Does DSMIVs Aspergers Syndrome exsist?

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I understand the age at recognition is different from age at diagnosis. What I meant in that main reason quote is that the signs and symptoms of Aspergers are NOT recognized until they are older children, teens, and adults, diagnosis then, can happen years after recognition. If Aspergers did not exist in DSMIV, they would of been labeled as PDD(NOS)/Atypical Autism in the subgroup of pddnos: "Resembles Classic Autism but had A LATER AGE AT RECOGNITION or who are too young or too low functioning to rate diagnostic criteria".
In most people with Aspergers who have no speech delay, something unusual is not detected on these people until after age 3.

It does seem there isn't much difference between high functioning PDD NOS and Asperger's. I think maybe Asperger's is a type of PDD NOS, a specific type.

Back before AS was recognized and the whole autism spectrum, kids were labeled with other things like learning disability and developmental delays or language delays, tactile defense issues, and so on. I was skimming though a book once on learning disabilities and it was published in 1984 and some stories I read in there about kids, I wondered how many of them would be diagnosed with an ASD today and in the 90's?

I suspect this is what happened with aspies before it was known. I had a bunch of labels too growing up and then I was diagnosed with AS in 6th grade. For a while no one knew what was wrong with me. AS was new then so I don't think many doctors knew about it. It takes a while for them to catch up, especially with the DSM.

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding your explanation (both in your first post and the one that I've partly quoted above -- in particular the bolded sentence.)

It seemed like in your first post you were saying that people who are diagnosed at later ages are/were always diagnosed with either Asperger's or PDD-NOS/Atypical Autism -- that, according to official criteria, you can't be diagnosed with Autistic Disorder/Childhood Autism if your symptoms are only recognized in retrospect. My post was just to say that's not true. I was diagnosed with HFAutistic Disorder at the age of 24, and others have also been diagnosed with Autistic Disorder/Childhood Autism as adults or teenagers.



Where does this sentence come from? I have never read "later age at recognition" in the DSM-IV nor the ICD-10 (which could just mean I've never noticed them).



I think that delays in pragmatic/social language are still technically language delays from a speech and language pathology perspective. Given that most (if not all) people diagnosed with Asperger's have problems with the pragmatic/social use of language it could then be argued that most (if not all) people diagnosed with Asperger's meet the criteria for classic autism. It all depends on how you interpret "language delays".

And if you want to get technical, the communication criteria for classic autism in the DSM IV were:



.....delay/lack of spoken langauge development was only 1/4 possible symptoms a person had to display, and they only had to display 1/4 to meet the communication criterion.

And in the ICD-10, the criteria are:



...... so again, a person could meet the communication criterion for classic autism without a delay or total lack of development of spoken langauge.

It's a little less clear for me in terms of the ICD-10 but at least In the DSM-IV if someone went strictly by the book, it could be argued that most (if not all) people with Asperger's diagnoses should be diagnosed with Autistic Disorder -- particularly since the DSM-IV had a precedence rules where Asperger's was not supposed to be diagnosed if a person met criteria for Autistic Disorder.

And as far as I can see that is the only place in this entire discussion we even mention sensory issues. It seems to me that we are deferring to the so-called professionals much too much.

So, what do I hope for the future? I want us to have our own organizations run by and for adults on the Spectrum. And some of the volunteer work can be as readily accessible as what we do right here. And you don't have to volunteer at all. The organization is still happy to help you as a client.

For example, 'Spectrum Networking and Resources' (imaginary name) might be happy to send over a vetted volunteer to my house to help me with my taxes. And/or they might be happy to send another volunteer to help me get a better job. And I don't mean merely preaching advice to me. I mean, helping with much of the leg work.

To the best of my knowledge, no organization like this currently exists. Well, it should. We should have several organizations like this so you can pick which one best gels with you. Maybe the UK has a couple of organizations kind of approaching this model, but I don't really know.

I'm confused by the original poster's wording. The DSM V took out Asperger's Syndrome as a separate diagnosis, and now it's just autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

I voted no, because I think DSMIV AS is just autism.

The sentence came from the Handbook of Autism Spectrum Disorders. It describes all PDDS: Aspergers, Classic Autism, PDD(NOS), Rett Syndrome, and CDD. Similar things can be found in subgroups of PDD(NOS) if you Google, "PDD-NOS subgroups"

The sentence came from the Handbook of Autism Spectrum Disorders. It describes all PDDS: Aspergers, Classic Autism, PDD(NOS), Rett Syndrome, and CDD. Similar things can be found in subgroups of PDD(NOS) if you Google, "PDD-NOS subgroups"[/quote]

Ah, okay -- thanks!