Could I have classic autism?

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Many people diagnosed with autism or PDD-NOS also have formal and/or pedantic speech and some have them as children, and not all diagnosed with classic autism were completely incapable of communication as children to the degree that btbnnyr describes. Other factors also play a role, such as the presence and development of self-help skills and adaptive behavior, both of which are not supposed to be impaired with AS, but are actually frequently impaired in those diagnosed with AS. who are also often incapable of holding a conversation. Or who communicate almost entirely through scripting as children and possibly to some extent as adults.

I am glad it's all going to be "ASD" in a few weeks.

Well, Verdandi, I didn’t say they wouldn’t. All aforementioned features can be, and often are, present also in people with classic autism, but I wasn’t denying that in any point of my one sentence statement, wasn’t I?

I said that the descriptors Callista used in describing his “classically autistic” communication in early years are actually very typical descriptors for communication impairments in Asperger and thus they in no way per se rule out AS or favor a diagnosis of autism. If depends on very much what is meant with “odd” like I also stated.


I didn’t deny in any point that other factors wouldn’t play a role. I was commenting a statement made solely of the communication domain.


The world isn’t the United States. Besides the fact that I am diagnostically in an ICD-10 country, I believe things aren’t ultimately going to change very much even there in the States.

I said that the descriptors Callista used in describing his “classically autistic” communication in early years are actually very typical descriptors for communication impairments in Asperger and thus they in no way per se rule out AS or favor a diagnosis of autism. If depends on very much what is meant with “odd” like I also stated.

That was an expression of frustration. I understand that there are certain traits that are associated with particular diagnostic labels, but I do not believe those traits are consistently associated with those labels or that those labels reflect a true separation of one label from another, although for various reasons many people on this forum appear to be invested in that separation. This doesn't mean that I think that everyone diagnosed on the autistic spectrum is identical to everyone else and has all the same symptoms and severity, but it does mean that often people focus on the labels and then make assumptions about the labels determining things such as severity, outcomes, and overall presentation, when this is not really helpful or even necessarily accurate.

That's not particularly directed at you.

Last edited by Verdandi on 06 May 2013, 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

As Autism is indeed a spectrum - I think all the lines are way too blurry to make a distinction when it's a kind of a close call. At the very least, know you have it - that in itself is decent information.

Doesn't matter. AS and HFA are the same thing for all practical purposes.