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Danielismyname
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Joined: 2 Apr 2007
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 8,565

16 Dec 2008, 10:31 pm

More alike than unlike is the usual jazz of late. Which means that there's impairments in the few core areas that make up "Autism" (social, repetitive behaviours, and communication, for example), but the two different labels describe two groups that manifest these core areas differently.

Whether there's a point to differentiate these two groups or not based on something such as aloof behaviour compared to odd and eccentric behaviour is the usual topic of contention by various professionals and institutes.

Personally, Infantile Autism and Asperger's as they're defined, and based on Wing's original paper/clinical account, point out two manifestations of a similar or the same disorder. There was no clear consensus within her paper, however, other than saying that it was similar to Infantile Autism (probably the same thing as Schizoid Personality Disorder too), and that one child she posted an account of started off with Infantile Autism and actually showed the symptoms of Asperger's Disorder as he aged (in elementary school and prior, he was clearly showing signs of Infantile Autism).

"Spectrum":

Quote:
As mentioned above, Wing & Gould (1979) carried out an epidemiological study of all mentally or physically handicapped children in one area of London, in an attempt to identify all those with autism or autistic-like conditions, whatever their level of intelligence. The results confirmed the following hypothesis. Certain problems affecting early child development tend to cluster together: namely, absence or impairment of two-way social interaction; absence or impairment of comprehension and use of language, non-verbal as well as verbal; and absence or impairment of true, flexible imaginative activities, with the substitution of a narrow range of repetitive, stereotyped pursuits. Each aspect of this triad can occur in varying degrees of severity, and in association with any level of intelligence as measured on standardised tests.