This month, the American Psychiatric Association is publishing a new  edition of their bible for categorizing disorders -- the DSM, or

Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. And in a rare move, they have decided to re-classify Asperger's as another disorder on the autism spectrum of disorders.*

This will be addressed in my next webinar class on Wednesday, June 5th at 12pm noon EDT.  You can register for the webinar HERE.  This webinar is for NEW parents ONLY.  If you are confused about your child's diagnosis and have not yet spoken to me about it, then this webinar is for YOU.

A lot of people are up in arms, wondering how this will affect the resources they depend on from their health plans and education systems.

I took special notice of this landmark move because it signals once again the possibility that perhaps many children and adults have been MIS-diagnosed all along.  Of the thousands of people I have worked with over the last 40 years, the great majority have been diagnosed with Asperger's or autism spectrum disorder, which are psychiatric disorders according to the APA.  And yet, these same people have been able to successfully overcome the symptoms that brought them to me in the first places.  What gives?

One of the originators of the DSM was Dr. Dennis Cantwell. I worked with Dr. Cantwell during the priorl rewriting of DSM standards pertaining to autism and ADD and Asperger's.

Dr.Cantwell's work focused very specifically on separating language problems -- which consist of groups of teachable skills, -- from psychiatric problems, which are considered chronic. He wrote a book entitled

Psychiatric and Developmental Disorders in Children With Communication Disorder and I called him the day it came out. We started collaborating and worked together for 5 years, until his death in 1997.  But my work with Dr. Cantwell guides me to this day.

 

Where is the line between mental illness and communication disorder?

If best practice standards and international guidelines are followed, this can be easy to determine. Come to my webinar class and find out.  If you can't make it to the class, see the instructions below about how to schedule a free initial consultation by phone or Skype with me. 

 

Register for my Wednesday June 5th webinar class now by clicking HERE.