High Functioning Autism vs Aspieness

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I saw somewhere that the main difference between AS and HFA is a developmental delay, is this true? My dad said I didn't really talk properly until I was around 3 or 4, but I was capable of doing so. I'm not really sure if this is a developmental delay, but I'm wondering if this is why I have HFA rather than AS.

I'm not absolutely sure what is meant by 'high functioning', as I promise you that I'm not socially, but I can take care of the basics such as having a bath and eating, most of the time anyway. My children are looked after better than I look after myself.

high functioning autism isnt a diagnostic label,but high functioning autism means its someone who has autism and an IQ over 70.
this means their autism presents differently to those of us who are under the low functioning bracket-HFAs have a wider mental capacity which allows them to function better in society,allows them to understand complex meanings and language,allows them to develop better coping skills,to do most if not all things for themselves independantly as adults and will live independantly as adults unless any comorbid diagnoses are involved.

those of us who are low functioning autistic are diagnosed with an IQ under 70 and it affects how our autism presents.
for our whole lives have significant support needs, personal care needs, toileting difficulties, communication and language difficulties,learning and understanding difficulties,severe challenging behavior etc. we lack the social awareness and understanding of how we differ to other people to know we are intelectualy disabled;so as a result we lack discrimination abilities to varying degrees;for example with mine am unable to recognise racial or gender differences-humans are all blank blobs of flesh to self,all worth the same and no different.

now,as for whether have got classic autism,it sounds like had had mutism and were not non verbal because the ability was there,a lot of aspies have mutism and some use AAC programmes but theyre not non verbal autistic,mutism and non verbalism are commonly wrongly swapped for each other in the autistic community, non verbalism is lack of mental capacity to produce speech significantly past the age of when it was expected.

Using the DSM IV, I would have been technically be classified under "HFA" rather than "AS" because I was a late talker. HOWEVER, the reason I was a late talker was because I had partial deafness not anything to do with processing or sensory issues. Another reason I think much of the diagnostic criteria is bogus.

I had a significant speech delay for which I received speech therapy when I was a toddler but was still diagnosed with Asperger's when I was 13/14 years old. My diagnosis back then was non-specific developmental delays (I was a late walker as well).

There's a lot of debate on whether or not speech delay is the main difference between HFA and Asperger's. That's one of the reasons AS was merged with ASD in the new DSM. There was too much overlap in the diagnostic criteria. The same symptoms could easily be diagnosed as AS or HFA when evaluated by different doctors.

l also talked late and had a language delay and the reason why I don't qualify for a HFA label or for the autistic disorder label is because I had hearing loss in my infancy and when I was a year old. I wasn't deaf very long but it was long enough for a baby because their minds develop so fast and a month makes a difference so it messed me up. But yet I know another aspie who was also deaf and he was born with it and it didn't affect his development it seems like because he still had high cognitive levels so he was able to understand and learn and know about whales at a young age and I had low cognitive skills because I didn't understand lot of things. His deafness did not stop him from being a little professor about his interests at a young age. I have thought I was between autism and AS and that is what my psychiatrist wrote but he placed me with AS for closest match. I also scored in the ret*d range too and in the borderline range but scored high in other areas on the IQ test.

I'm really confused. I've never had an IQ test from a psychiatrist/school psychologist. Do they give those who can't talk very well + other symptoms of LFA an IQ test? My daughter's paedatrician said she has low functioning autism, but she's only 3 and never had an IQ test. She's actually quite a smart child, she can work things out very easily, it's just that behaviour and communication is a huge issue. Does this mean that she's not low functioning?

I'm in America so perhaps things are different here.

When (or if) I have a child, I will always be very skeptical of pediatricians. I last saw one when I was 9 and he wrote in his report that I was a "uncooperative child" and "thought he was a class clown". Those are so off the wall laughable he might as well said I was a serial killer with 100 kills to my name. I was practically a mute at that age! In my opinion, it's WAY too early to diagnose a child with LFA but I'm not a doctor, just smarter than some of them For crying out loud, my Ex knew of a 2 year old toddler diagnosed with HFA! How is that possible especially since ASDs are basically a diagnosis of exclusion in which all other causes are supposed to be ruled out first?

Some of the advice and suspicions Doctors gave my parents when I was young turned out to be wrong, wrong, wrong. One medication I was on it turns out should have NEVER been given to a child my age (even the package itself said it but the Dr. insisted it was safe) and was banned a few years later because it was suspected to be linked to a potentially fatal side effect, especially in children

Maybe ask the doctor and providers how she is doing. I think sometimes labels are used to help get services and are justified but may or may not mean there is going to be extreme long term disability. Which is what I would be concerned for if it were my child---the future.

It must be, but it sounds really inhumane. Do they provide IQ tests to adults?

Sure, when I was ten, my mom had a doctor test me in other areas to prove I was smart, not slow so she tested me in other areas and I scored higher in them while I scored lower on the overall test and she wrote my overall IQ score was not accurate. That is the problem with tests here and teachers and doctors going by the overall score. My mom knew I wasn't ret*d because of how I thought and did things. But I hear it's common for kids with classic autism and kids with language delays to score low on them while aspie kids tend to score normal or above normal. I always skeptical when members here say they have an IQ in the 70's or 60's or lower and yet they don't sound like they are that low functioning in their posts.

I'm thinkng the same thing. Seems like a lousy test when people who are so insightful and informative are labeled as if they are not.

I believe Aspergers is a form of Autism. It is as much a part of Autism as London is to the United Kingdom. If it is not classical autism's twin it is it's brother/sister or at most cousin(using metaphors). Unless you are a child a speech language developmental delay up to age 3 does not matter now, it is how your language is now and how much it can be improved that matters.

The DSM manual has gotten rid of Aspergers as a official diagnoses, and the ICD manual seems set to follow in 2017. High Functioning Autism was never an official diagnosis. While not official, some clinicians use HFA and AS as diagnosis while elsewhere it remains colloquialisms.

So if it were me I would rename Autism Spectrum Disorders Level 1, Aspergers-Autism. A lot of current HFA people would fall into to that diagnosis and should because there is not much of a difference. As rigidity and sometimes to willing to please are traits associated with ASD I think we are effected by what is official more then others. Maybe bringing back Aspergers as an officially endorsed word would revert a lot of the negativity that has become associated with what was once viewed as very positive before it was unendorsed. If you are diagnosed with Apergers-Autism you could call yourself Aspie, Autistic, Aspie-Autistic etc.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 28 Feb 2014, 5:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I began speaking at age 2. I mostly echoed for a few years after I began speaking. And at 31 am still in speech therapy.

I was diagnosed with Aspergers, not autism. (I *did* speak before age 3, after all.)

I think it's frankly up to the subjective guesses of the diagnostician about which diagnosis will most help each individual, which varies considerably by location, local services available, etc.

Of course you're confused; there isn't really a difference, and "high-functioning" has been described a dozen different ways, with no one definition being the official one.

The primary difference between Asperger's and regular autism is that people with Asperger's are required to speak on time and have no developmental delay. But people with regular autism can also speak on time and have no developmental delay; they can fit the criteria if they have problems with communication rather than speech, or if they don't have imaginative play.

Functionally, there really isn't much difference. The auties might be more likely to need help learning speech, but since the Aspies still have problems getting ideas from Brain A to Brain B, it's not like they need that much less tutoring.

I do not understand this criterion, as autism is defined as a pervasive developmental disorder and Aspergers being autism makes it a pervasive developmental disorder, what does "no developmental delay" mean then, as a pervasive developmental disorder implies developmental delay.