Autism Therapy

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental disability that affects children and adults in many different ways. These typically include social and communication problems (e.g., difficulty to recognize or interpret other’s nonverbal expressions, difficulty in developing and maintaining relationships, lack of “theory of mind”, and inability to take another person’s perspective), as well as rigid/repetitive behaviors, obsessive interests, and sensory sensitivities. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 1 in 54 children today are affected by ASD.

Children and adults may struggle with social‐emotional reciprocity, have difficulty in back and forth conversation, tend to engage in one‐sided conversations or monologues (e.g., do not notice another person’s lack of interest in an activity), have difficulty sharing or recognizing social emotions (e.g., do not notice when they are being teased; do not notice how their behavior impacts others emotionally). Some children may struggle to engage in social role playing with peers, or feel uncomfortable looking people in the eyes, have difficulties adjusting their behavior to suit social contexts, asks socially inappropriate questions or make socially inappropriate statements in public.

Children and adults with ASD also tend to have excessive adherence to routines and have more difficulty with changes and transitions compared to others. They often have highly restricted, fixated or narrow range of interests (such as strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, and very narrow or perseverative interests). They often focus on the same few objects, topics or activities. Sometimes, repetitive vocal or motor behaviors or tics can be noticeable (e.g., repetitive vocalizations such as repetitive guttural sounds, intonational noise‐making, unusual squealing, repetitive humming).

Children and adults with ASD often have hyper‐or hypo‐reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/heat/cold, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, fascination with lights or spinning objects).

At the Katalyst Psychological Family Center we provide diagnostic evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorder and therapy services.