, signs to look out for and how families go about getting an official autism diagnosis.  We also discuss the most evidence based treatments for autism and how to transition teenage individuals with autism to further education, careers and independent living. 

This episode was written by Sarah Dufek, Lena van der List, Dean Blumberg, and Neha Valluri.

We would like to thank Dr. Dufek, a clinical psychologist at the UC Davis MIND institute for joining us for this episode, although Drs. Lena and Dr. Blumberg  take full responsibility for any errors or misinformation. 

 Supplemental information:

• MIND Institute Resources
• Autism Speaks- 100 day toolkit
• MIND Institute Videos About Autism
• Healthy Children- Autism

photo from AdysArmy.org