Diagnosis of Preschool Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Problems and Prospects

The article is devoted to the study of the quality of education of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders using the author’s diagnostic tools. The level of development of the child is determined in five educational areas established by the federal state educational standard of preschool education. These are speech, cognitive, social, and communicative, physical, and artistic – aesthetic development. The purpose of the article is to study and evaluate the effectiveness of the diagnostic tools in the context of implementing an individual educational program for a child with ASD in a preschool educational institution. The work used methods of theoretical analysis, generalization, and systematization of scientific approaches to socialization, communication development, and diagnosis of children with ASD. The team of teachers studied and identified the most effective and scientifically based diagnostics. The diagnostic tools were created based on the principles of interdisciplinary support specialists, aimed at solving the problems of children with ASD and their families. As a result of testing this toolkit, low dynamics of children’s transition from one level of development to another were revealed, which is explained by the peculiarity of the development of children with ASD. It consists of a decrease in the ability to establish emotional contact, communication, and social development. The proposed diagnostic toolkit can use diagnostics of children with ASD in preschool institutions of a correctional or compensatory type, organizations with inclusive practice, and will simplify the creation of an individual educational route by specialists in correctional pedagogy.