Summary: This week we continue our conversation on ASD and DSM-5 with leading autism expert and bestselling author Dr. Fred Volkmar director of The Yale Child Development Center. Dr. Volkmar will address the overall rate of autism (1-88) and the percentage that is made up of the Asperger’s/high functioning population. He will also explain the likely effects that the proposed changes to the autism category in DSM-5 will have on this group. Dr. Volkmar’s views about the impact of the new criteria on the high-functioning population continue to generate much controversy and conversation in the field of autism. Dr Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., a renowned expert on autism and other childhood mental disorders, is professor of child psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology at Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., where he also directs Yale’s Child Study Center. He is chief of child psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Volkmar has a long standing interest in the assessment and classification of autism and related disorders. He was the coordinator of the International Field Trial for autism and related disorders and is the primary author of the DSM-IV autism and pervasive developmental disorders section. He is the author of several hundred scientific papers and chapters as well as a number of books including A Practical Guide to Autism: What Every Parent, Family Member, and Teacher Needs to Know, Asperger's Syndrome, Health Care for Children on the Autism Spectrum, and the Handbook of Autism. He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Autism, The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry and currently is the editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
