autistic spectrum

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hi, *

I am a newbie. I am kinda confused about how the autistic spectrum works.
I've heard so many different nad contradictory things, like:
-aspergers is a form of nonverbal learning disability
-people with aspergers have excellent visual skills
-aspergers is completely different from autism
-aspergers is a mild form of autism
-aspergers is an attention deficit disord
-aspergers is the opposite of ADHD
Sometimes ADHD seems to be included on the autistic spectrum and sometimes not.

What do people here think?

I'm wondering about this because I have ADD (without the H). But I have some traits that seem to be more aspergerish than ADD.

-aspergers is a form of nonverbal learning disability

Some people with AS have next to no problems learning in school. It tends to impact social skills more. It really depends on the person.

-people with aspergers have excellent visual skills

I'm not even sure what to say in response to that one. I have never heard that one before. It is possible to be blind and have AS as far as I know

-aspergers is completely different from autism
-aspergers is a mild form of autism

Asperger's is not completely different from autism, it shares a lot of the same traits (main difference is lack of language development delay). Whether it is actually a form of autism or a closely related syndrome is a subject for debate, but most experts say it is a form of autism.

-aspergers is an attention deficit disord

Nope, it is a pervasive development disorder, much like PDD-NOS, Autism, Rett Syndrome, Child Disintegrative Disorder.

-aspergers is the opposite of ADHD

Nope. A lot of people that have AS have a lot of the same traits. The traits would always be completely opposite if this was the case.

I would highly recommend this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_Syndrome
It contains a lot of good information on the syndrome.

Cheers!

Hi Trapped, thanks!

With "visual skills", I mean more in terms of having good visual reasoning skills (provided the person is able to see). Like what would be required for being a good chess player, or something like that.


-msekko

Hmmm...I'm not too sure about that then. I wouldn't rate my own visual reasoning skills all that high to be perfectly honest.