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j0sh
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01 Nov 2009, 10:42 am

I sent this to a mother on another site I participate on. She's new to AS. Her son was recently changed from being diagnosed with ADHD to AS and she seems to be in a general panic over what to do and what it means. This is just my analysis and opinion on ADHD, AS, and learning disabilities.

What do you think of my analysis?

Quote:
Hello Kathy,

I've been doing allot of research over the past year to figure myself out. That included looking into learning disabilities, the autism spectrum, and AHDH. What I found was the information describing the personalities of persons with learning disabilities, Asperger's, and ADHD are describing the same group of people. All of these labels are a grouping of results (symptoms) of dysfunction in mental processes that use the same brain parts.

The severity and expression of dysfunction in these core processes presents itself in the form of a snowflake. :-) A completely unique person, that's kinda weird in the same way other similar people are weird, but still very unique.

At it's core, AHDH is a dysfunction in working memory and executive function. These same mental processes are used in learning. There is a huge co-morbidity rate of ADHD in persons with learning disabilities.

What kinda stuff happens when you have issues with executive function and working memory? Here's a few. This is a list and not a description of expression in a single individual. I think it’s obvious that many of these things can affect learning and behavior.

Problems resulting from dysfunction with working memory:
* The person may not be able to focus.
* The person may always be over focused.
* The person may over focus on stimulating topics or interests, but be incapable of this in general or non stimulating topics.
* The person may have problems with verbal comprehension. It’s hard to understand a concept someone is presenting verbally if you don’t have the working memory to hold all the verbal information required to make sense out of the information.
* The person may have problems with non verbal tasks. It’s very hard to do some tasks if you cannot present and hold information in a visual fashion inside your mind. Try writing out a math problem on a 2” square piece of paper, or in a completely black room with no light. Sounds tough huh?
* The person may have problems with time management.

Problems resulting from executive function:
* The person has problems controlling inhibitions. If the thought pops in your head, and your head doesn’t have any breaks or “should I do that” mechanism, you’re gonna do what you just thought of.
* The person has problems filtering information. Out of all this stimulus that’s coming in, what’s relevant?
* The person has problems with distractability. This is also part of the filtering process, but it’s a little different. This is a lack of am almost subconscious ability to tune out irrelevant information. Let’s say the previous entry for filtering is filtering everything you see and hear while paying attention in class. A problem with distractability is going to be the sound of a motor cycle driving by outside the class and that sound triggering a reaction that results in a train of thought. The kid distractability problems did hear the motor cycle and starts thinking about his dad’s bike, the last time he went with his dad on it for ice cream, what his favorite flavor of ice cream is, that the flavor has the same color as his mud puddles, that his mom got mad at him for jumping in a mud puddle and yelled at him. Other students in the class didn’t hear the distraction because their brain filtered it out for them automatically and as a result, weren’t in class feeling sad that their mom yelled at them once upon a time because they never heard the motor cycle to begin with.
* Problems with sequencing like following directions.
* Problems with planning.
* Problems with self regulation.

What's Asperger's? It's core symptoms are the result of dysfunction in working memory, executive function, plus a bunch of other stuff I don't know the source of. I don't know the core mental processes that would cause sensory issues and repetitive behaviors. I think some sensory issues could be attributed to executive function in the form or lacking mental process to filter out or tone down excessive input, but I just guessing. The repetitive behaviors may be a coping mechanism process as well as an underlying dysfunctional mental process. The additional dysfunctional mental processes found in Asperger's that are not part of ADHD and learning disabilities on their own is manifested in additional social symptoms.

So what I'm getting at is… The core issues that are part of ADHD can be part of Asperger's. The medication for ADHD may still be necessary even though your child’s diagnosis just changed from ADHD to Asperger’s. You said before that he seemed better on ADHD medication. The target of those medications are the same processes that also play a role in Asperger’s. But, the medications alone aren't going to "fix" your child and make him normal.

You have a child with a gray area label brain. What do you do about it? Appreciate that your son is a snowflake. Don’t stress that he may not have been born to be “normal”, “socially function as measured by individuals without gifts and deficits attributed to Snowflake Brain Syndrome”, or “some kind of highly developed social ninja ready to execute highly skilled social kung foo on others”. The best thing you can do is make him recognize and be proud of his uniqueness and the gifts he does have.

* Are there deficits to being born with a unique brain? Yes.
* Are people with unique brains constantly reminded of those deficits? Very much so!
* Are there strengths that coexist along side the deficits of being born with a unique brain? Usually
* Are the strengths recognized, nurtured, and used to counteract emotional and self image damage of constantly being reminded of the deficits of having a unique brain? I hope they are now, they weren't when I was "in the system", and I'm fearful they are still being missed or overshadowed by deficits. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm good at. Logical thinking and analysis seem to be my thing.

I hope this makes you feel a little better. It took my gray zone brain almost three hours to get this all sorted into a presentable product for you. BTW, I'm going to switch to just saying AS to you now instead of typing out Asperger's. Welcome to the community. :-)

Josh



LostAlien
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01 Nov 2009, 2:51 pm

AS sounds scary in your letter.

About executive function being the root of AS issues, I view you to be incorrect. Social skills problems are the biggest issues that I have dealt with and observed in others with AS.



CockneyRebel
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01 Nov 2009, 2:56 pm

I think that it should be tailored to what a particular person experiences, instead of that broad description.


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j0sh
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01 Nov 2009, 3:27 pm

LostAlien wrote:
AS sounds scary in your letter.

About executive function being the root of AS issues, I view you to be incorrect. Social skills problems are the biggest issues that I have dealt with and observed in others with AS.


:( I wasn't trying to scare her or anyone.

What do you think could be the core mental processes of social issues?

I think that an inability to identify facial expression, tone of voice, and filter out unnecessary information play a roll and are related to executive function and working memory. Often people have greater difficult coping in social situation as the number of participants or additional distractions increases. It's common for people with AS to have greater difficulty understanding or keeping up with a social experience as the number of involved parties increases. Many also have greater difficulty in places like loud restaurants, lunch rooms, bars, ect. Anxiety do to over stimulation and fear of over stimulation also seem to be increased in these busy environments. Core deficits in inability to automatically filter out unnecessary information in these environments seems to be playing at least a partial roll to me.



Last edited by j0sh on 01 Nov 2009, 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

j0sh
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01 Nov 2009, 3:39 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
I think that it should be tailored to what a particular person experiences, instead of that broad description.


I agree. The person's treatment should be tailor made to fit them. Unfortunately the label a person carries often decides what accommodations will be made available for them.

The person I was sending the message to has a son that was just relabeled from AHDH to AS. After the label was changed, prescriptions that were previously found to benefit the child when the child was labeled as ADHD were discontinued and the child has reacted negatively to new medications. I was trying to point out that the same deficits that were being addressed by the previous medication may actually still be there even though the label was changed.

I was trying to tell this person that the label is less important than addressing the core issues and getting to know the expression of deficits and strengths present in her child. And to help her be ok with him being born special.



Janissy
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01 Nov 2009, 3:59 pm

Speaking as a parent, I think it's a good analysis and likely to be helpful. Thumbs up.



hush6
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01 Nov 2009, 6:40 pm

I don't know anything about ADHD...but the AS parts seemed...unimportant to me.



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01 Nov 2009, 7:12 pm

I like it J0sh. You did spell ADHD AHDH a few times. Just thought I'd pint that out in case you didn't notice.


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