Functioning Levels within Aspergers

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I was thinking the other day its surprising there wasn't functioning levels within Asperger’s when it existed.

You get some aspies that didn't get diagnosed until their adults with perfect speech, can mask well, with few noticeable symptoms. And some kids who talk on time but with echolalia and other communication difficulties that stand out.

Just like autism it was all under one condition.

There were not any functioning levels in any of the DSM IV Autism Spectrum diagnosis.

I didn't get dxed until I was 62, and under a different mental health trust . The previous mental health trust's professionals had not paid much attention to my mentioning the subject. They were incapable of/unwilling to look beyond the severe mental illness.

The pdoc I saw at the new mental health trust was more open minded . He asked questions . Got me to do something with my hands,and said I was quite dyspraxic .
It no doubt helped that my stepdaughter,who has worked with people on the spectrum, backed me up about it .

I wouldn't say my speech is perfect. Diction's not brilliant. I've never consciously masked . The score for the social communication part of the ADOS was 3(autism level). Whereas the score for social interaction was 5(Asperger's level) .

As understand it ...speech delays not only...have nothing to do with aspergers..if you had had a speech delay...it would be a DISqualifier for the diagnosis, and would cause you to be pegged as autistic, rather than aspie.

Speech issues are just a nonsequitar.

I think of autism as being like the USA, and I think of aspergers as being like Hawaii. Hawaii was its own kingdom, and separate nation. But then it voluntarily joined the United States. Just like medical experts decided to merge aspergers into autism. But like Hawaii, aspergers is the smaller entity. So Hawaii is comparable to the other 49 states as a subdivision of the USA. So it would be silly to subdivide that subdivision (make either Hawaii or aspergers into separate states).

But...states in the USA are subdivided into counties. So if you wanna subdivide either Hawaii, or aspergers, into "counties" I suppose that that might make sense. But counties are a lower taxon than are states.

Your analogy is incorrect; Hawaii did not join the USA willingly. I wrote a research paper on this at university. It was forcefully annexed into the USA to protect its financial interests there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow ... an_Kingdom

Maybe. Don't really know squat about how it joined the Union.

But it doesn't really change the point I made.

Actually I admit that Texas would have been a better analogy though. Texas rebelled against Mexico. Became its own republic for some years and then voluntarily joined the USA. And the ratio in size between the USA and Texas is more comparable to that between the sizes of autism and Aspergers. LOL! Texas added some heft to the young USA. Hawaii is just a microscopic flyspeck compared to the rest of the US. So aspergers is like Texas, and autism is like the whole USA!

Last edited by naturalplastic on 21 May 2020, 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I feel like diagnosises depending on IQ isn't accurate at all, because some people with no speech delays but meet the Asperger's criteria can also have learning difficulties (below average IQ but still high-functioning), while some people who had speech delays and are diagnosed with autism and are quite impaired (unable to work in employment, struggle with being independent, have obvious social deficits, etc) but can have quite a high IQ.
I have an autistic friend who is the same age as me but has above average IQ. His autism is quite obvious and he finds it hard to mask his symptoms like flapping his hands in public, and is 100% honest and speaks in a monotone voice, but he has a lot of savage skills. He can work out difficult maths sums in his head, play just about anything on the piano, is brilliant at football, is great at singing, and can paint very detailed pictures from memory (as in without having to copy anything).

So I don't think (intellectual) IQ should come into diagnostic labels.