Autism levels. Is it a thing?

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Ds is autistic, diagnosed aged 5 after being on the pathway. He is now nearly 12 so nearly 7 years ago. I know diagnosis is different per area.

we got a diagnosis letter stating he's been diagnosed as being on the spectrum. No level or anything. Don't feel it's needed anyway as it's a spectrum and every autistic child or adult is different and has varying struggles snd strengths.

anyway, I've recently met a few mums from my area who's children are also on the spectrum. They've mentioned things like 'level 1' 'level 3'.

a boy in his class was recently diagnosed with level 1.

is levels a more recent thing? It seems to be children in my area that's been diagnosed more recently.

I am not fussed on getting a level for DS, or anything. That's not the point in my post. His needs have changed hugely since he was 5.

but the I felt like the other mothers looked at me like I was silly when they were talking about levels and I had no idea what they were talking about and they were questioning why DS didn't have a level.

where DS struggles in one area, he exceeds in another so I would imagine giving him a level would be hard anyway!!

I (autistic adult who works in a school) have never heard of it, but just googled and it looks like it's a thing now link. I wonder if it's a new thing, hence why your DS didn't get a level when he was diagnosed.

I agree that the levels things seems very arbitrary and unnecessary.

The DSM-5 now does classify ASD in to 3 levels.

DS got his diagnosis less then a year ago (just before he turned 5), and has no level, just ASD. However I can see the need for some type of subdivisions, DS's level of needs is vastly different then other children we know who have the exact same diagnosis.

hello there my son was diagnosed in 2015 no level just a letter but when i requested his medical files there was an ados assessment in there that showed the level hope this helps you x

in my child’s assessment over the summer it explained 3 levels of autism, I can’t remember the terms exactly, 1 having the least severe and 3 the highest needs. Hope that helps.

As far as I was concerned they don’t use levels when diagnosing young children because their level of needs is likely to change over time. I think a lot of the very young children can present as quite high needs but over time they develop and need a lot less support. I think this is why they stopped giving levels to young children.
They do give levels in the USA, as the insurance will cover a certain amount of support for each of the different levels (so I believe). From what I can see is that they give many toddlers with speech delays and issues a level 3 diagnosis so they can get the most support possible. But the child will not necessarily be at that level for life.