Transtorno do espectro autista : estudo de caso sobre dificuldades enfrentadas no processo diagnóstico

Abstract

Among the neurodevelopmental disorders, conditions with early onset of child development, even before the child enters school, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) stands out today, due to its increasing incidence. Thus, the general objective of this work is to analyze the process of diagnosis and treatment of a 02-year-old boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), focusing on the role of the family in the early diagnosis and treatment. Having as specific objectives: to characterize the Autism Spectrum Disorder; present the neurophysiological elements involved in ASD; describe the diagnostic process in ASD and; to analyze the role of the family of the person with ASD in the diagnosis and treatment. This work is based on the perspective of Health Sciences, in the area of Medicine, in the subarea of Psychiatry, in the specialty of Childhood Psychiatric Disorders, referring to Neurodevelopmental Disorders, in the Applied Behavior Analysis - ABA approach, considering the parameters to perform differential diagnoses of ASD. This research is characterized as applied, qualitative, descriptive and case study. The corpus of analysis consists of documents referring to the diagnosis of a 02-year-old a boy with ASD and the family's report in an anamnesis interview at the third speech therapy service sought by the child's family, resident (father, mother, a sister and the child) in the municipality in the interior of the State of Mato Grosso (MT), Brazil; are the: (i) interviews with family members; (ii) medical reports; and (iii) exams. Data were collected from October 2021 to July 2022, as the exams were being delivered by the family. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as a set of persistent conditions of physical, social and socio-emotional neurodevelopmental disorders, as will be described in the course of this work. It starts with three general hypotheses: (i) late diagnosis of ASD can significantly interfere with the development of a person's skills and abilities because there is a possibility of loss of skills and greater cognitive inflexibility; (ii) it is important to improve professionals who care for people with ASD (interdisciplinary team) for quick identification and early intervention, which can benefit the development of the person with ASD as a whole; and (iii) the more knowledge the family has, the greater the chances of adopting actions that contribute to the diagnosis process and its daily management with the individual with ASD.