if asperger is the same as HFA then do I have asperger?

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if asperger is the same as HFA then do I have asperger?
does all peopel with HFA have asperger?

Well it's a spectrum, but it's not exatly the same.

There are some differences.
Aspergers usually have more motorical differences and HFAs more trouble with speech and others.

No, they're not quite the same but they're similar. Asperger's is a type of autism but it's different from most HFAs.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that 50-80% of Aspergers have motorical differences from NTs. I don't remember the source now though, sorry. It was a PDF document of an Asperger's study. But my point is; Dont use that as a way to differentiate.

what are motorical differneces?

Motor skills / motor coordination different from what neurotypicals have.

wouldnt AS be a sub category of HFA?

well.. the answer is that no-one can tell for sure, there are some who think that autism is separate from AS.. others fail to see any meaningful difference between AS and HFA not that it really matters..

The only diagnostic difference between the two is that with HFA there is a speech delay and with AS there is not. This is why they are changing the criteria for autism in the DSM-V.

"HFA" and "Asperger's", are not identical groups. Not everyone with HFA can be reasonably considered as having Asperger's.

However, they are highly overlapping groups, and often, but not always, people diagnosed with Asperger's are better thought of in terms of being like high functioning classic autism instead of the stereotypes of Asperger's. I've seen various numbers between 40% and 90% of people diagnosed with Asperger's actually meeting the diagnostic criteria for classic autism.

You don't necessarily have Asperger's and in your situation this can be simple, but the artificial split puts some of us in near contradictory positions.

HFA and AS don't mean the same things, but the AS diagnosis doesn't mean the person isn't like someone with classic autism.

HFA people who have significant speech and communication impairments in adulthood do not have AS and cannot be considered to have AS.

HFA people who had significant speech and communication impairments in childhood, but developed high levels of speech and communication abilities by adulthood, also do not have AS, but can be considered to have AS by themselves or others in a this-looks-like-this kinda sorta way. I am in this category, and I consider myself quite similar to someone with AS in adulthood, but not at all in childhood.

It's quite confusing. My daughter is on the spectrum, very high functioning, but does not fit the criteria for Aspergers and had no speech delay (in fact she was conversing in sentences at a year old, not just repeating what she'd heard). HFA is not the same as Aspergers, but someone with Aspergers could be described as having a specific type of high functioning autism, at the moment anyway.

HFA is similar to Asperger's Syndrome however there is a slight difference though.

The difference is AS is a diagnosis, HFA is not. There are several differences between AS and Autistic Disorder, but it is usually summarized as saying AD has a speech delay.

Exactly, No one can know for sure (at least right now) so that means more so the need to argue about it

I'd say that's probably one of the better ways to put it. It's not perfect, because there are people with Asperger's who can't live independently, can't hold a job, have problems with communication (not speech--communication)... It's not a hard-and-fast rule.

I would prefer just to dump the idea of functioning labels altogether, and say that autistic people come in a wide variety of ability levels in various areas; and that those diagnosed with Asperger's are the autistic people who can use spoken langauge, at least to some extent. Not to say that the classic autistics can't--it's just that the Aspies didn't have an early speech delay. In adulthood it really doesn't matter which is which; I often think I'd prefer to have an "autism spectrum disorder" diagnosis on my record rather than any specific subcategory because of how the "Asperger's" label forces me to explain to people that I can have some of the problems that classic autistics have, and that I don't have some of the problems stereotypically associated with Asperger's. Lately, I've just been telling doctors I have PDD-NOS, which is the label I most agree with, and vague enough that they have to at least gather some information about specifically how autism affects me.