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A Lifespan of Autism Services Our Services What is Autism. Autism or autism spectrum disorder also known as ASD refers to a disorder currently diagnosed through symptoms which involve difficulties in social interaction verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. The DSM5 updated in 2013 uses two key categories of symptoms for diagnosing autism persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts and restricted repetitive patterns of behaviors interest or activities manifested by at least two of the following stereotyped or repetitive movements use of objects or speech insistence on sameness inflexible adherence to routines or ritualized patterns of behavior highly restricted fixated interests of abnormal intensity or focus hyper or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment. Symptoms for autism typically appear between 1018 months of age.