Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by a wide range of presentations, from nonverbal individuals with limited communication skills and mannerisms like hand-flapping, to individuals who are verbal and communicative but struggle with social communication and exhibit restricted interests and repetitive behaviors.

“um so autism spectrum so first it's a spectrum huge spectrum of what those what this means when we when we talk about autism spectrum um uh the it goes from um what people remember it from decades ago as from you know nonverbal very little you know communication skills um being somewhat isolated not interacting with other people mannerism such as flapping your hands very that's sort of a classic description that we do remember um from you know over the last couple decades um nowadays uh many children who have a lot of speech and language skills who who are who do communicate a lot but struggle with the social communication that we have with each other um who have many many strengths but do struggle with social skills and do have some restricted interest in repetitive behaviors they also qualify under this umbrella term called autism spectrum disorder”