HFA vs AS

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I know that this question was already ask but I didn't find it in the forum.

What is the differences between HFA and AS ?

Except wikipedia, do you know web site where I can find a official definition of terms like, AS, HFA, ADD ...

Thank you !

Usually a diagnosis if HFA is identical to a diagnosis of AS, with the distinction that you spoke late as a kid. But no guarantees about that, some people (including those making diagnoses) use the terms interchangably, and many feel that there is no real difference between as aspie and an HFA once they are old enough to have been talking for a while.

Funny you should post this now. My husband was saying today that he doesn't feel that he's AS. He did indeed have a speech delay, which I didn't. He has obsessive interests and routines and he's a bit socially clumsy but he is, nonetheless, social. He craves social interaction, whereas I avoid it, and always have done. As a kid he got into all sorts of trouble, whereas i was really quiet and stayed at home and played by myself (or with one friend when I had a friend that wanted to do the kind of thing I did).

It seems to be the social issue that's the main difference between us, but I guess there must be people with the social difficulties that don't have the obsessive interests, and so on - different constellations of traits that don't quite add up to AS.

But then, these things are only labels.

I don't think HFA and AS is the same thing.

I think that HFA would involve learning delays while aspies generally learn academics at an average, or, quite often, higher than average level.

I have learning delays, too, so I don't think I have AS.

I have a friend who has HFA, he didn’t speak until he was 4. Its seems to be a mater of degree between HFA and AS, he is more obsessive and more single focused then AS and has even worse social skills and ToM. His obsession is just mechanical diggers. His social skills seems worse too. When I met him 3 years ago on a geology field trip he had just tried to take people's alcoholic drinks away and pour them down a sink, he said they were breaking rules for drinking, he made allot of people very angry (it was time for me to tell him about autism).

In AS the obsession is something you can read in a book, they are practical. I like mineral collecting and astronomy. I know others with AS who are into the Titanic disaster, The Beatles, Film criticism, Snakes and Reptiles, The Simpson’s, Linux operating system, learning foreign languages, Mathematics, Soccer statistics. Obsessions less weird in AS then in HFA. I saw another guy with HFA on TV and he liked electrical plugs.

As far as Theory of Mind goes, I think in AS people predominately have trouble understanding other peoples emotions, people with AS will pass the Sally Ann test. Whereas in HFA people have trouble knowing what people feel and what facts they know (they will fail the Sally Ann test). So it’s just a matter of degree.

The differences are trivial really, people with AS and HFA and 80-90% similar in my experience.

What's the Sally Ann Test?

i think you're suggesting too much.

HFA people are allowed all sorts of possible mental disabilities. AS only have social disabilities, although they can have insignificant deficiencies in other things. ALSO, they now allow AS people to not say words until 2yo or simple sentences until 3yo.

But hey, I was speaking at least simple phrases by 10 months, and complex sentences by 18 months. NORMALLY, a child starts speaking words sometime after 12 months, and saying simple phrases with 50% clarity around 24 months.

HFA people also tend to be more right brain dominant, and AS people are more left brain. This means HFA people are more likely to visualize better and be more artistic. AS people are more likely to be more verbal, and more logical.

Steve

OK but I'm sure I'm AS and I'm artistic and visual.....

Yeah, there are some wild speculations based on anectdotal experiences. I have seen the opposite happen to these stories. I read a lot of stories here, where it's mainly for Aspies and see that there is wide range of disability and ability. there are so many variables.
There are a lot of people that can't hold down jobs, stay in school, make any friends. On the other hand, there are Aspies that have married, kept great jobs and happy lives. It does not seem to be contingent on the so-called mildness or severity of ASD either. It seems to be more contingent on what their supports were, what their beliefs are (what are their goals?) and accidents of nature.
My husband is probably HFA and is much more professionally successful and liked at work than me. I'm likely Asperger's and face a lot more frustration with social situations and finding an appropriate job. The ironic thing is that I'm a sensory seeker and he's not.

I know an autistic man who was diagnosed schizophrenic until his 30's. Regardless of the misdiagnosis and obvious lack of disability support, he is a program director at a radio station. A dream job.

I DID say MOR likely to be visual, etc... Apparantly the classic aspie is logical an verbal. That doesn't preclude visual and artistic though.

Well, there IS a question as to WHAT kind of job. I would have trouble being an athlete, salesperson, social director, etc... My job is a desk job requiring thought, and I do fine.

Basically there are four kinds of jobs:

1. Design
2. Building
3. Support/administrative
4. social

Aspies do well in the first 2, could generally do well in the third, and may do VERY poorly in the fourth. By contrast, most NTs could do OK in the 4th, and may do OK in the 2nd and 3rd, and generally need more help with the first. My job kind of covers 1-3.

Steve

I think everyone should be realistic with their job goals. This is an NT problem too. How many beautiful girls went to Hollywood to be stars and ended up as waitresses, prostitutes and housewives? I know theatre actors, musicians in small towns that are a bad weekend away from homelessness.
My problem is that I'm really good at grunt work, with minimal "advanced" socialization. I'm a good travel agent (the industry has all but disappeared) and nurse aide (not a livable wage). I went to school to be a teacher and found out that I had terrible stage fright. I can tutor one on one, but I don't think I could be surrounded by students. I could also get in a lot of trouble with school politics.
My husband excells in a grocery store where there are very strict rules and his skills are important. He got laid off in a store where the rules were vague and the people were clique-y. They didn't tolerate difference at all. They didn't want him to work hard. They'd ask him personal questions ("did you watch Cops last night?") and get very offended at his answers.

I’m a visual thinker. It slowed me writing up my Ph.D. thesis. I had to translate my image thoughts into language. It was hard work. Also, I couldn’t change my research topics, I got stuck in a routine. Simple repetitious work suits me, a nice routine doing the same mindless task over and over again, a job that would drive an NT mad.

My extern told me that one of my Thesis chapters was the best chapter he ever read in any thesis, the rest of my thesis was not as complete. I got obsessed with that chapter, it helped my get my Ph.D. I was lucky, it was barely related to the rest of my Ph.D. but my extern said he liked serendipitous discoveries. Link: Serendipity

Up until 3 years ago, had I even heard of AS, I'd have been called an NT (despite previous dx's)-but then I was dx'd, out of the blue, with AS. I've always been how I am, how I appeared/expressed myself depended on the environment, situation, people & things in my life at the time.
I had no language delay, I took to words easily, so that puts me in some category. My social difficulties were never severe enough to attract notice, esp. compared w/other students. My sensory differences (hating most food's smell, taste, feel and appearance) were the single big thing that marked me out as very strange, throughout my life from age 2 through today (age 34).
I have been more successful at relationships (finding a compatible intimate companion/partner) than at other "normal" goals. Having a job is not something I've been able to do. In some areas, I'm "dis-abled", in other areas I'm more able, one doesn't cancel out/nullify the other-I'm both.

My boyfriend is an "NT", I'm not-he's an extroverted sensory seeker & I'm an introverted avoider.
Counselor tells me I'm labelled Asperger's, but that many of my traits, such as extreme reactions to ("normal" to other people) sensory stimuli would be more indicative of/associated with autism.