Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 3, March 20, 2024
A. Definition.
Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorders) means a developmental
disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and
social interaction; generally evident before age three that adversely affects a
student's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with
autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements,
resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual
responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a student's
educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the student has
an emotional disturbance. A student who manifests the characteristics of autism
after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria are
satisfied.
1. There may be coexisting
conditions/associated features that may include, but are not limited to
cognitive delays, seizure activity, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive
disorders, Tourette Syndrome, fragile X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, pica,
allergies, self-injurious behaviors, sleeping and toileting problems,
etc.
2. Asperger's Disorder,
Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Rett's
Disorder, or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder may be considered for the
classification if the criteria for autism are met.
B. Criteria for Eligibility. The
multidisciplinary team may determine that the student displays autism if
disturbances identified in all three of the categories below exist and
adversely affect a student's educational performance. These disturbances may be
characterized by delays, deviancies, arrests, and/or regressions in typical
skill development, and/or precocious skill acquisition. While autism is
behaviorally defined, manifestation of behavioral characteristics may vary
along a continuum ranging from mild to severe.
1. Communication. A minimum of two of the
following items must be documented:
a.
disturbances in the development of spoken language;
b. disturbances in conceptual development
(e.g., has difficulty with or does not understand time but may be able to tell
time; does not understand WH-questions; has good oral reading fluency but poor
comprehension; knows multiplication facts but cannot use them functionally;
does not appear to understand directional concepts, but can read a map and find
the way home; repeats multi-word utterances, but cannot process the
semantic-syntactic structure, etc.);
c. marked impairment in the ability to
attract another's attention, to initiate, or to sustain a socially appropriate
conversation;
d. disturbances in
shared joint attention (acts used to direct another's attention to an object,
action, or person for the purpose of sharing the focus on an object, person or
event);
e. stereotypical and/or
repetitive use of vocalizations, verbalizations and/or idiosyncratic language
(students with Asperger's syndrome may display these verbalizations at a higher
level of complexity or sophistication);
f. echolalia with or without communicative
intent (may be immediate, delayed, or mitigated);
g. marked impairment in the use and/or
understanding of nonverbal (e.g., eye-to-eye gaze, gestures, body postures,
facial expressions) and/or symbolic communication (e.g., signs, pictures,
words, sentences, written language);
h. prosody variances including, but not
limited to, unusual pitch, rate, volume and/or other intonational
contours;
i. scarcity of symbolic
play.
2. Relating to
people, events, and/or objects: A minimum of four of the following items must
be documented:
a. difficulty in developing
interpersonal relationships appropriate for developmental level;
b. impairments in social and/or emotional
reciprocity, or awareness of the existence of others and their
feelings;
c. developmentally
inappropriate or minimal spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, achievements,
and/or interests with others;
d.
absent, arrested, or delayed capacity to use objects/tools functionally, and/or
to assign them symbolic and/or thematic meaning;
e. difficulty generalizing and/or discerning
inappropriate versus appropriate behavior across settings and
situations;
f. lack of/or minimal
varied spontaneous pretend/make-believe play and/or social imitative
play;
g. difficulty comprehending
other people's social/communicative intentions (e.g., does not understand
jokes, sarcasm, irritation; social cues), interests, or perspectives;
h. impaired sense of behavioral consequences
(e.g., using the same tone of voice and/or language whether talking to
authority figures or peers, no fear of danger or injury to self or
others).
3. Restricted,
repetitive and/or stereotyped patterns of behaviors, interests, and/or
activities: A minimum of two of the following items must be documented:
a. unusual patterns of interest and/or topics
that are abnormal either in intensity or focus (e.g., knows all baseball
statistics, TV programs; has collection of light bulbs);
b. marked distress over change and/or
transitions (e.g., substitute teacher, moving from one activity to
another);
c. unreasonable
insistence on following specific rituals or routines (e.g., taking the same
route to school, flushing all toilets before leaving a setting, turning on all
lights upon returning home);
d.
stereotyped and/or repetitive motor movements (e.g., hand flapping, finger
flicking, hand washing, rocking, spinning);
e. persistent preoccupation with an object or
parts of objects (e.g., taking magazine everywhere he/she goes, playing with a
string, spinning wheels on toy car, interested only in church steeple rather
than the church);
C. Procedures for Evaluation. Conduct all
procedures described under §513, Evaluation Components.
D. Additional procedures for evaluation:
1. a comprehensive assessment conducted by a
certified school psychologist, licensed psychologist, physician or other
qualified examiner trained or experienced in the evaluation of students with
developmental disabilities;
2.
systematic observations of the student in interaction with others such as
parents, teachers, and peers across settings in the student's customary
environments;
3. if the results of
hearing screening are not definitive, the student shall be referred to an
audiologist;
4. a speech and
language assessment conducted by a speech/language pathologist trained and
experienced in the evaluation of children with developmental disabilities. For
non-verbal communicators, an augmentative/alternative communication assessment
should be conducted to determine needs and modes of communication;
5. the educational assessment shall include
the review and analysis of the student's response to scientifically
research-based interventions documented by progress monitoring data, when
appropriate;
6. an occupational
therapy assessment to address sensory processing and motor difficulties. All
observed symptoms should be clearly documented. At a minimum, sensory
processing assessment should address the following:
a. visual symptoms;
b. auditory symptoms;
c. tactile symptoms;
d. vestibular (balance) symptoms;
e. olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste)
symptoms;
f. proprioceptive
(movement) symptoms;
g. motor
planning difficulties; and
h.
attention/arousal difficulties;
7. other assessments (e.g., adaptive
behavior) as determined to be appropriate and necessary by the evaluation
coordinator and the multidisciplinary team.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
Promulgated in accordance with
R.S.
17:1941 et
seq.
