Discuss the unique challenges associated with the psychiatric interview of a child with autism spectrum disorder. Describe how you would approach this assessment. Include a discussion of different DSM-5 criteria and how it can help you distinguish between the various diagnoses under this diagnostic category. Be sure to include ethical/legal considerations in your response.
Purpose:
The purpose of required threaded discussions is an interactive dialogue among instructors and students. This is to assist the student in organizing, integrating, applying, and critically appraising one’s knowledge regarding the nursing profession and selected area of practice. Scholarly information obtained from current sources as well as professional communication is required. The articles should have been published within the past 5 years and be peer reviewed. In some cases, you will need to pull in content from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). APA
Application of information to advance practice nursing experiences promotes the analysis and use of principles, knowledge and information learned and related to real-life clinical situations. Interactive dialogue among instructors and peers fosters the development of a learning community as ideas, perspectives and knowledge is shared.
What are the unique challenges in interviewing an ASD child
One of the challenges associated with the psychiatric interview of a child is extreme communication difficulties. Also, children with ASD often are extremely literal in their interpretation of reality. They constantly experience difficulties with central cohesion, and this can negatively affect the interview. As a result, the psychiatrist involved in interviews may make an inaccurate impression of a child’s behaviors. Additionally, children with ASD participating in a psychiatric interview require some level of attention and preparation.
I would approach this assessment by avoiding questions and statements that are ambiguous in interpretation. Also, avoiding metaphors, sarcasm, and questions that require inference, insinuation, or deduction.