Yale Autism Seminar - Video Yale Child Study Center

This video summarizes (for dentists and parents) basic aspects of autism and dentistry. It will help dentists understand how children with autism can be helped to access dental care and for parents it will summarize some strategies to help dental visits go well.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders exhibit a range of behavioral excesses and deficits that can interfere significantly with adaptive functioning at home, in the community, and at school. At times these challenging behaviors can cause harm to others or to the person with autism, and often contribute both to isolation and misunderstanding of the needs of the individual.

This lecture introduces the foundations of behavioral assessment and treatment of significant challenging behavior in persons with autism.

Prof. Fred Volkmar introduces the Yale College Autism Seminar and provides a general overview of autism and related disorders and what the course will cover.

Dr. James McPartland, Director of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic, presents on the research taking place at the Yale Child Study Center. He discusses a model of social development in autism and reviews current understanding of the relationship between experience and brain function in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The central theme of this presentation is diagnosis and assessment of autism spectrum disorders. Diagnosis is a clinical endeavor, made by experienced clinicians with knowledge of the features of ASDs. The latter are defined in behavioral terms and fall into three major categories: social, communication, and restricted and repetitive behaviors.

Whereas diagnosis is a means of classification, and captures a child’s presentation in a more global way, an important goal of assessment is to document the child’s functioning in a more refined, detailed, and descriptive way for that individual. Assessment is aimed at not only identifying areas of vulnerability but also those areas that are strengths in the child’s profile. Both are relevant to treatment planning.

Dr. Fred Volkmar, director of the Yale Child Study Center, discusses what we have learned about autism, and how we are turning our research into practice for adolescents and young adults on the spectrum