please help - AS or HFA only

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I need those with HFA or AS to help me. My son was just tested and the results of whether or not he is HFA or Aspergers will be told to me in a few weeks. Please read what I wrote in the parenting section. It is under

Son tests - HFA or AS

Please clear up any myths I may have.
I know a great deal of book knowledge on the subject but need to here it from the real experts, you guys. You who are either HFA or AS.

I am classified as being autistic (H.F.A.). The DSM manual make only a small distinction between the two. Those with significant speech delays (not speaking until 3 or 4) are considered "autistic" while those with little or no speech delay are considered Aspie. My PERSONAL opinion is that Aspies are somewhere between classic Auties and neurotypical. In order to tell for sure, I would have to know more about your son. I wouldn't really worry about the exact label unless you need a specific label in order to satisfy some bureaucratic requirement. Please also specify what myths or concerns you have, and I will try to help address and or alleviate these.

I am working with the newly formed Autism Education Center http://www.autismeducationcenter.net as an adviser to parents and teens as well as the NT population in my area. I also recommend not just going to a psychologist or psychiatrist. I personally believe that the doctors that are best suited to helping people like me at least are neurologists. I happen to have a great one

Thanks.

Cyberscan, I posted my very long drawn out message in parenting section. I explained more there. He started to speak at age 2 1/2. He had few words beforehand. I am a school psychologist, so it just makes the whole situation that much more confusing.The more you read, the more you realize you know close to nothing or the more confused you get.

Read what I wrote and you will see what I am talking about concerning myths and more about my son.
I know about the small distinction between the two but so much literature tries to make even more of a distinction. Possible myths: SAspies generally score higher on verbal than nonverbal tests whereas People with autism show a different profile - recent articles as someone stated is actually showing that not to be true most of the time. Aspies are poor at fine and gross motor skills, usually more true than not but NOT always (my son has a strength at fine motor but is weak at gross motor). Most aspies have NVLD. That is also currently being debunked my son research articles. At least you can't consider it an ultimate defining characteristic.

My son has great spatial reasoning skills which is said to be a weakness with Aspies, but if that were true than why are so many Aspies computer programmers and engineers?? In order to be a competent engineer, don't you need good nonverbal spatial reasoning skills.

It just doesn't make sense. It seems that people want nice little neat categories but on top of it all, everyone is still human and have our own personality make up as well. You can't look at everything as that being Autism or Aspergers. Look at the individual!!

The speech path that has been working with my son sometimes leaves me fuming and I plan on speaking up during our "feedback and report session". She helps with the social skills component and is really good at that, so I have to be careful - not to careful, though. The clinical psych is really good. That is why I don't like the speech path. I actually know more than she does regarding psych stuff and problem solving skills and I am far from an expert in this field. She just started working at that clinic and is still learning yet she told me today that she thinks he is more HFA than Aspergers. That's fine. I don't really care about the label but her overall reasoning was so strange. She said something like, "The reason why is that the way he uses language is like a HFA and not Aspergers. People with Aspergers use language more typical. What? I know she is the speech path but that is not necessarily true as I have also worked with many individuals with Aspergers in my life.

Daniel, That is exactly what I was thinking. I emailed the psych tonight and explained how he was crying each time after testing and he was upset wbut couldn't tell me what. I explained that he hardly ever cries like that - a soft whimpering cry, barely audible. I was thinking Aspergers due to this. That is the reason why I emailed the psych. The speech path is not in the position of making the dx (which she actually admitted to, though).

Whatever they decide to classify my son, I will still classify him as Nate. I will not focus on his being on the spectrum but focus on his strengths and interests!

Cyberscan, IT sounds like what you are doing is REALLY WONDERFUL! Keep up the great work.

I was reading your second post and I see you have run into a perplexing situation. I can play NT and fool most people. However, I can NEVER fool a speech pathologist. Any speech pathologist who has worked with autistic people pick up my autism right away.. As far as trying to understand your son, I strongly recommend Temple Grandin's book, "Thinking in pictures" and "Unwritten Rules in Social relationships." In case you don't know who Temple Grandin is, she is an autistic genius who works in animal science. Her designs are used in most animal processing facilities across the United States. In her books, she describes how our minds work.

I'm glad you told me that you are a psychologist, because that gives me insight into what makes things so confusing. Autistic behavior can mimic many different disorders. I have been diagnosed as mentally ret*d, emotionally disturbed, having multiple personality disorder borderline personality disorder. The great quality YOU have is the fact that you are listening to and asking advice from those of us who are autistic. If I needed to see a psychologist for some reason, I hope I would find one like you.

Here are some links that you might want to look into:

http://www.templegrandin.com/
http://autism.about.com/od/inspirationideas/tp/besttraits.htm
http://www.theautismperspective.org/
http://www.autismeducationcenter.net/

and, of course, this website.

When our new center is completely established, I hope one of the things we will be able to do is provide training to mental health professionals in helping them to recognize autism and helping autistic people.

Thank you!!

Actually working as a school psych, I have been so angered to find a lot of kids were initially dx as having emotional disabilities. I changed that for two of them who were obviously on the spectrum. I am not a clinical psych but I was NOT about to write on the report that the children were Emotional Disability when that was not the primary disability. At least the special ed director went a long with my findings.

The speech path at my previous school that I worked at was very astute for picking up children who were on the spectrum. I went to her often. This path has said things that make me wonder, though. There is a drastic difference between the two. So, not all speech paths are created equal.

I have read a few of Temple's books. Thanks for the links.

I can read many books but really not truly understand until I get the facts from you guys!!
I have ADHD and know what it is like to live with it. When the pediatrician (that I fired) told me that my son was ADHD and not on the spectrum, despite having two reports from different individuals from when he was two saying he was on the Autism Spectrum I flipped out.
I know what ADHD is like and the symptoms. If my son truly was, I would be fine with it but he is not. I can tell being ADHD myself. I can pick them out in a crowd because I deal with it day to day. This pediatrician tried to play specialist yet he is a generalist. He saw my son for five minutes. DON'T even tell me something that I know more about both professionally and personally. The personally part I think is very telling.

So that is another reason why I go here. I need more understanding to help my son and make sense of everything.

Luckily the psychologist is very astute and said that the only thing he thinks is Aspergers but that was before the speech and language testing. He did say that he CLEARLY does not have ADHD (eat that stupid doctor). Sorry the doctor refused to listen to me and was so arrogant. I spent 9 years in school to study what I am doing (along with a speech path undergrad degree to top off the others).

I don't think my son liked the speech path, though. Nate was himself for the guy meaning that he talked a lot but he was very unusually quiet for the woman. That was not like him. He had another language assessment a year ago, which showed his expressive and receptive language skills to be in the average range. Interesting. I don't the test really measured the pragmatics of language, which my son does lack.

Well, Temple Grandin describes how some of our minds work. She's always been one for false generalizations, and even her corrections on those generalizations have mostly just turned into slightly more detailed generalizations.

I'd recommend a wide range of books by autistic people, as well as a wide range of actual autistic people to talk to, because you never know when someone will totally click with your kid and when what they say will be completely off-base.

(Also, when doing so, watch out for autistic people who just repeat the theories of non-autistic people when it comes to how our minds work. When that happens, it's almost indistinguishable from just picking up a book on theories about autism by non-autistic people.)

Managing with Asperger Syndrome by Malcolm L Johnson is good, but it applies primarily to working adults.

I made a list but it's outdated. What there is of it, is here.