What is the difference between AS and HFA?

Post Reply New Topic

... that's actually very clever. I think I'm going to kidnap that and use it.

It's probably better to say AS is a form of HFA if accurate labels are important to you.

AS is usually on the milder end of HFA, and Kanner's is on the more severe end; it's a little muddled as people can move from one to the other as they age/develop, and even backwards if they get enough stress thrown at them.

Simplified:

Kanner's: aloof social behaviour as a child and as an adult (it's sometimes passive behaviour)
AS: aloof, passive or odd and eccentric social behaviour as a child, and it usually moves to the next step up as the individual ages

Aloof: in own world for most part, doesn't initiate conversation and doesn't receive it
passive: accepts approaches but doesn't start it
odd and eccentric: the one-sided and verbose style of social interaction

Both can have delays in verbal ability, but it's far more common in Kanner's (the DSM kept it strict in this case and wanted a very exact depiction).

I'm doing a study of this, I so far I've asked a few individuals with both diagnoses mature questions a child would never knew the asnwer of, as well as intelligent questions, I've also asked them about suicide, so far, very few of the people with HFA considered it, but the majority of the aspies said they've considered it, so I think aspies are more developed mentally in some way, but that's all I know for know, but there's no denying in the fact that aspies don't lack language and cognitive development, I believe aspies are more mature and thus accepted more in society.

I think that people with the HFA diagnosis tend to have fewer obsessions and special interests, where as aspies have a longer list of them, but the special interests and obsessions of someone with HFA are often stronger and much more intense.

Just to make one thing clear, I didn't mean to provoke anyone with my last post, I just wrote some facts and how the people with HFA and AS answered the questions.

Don't be ignorant to the fact that people with AS have better speech and no lack in cgnitive development.

I think he was joking.

A similar suicidality pattern is seen in people with severe and mild CP--the people with severe CP tend to have more stable emotions and less suicidality overall. I have no idea why; maybe the people with mild CP tend to suffer more prejudice. It's probably much easier for your basic jackass to justify abusing somebody who's got slurred speech and walks funny than somebody who's using a wheelchair and a communication device.

I was diagnosed with HFA but my symptoms seem to be near identical to a lot of people diagnosed with aspergers on this forum.

Most people tend to get that mixed up, even the doctor and my headteacher thought it was different....

I was diagnosed as autistic as a child and then now ive been told i have aspergers.... But I had speech delays when I was younger so technically it would make me High-Functioning Autism and i'm not that clumsy either....

You think that I should get re-diagnosed again to double check?

Yeah, I've never been clumsy, actually very well coordinated and balanced.

Callisa, I relate to everything you said in your post actually down to the problems with feeding though I don't think I could have articulated it that well. I tend to think it's related to my autism but never quite sure how. It seems like a window that had opened for me during my thirties is actually closing back to some degree with my cognitive functioning skills and verbal communication. I don't know what's up with it but I am less scared about it now than I was because I know I will be able to deal with it, one way or another.

I remember some comedian with (mild) CP saying someone once shouted at her on the street, "hey, next time just say no!"

Maybe there's also the "uncanny valley" effect -- that people are much more creeped out if you look really really human, but not quite (it's about perception of robots), as opposed to sort of human, but obviously not. Seems like an invisible disability issue; if you look basically normal, they they talk to you and you aren't, maybe it's more shocking. Like biting into a Twinkie and finding the filling isn't the normal white stuff, but instead anchovy paste (ok, weird analogy, but whatever).

OTOH, it seems like it would be plenty bad to be treated like an incompetent/defective all the time as well. But maybe if you know (or just assume) the reaction to you is on external things, it's easier to write people off as superficial jerks. Whereas, if you get rejected/treated-badly only after people meet you, it's feels like more of a negative comment on your soul, and harder to think of as a disability rights issue.

You can not differentiate them until they start being diagnosed accurately.

You'll be surprised, we are not more mature or more accepted in society, at all. And no one is more developed than the other, both have average/above average IQs. And asking about suicide is not an intelligent question, and people who do think about it are usually depressed or something, and whether or not someone is HFA has nothing to do with that.
And about the language development, I have AS and I had a speech delay and didn't talk properly until 5/6 and I had speech therapy in infant's school, it may be less common for aspies to have developmental delays but it happens. I have a friend with HFA who had speech delays and he caught up and he's a smart guy and would ask and suggest answers to intelligent questions, I have very enjoyable and deep conversations with him.
HFA and AS have many similarities whether you like it or not. And your post implies that you think aspies are somehow superior? I don't know where you got that idea from.

I feel eliminating AS from the next DSM will be a disservice.

My fundamental view of how to separate AS from classic autism is that AS affects how a person processes emotion but language and cognitive skills are largely intact or enhanced. Someone with classic autism will have all functions of the brain impacted to varying degrees. Mind you, this is just a general definition, but it's important because that people with normal to advance language skills and moderate to high IQs were considered to NOT be autistic went on for some time until AS was recognized for what it was.

Hence, unless they have been calling AS High-Functioning Autism for some time because they didn't know of the AS label, I think it might lend to confusion.

We might examine this by asking whether AS is logically equivalent to HFA. Are there any AS who are not HFA? Are there any HFA who are not AS? AS specifically requires an absence in delays of language, self help skills and cognitive development. Some who are HFA might not be AS, so there is a distinction. I think fitting the AS criteria pretty much implies a fit to the autistic disorder criteria in most cases.