The only difference between High Functioning Autism and Aspergers is that the former carries a language delay while the latter does not.
However....
Recent theories, including those of Tony Attwood, suggest that there is not clinical difference between HFA and AS.
In that sense, then yes - speech can be anywhere in aspergers, delayed, ahead, normal, archaic... etc.
Tony Attwood's Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome wrote:
Peter Szatmari has suggested that those children with autism who develop functional language in early childhood eventually join the developmental trajectory and have a profile of abilities typical of a child with Asperger’s syndrome (Szatmari 2000). At one point in a child’s early development, autism is the correct diagnosis, but a distinct subgroup of children with autism can show a remarkable improvement in language, play and motivation to socialize with their peers between the ages of four and six years. The developmental trajectory for such children has changed and their profile of abilities in the primary or elementary school years is consistent with the characteristics of Asperger’s syndrome (Attwood 1998; Dissanayake 2004; Gillberg 1998;Wing 1981).
These children, who may subsequently be diagnosed as having High Functioning Autism or Asperger’s syndrome, will benefit from the strategies and services designed
for children with Asperger’s syndrome rather than autism.
and
Tony Attwood's Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome wrote:
Research has now been conducted on whether delayed language in children with autism can accurately predict later clinical symptoms. Four studies have cast considerable doubt over the use of early language delay as a differential criterion between High Functioning Autism and Asperger’s syndrome (Eisenmajer et al. 1998; Howlin 2003; Manjiviona and Prior 1999; Mayes and Calhoun 2001). Any differences in language ability that are apparent in the pre-school years between children with autism and an IQ within the normal range, and those with Asperger’s syndrome, have largely disappeared by early adolescence.
and
Tony Attwood's Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome wrote:
Inmy opinion, and that of many clinicians, early language delay is not an exclusion criterion for Asperger’s syndrome and may actually be an inclusion criterion, as in the Gillberg criteria. The focus during the diagnostic assessment should be on current language use (the pragmatic aspects of language) rather than the history of language development.
14 Jan 2009, 12:47 pm
