Diagnosed as Aspergers despite speech delay

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I did not speak until I was 4. However, when I was 6 or 7, my psychologist diagnosed me with Asperger's Syndrome anyway. So I am officially diagnosed as Asperger's Syndrome. However, the Golden Rule of an Aspergers Diagnosis is no speech delay. So proubably for real, I have an undiagnosed type of High Functioning Autism.

Well, I actually have 'autistic disorder' because of my speech delays as well. HFA technically isn't an official diagnosis. I think that's why you weren't diagnosed with having HFA.

So I proubably might actually be (Kanner-type) High Functioning Autism, which has a simpler better well known criteria. But I have a high IQ tough.

Well, according to Tony Atwood in The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, Gillberg's 1991 criteria for Asperger's Syndrome has language development/delay as one of the criteria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gillberg#Gillberg.27s_criteria_for_Asperger_syndrome

In a nutshell there's basically no real evidence of any difference between HFA and Asperger's Syndrome at all - not even the supposed language delay (which I also had) that is typically cited.

I had a major-league language delay (i.e., I didn't speak until I was 5 1/2--yet I spoke "grammatically correct" in a few months). I was diagnosed with both autism and "brain-damage" around the age of 3.

I believe, after I acquired speech and spoke "grammatically correct," that I was a paradigm of Aspergian presentation (except that I was not truly advanced intellectually).

Brilliant. Thanks to the piss-poor functioning of this new site (which the more I use the more certain I become it doesn't run any better than the old site and quite possibly runs even worse), I lost my post due to a time-out error.

I'll try again. No language delay in Asperger's syndrome is a myth in the first place. See Gillberg's orginal criteria for AS below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gillberg#Gillberg.27s_criteria_for_Asperger_syndrome

(I didn't speak until I was 5.)

Have you read "Elijah's Cup," NCOT? This book presents a prime example of someone who was Kannerian as a very young child, then Aspergian later. He had a speech delay--though it wasn't as "major" as mine.

I believe this actually happens fairly frequently. I read "Dibs: in search of self" as a child/young adolescent. I see shades of this, though Dibs was more "Aspergian" even as a young child than Elijah. He acted out because he was "passive-aggressive." Later, Dibs flourished intellectually.

Temple Grandin fills that bill somewhat as well. If you read her autobiography, you'll see many similarities with "Elijah's Cup" (rather, the other way around LOL).

My impression is that she was more "classically" autistic" than Elijah (owing to her great visual memory and ease using visual memory). However, she was recently diagnosed as being Aspergian.

Yeah, I agree with this. OP, your story isn't uncommon. When I was researching this topic, I came across many posts on here saying the same thing - that they had been diagnosed Aspergers, but still technically had a language delay. I think that's part of the reason for the DSM-5 change... it was obvious that the two diagnoses were being given inconsistently.

No, m8, still on chapter 3 of Tony Atwood's The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome >_>. (Where I first learnt about the Gillberg criteria incidentally.)

I'm afraid I'm ruthlessly self-centred when it comes to autobiographies. If you're not my identical twin in a parallel universe who has had the exact same experiences as me, then I'm probably not going to be interested in a 500-page account of your life.

On a serious note, I just feel very different to everyone else and I don't really want to read books which increase that sense of feeling different. For a start, I'm not a positive thinker; never have been and probably never will be. People who write autobiographies tend to be people who have achieved success, otherwise they would have nothing to write about. Fair play to them, but that's not a reflection of my life. I've failed, completely and utterly, and I want to read about things which help me make sense of that - not that I have very much so far.

Er sorry. Going off on a complete tangent here... :-/ In a nutshell I probably did start out as Kannerish and ended up Aspergian. I don't know why I "improved", but I did to some extent: it certainly wasn't caused by my great upbringing [sarcasm], of that I'm sure.

EDIT: @Jezebel - That's why I'm in favour of the DSM-V changes. It's unusual of Americans to simplify things, as opposed to creating even more subcategories, so I'm even more impressed by the changes in a way.

I believe the autobiography I mentioned debunks the myth, in an illustrative fashion, that Aspergians inevitably do not experience language delay.

As a tool in research, I believe anecdotal accounts are essential complements to peer-reviewed, double blind, etc. research.

I consider it all ASD, with some people precocious in language, other people normal, other people delayed, other people non-verbal beyond childhood.

That would be considered "atypical autism" or PDDNOS. Actually, that's a very similar presentation to what Einstein had.

Yeah, what he/she said.



I know, but I'm just not interested enough in other people's lives to read an entire book about them... :/ I'll look it up on Amazon at least. If it looks interesting, I'll consider giving it a go.



Thought PDD-NOS was used to describe those who met one or two of the "triad of impairments", but not all three?

PDD-NOS can be that, or it can also be over some of the prerequisites.

I agree. I see it as a spectrum where we all share certain traits, but exhibit them differently (including with different severity levels). @NiceCupOfTea, that's why I'm a fan of the DSM-V changes too. It seems much simpler, though I'm sure changes could be made in the future. Many people seem to feel like ASD (including the level) doesn't accurately describe themselves, so it probably would've been a good idea to start out with a specifier (like "ASD with Aspergers traits") to ease the transition of losing a label (some people don't seem to know where they "fit" on the spectrum due to losing the separate diagnoses).

Well, I'm no PDD-NOS expert and even less likely to become one now that it doesn't exist as a diagnosis anymore. Personally I'm in agreement with btbnnyr that it all falls under the umbrella of ASD.

The current equivalent to PDD-NOS seems to be BAP or Broad Autism Phenotype.

EDIT: Once again I'm trumped by a post by Jezebel >_>. @Jezebel - I think ASD will undergo a lot of refinements in the near future. It's far from perfect as it stands, particularly the poorly-defined support levels. But I like the general concept of autism as a single disorder with a spectrum of severity.

Dunno what the Aspies are so confused about to be honest. Asperger's syndrome = HFA. It's not really rocket science.