Introduction : Autour du diagnostic d’autisme

Résumé 0

Around diagnosing autismNotwithstanding the fact that there is no valid demonstration of the effect of an early intervention as compared to a later one, we know for sure that younger children participate more easily than older ones to intervention programs: to date the recommendation is therefore to start the intervention early. This position however requires a robust prognosis so as to prevent alarming families unduly and orienting toward wrong educative and life-guiding pathways.In the last fifteen years, numerous studies have shown that it is possible to identify in the general population early cases of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However the limits of the existing tools still remain. Such limits are mostly related to two main features of early development: it is running fast and it can take different pathways for different infants. This leads to emphasize the importance of a clear distinction between two kinds of objectives and two kinds of tools: tools that allow to differentiate among a population of infants with developmental impairments those that are ASD high risk infants and tools that allow to identify infants with risk of ASD in the general population. This distinction does not prevent from a common problem for the two objectives: development is not unidimensionnal, nor is it linear, and the path cannot be anticipated from past states, but rather it is the dynamic by-product of the coaction of genetic factors, brain dynamics factors and life experiences factors.This is why, besides the presentations and discussions of screening and prognosis tools, this issue includes the contribution of genetics, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, developmental psychopathology, developmental psychology and clinics, as we are convinced that an interdisciplinary option is crucial to help disentangling the many factors in play and allow a cluster of signals to converge at different scientific levels of information.As a whole, the interdisciplinary contributions were prepared during a colloquium organised on the behalf of the RISC (CNRS) and with the encouragement and financial support of the Fondation de France. The financial support allowed us to invite, in the company of the French specialists in the field, two famous researchers in early ASD diagnosis, Sally Rogers and Tony Charman, who took an active part to the colloquium and wrote a priceless contribution to the present issue.