Aspergers and Autism two different conditions?

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Could these be two distinct conditions with similar symptoms.

Among all the difficulties in my life Aspergers carries a normal IQ some times a little more.

I kind of feel guilty using the term Autism for myself when I see how much harder many children with Autism have it.

I have listed my problems and difficulty's here a number of times.

However I work and can enjoy a drink or a nice meal or cinema visit.

I have been on holiday to a number of countries also.

I am just asking the question to open of the topic because in all honesty I have no idea either way two conditions or one condition on a spectrum.

The stereotypes of "autism" and "Asperger's" are certainly distinct. But the actual people with those two diagnoses are practically impossible to separate into groups.

Autistics are supposed to be speech-delayed. Well, some speech-delayed people, in adulthood, are highly intelligent and completely independent. They are diagnosed with classic autism, but doing better than the average Aspie.

On the other side of it, you have autistics with intellectual disabilities, whose speech is not delayed when compared to non-autistics with similar IQs. Essentially, these are Aspies with intellectual disabilities.

Childhood tends to be quite difficult for both Aspies and auties. In the very early years, when the speech-delayed group seems so different from the non-speech-delayed group, you might think that they are really very different. But look closely, and you will see that the group without speech delays still has communication delays. They might not understand how to have a conversation. They probably don't understand body language. They may have problems with facial expressions, connotation, and social expectations. It's very possible for a non-verbal child to be able to communicate something that a language-using autistic cannot, if the non-verbal child can grab an adult's hand and lead them there, while the speaking child may not understand how to initiate the conversation.

With autism, we have this huge array of possible traits, but they don't fall into neat little sub-groups. What we have is a single disorder of cognition, social interaction, and information processing, which can be expressed in many ways, with each possible trait ranging from mild to severe. There is nothing that sets Asperger's apart, except for that stereotype of non-severity--a stereotype that often doesn't hold true.

I don't think we need separate categories for Asperger's and Autism just because autism has such a diversity of traits. Autism wouldn't be the first disorder like that. Depression can be mild and require only weekly counseling for two months, or it can be absolutely paralyzing and put you in the hospital for ECT. Cancer can be a scare handled with minor surgery in a doctor's office, or it can be deadly. A broken bone can be so mildly cracked that all it needs is rest, or it can be so shattered that repair is impossible and the limb is lost. Dyslexia can just make reading tiring, or can make learning to read impossible.

Autism can be mild, only an inconvenience--not inconsequential, but needing only minor help and only in childhood. That doesn't mean it's a different thing from autism that requires a lot of help over one's whole lifetime.

It would be nice and neat if everybody with one label had the same set of traits, but that's just not the case. Autism can mean a lot of things.

That is a very good answer.

This is indeed a complex issue.

What constitutes speech delay?

Link:



>>Article: Asperger Syndrome & Autism - Brain Differences Found<<

For (enormous) detail about this, see this book: Rethinking Autism: Variation and Complexity, by Lynn Waterhouse.

As best I can tell, many researchers currently believe that autism may have "subtypes" - I've seen speculation guessing around 10 subtypes, and other speculation with much higher numbers - nobody knows. There's some research in progress to try to unpack it such as Autism Phenome Project ( http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstit ... earch/app/ ).

If all the subtypes were eventually understood, most likely the primary diagnosis would be the subtype (these diagnoses would potentially be syndromes including traits other than the autism diagnostic criteria, and might also narrow down which of the autistic traits are likely to apply).

I hear you about feeling guilty using the word "autism," but I'm not sure distinctions such as "low-/high-functioning" do any favors for anyone either, so it's something of a no-win situation. Often it can work to just be specific about the difficulties or needs you or someone else may have in a particular situation.

It is useful and interesting to study autism in terms of subgroups, as I am finding at least two clear subgroups from the asd population in my research data.

Amongst HFASD, there is probably spectrum of language delay from verry merry berry early speaking and language use for one-sided communication to quite late speaking that eventually develops into fluent speech in later childhood and even teenage years and eberrything in between, and there are probably measurable brain and behavioral differences between these groups persisting into adulthood.

Considering that Aspergers has now been grouped into the autism spectrum in the DSM-V, there really isn't that much of a difference.
I'm kinda glad for that because of all the snickering and teasing that came around the word "aspergers". Heck, South Park made an episode making fun of the word.
People tend to take you more seriously when you say "high functioning autistic" rather than "aspergers".

My diagnosis was Asperger's, and regardless of what it sounds like, it's more informative for me telling people I have HFA or giving them a quick definition of AS. There's no reason the conditions should carry the name of the one researcher, just as much credit is due to... us...

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I always kind of thought that Asperger's and Autism were linked together, but I'm no expert.

BTW sharkattack, I like your avi.

I agree with Cberg, for communicating, HFA is understood, Aspergers is not a familiar term to many people.

And when it comes to those having frequent contact, a description of the concern or problem is much more valuable than a label.

On the speech or communications delays front, here's two examples from my life:

My son didn't start using words (instead of making up his own sounds and patterns) until after three. Before that he'd make noises that sounded like words (and were repeated so that you could get a sense for what he meant, accompanied with gestures or staring, etc.) He was obviously trying to communicate, but not in the language we share. He's 6 now and he still makes up words, sprinkling regular English with idiosyncratic word combinations and sounds that he's happy to try to define for you. If he's reaching for a word for something (because he either doesn't find a word that fits or because he's upset at someone), you're likely to get what is considered babble out of him.

I mostly understand him, because we talk so much, but to anyone observing, he ceases to speak English. It's a continuing theme on his progress reports, and something the specialists seeing him would very much like not to hear, but it bothers me very little (since he accompanies it with explanations and gestures.)

I was hyperlexic and read everything in sight, so I talked early (and talked like a 'little professor'), but I also didn't make full sense out of everything I heard and read, so sometimes I combined words eccentrically--for instance, my relatives fish a lot, and I didn't know it was just 'fishing', so I asked if we were going to go 'fish-killing' during a visit. Seems small, but that sort of thing was a pattern in my speech. Sometimes, when people talked to me, they'd run into a 'blank' spot, where I'd lose speech and sit there and stare at them, because they'd asked a question in an area in which I didn't have special knowledge.

Both are a kind of communication delay. In my son's case, it's more a general speech delay, and in mine it was a delay in expressive/receptive language (which he also has.)