Is Aspie a discrete or continuous property?

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TheWingman
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13 Sep 2011, 7:43 am

If you suppose that they are different degree in the spectrum of autism from, let's say Dawn Syndrome to severe Autism, then we can ask how this distribution is made throughout this spectrum. Does it more looks like a bell curve or a straight line?



jackbus01
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13 Sep 2011, 8:16 am

I don't understand this question? It doesn't make sense.

1. What is "Dawn Syndrome" and what does it have to do with Autism?
2. Bell curves and straight lines and both continuous.
3. Distribution of what through the spectrum?

I don't mean to be picky but this question is so poorly worded that it is hard to understand. Can you please clarify?



TheWingman
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13 Sep 2011, 10:28 am

jackbus01 wrote:
I don't understand this question? It doesn't make sense.

1. What is "Dawn Syndrome" and what does it have to do with Autism?
2. Bell curves and straight lines and both continuous.
3. Distribution of what through the spectrum?

I don't mean to be picky but this question is so poorly worded that it is hard to understand. Can you please clarify?


OK let me reword it but it's quite hard to explain.

I am wondering if I have autism or asperger so I have been reading and waching a lot of videos on youtube about those. From what I could see, it is clear to me that they are different degrees of autism and different degree of asperger, which is itself a mild form of autism. Now if you consider that theere are different degree of autism, you can easily suppose that neurotypicals themselves can be autists to some lesser degree, some will be closer to autism than other, still being considered neurotypical.
At the other end of the spetrum, with have Dawn syndrom which can be considered as the opposite of autism. Considering this, it makes sense to think that everybody is autist to some degree and that asperger and autism are just labels set arbitrarily by psychiatrists to define a track of the spetrum. With way of seing things would be continuous in terms of statistics.

If you consider that asperger and autists represent some dinsinct group from neurotypicals with some clear and well delimited boundaries, them they would form discrete groups froms a statistical point of view.

I would like to know what you think about that.



izzeme
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13 Sep 2011, 10:41 am

i suppose he means 'down syndrome'; something that is not on the autism spectrum, to my knowledge.

as for the spectrum itself; i think its gaussian-normal distributed from rainman syndrome to high functioning aspergers; the so-called 'bell curve'



TPE2
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13 Sep 2011, 10:47 am

Well, in the last years (decades?), the theory that autism is a spectrum that fades with normality have been growing traction (what is, I suppose, what you mean by "continuous").

However, recently was made a study that goes against this:

http://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2011/webp ... r8068.html

[If I understand that article, they think that autism is quasi-dimensional - i.e., autism varies dimensionally within people with ASDs, but there is an abrubpt cut between people with or without ASD, instead of a slow transition]

Quote:
At the other end of the spetrum, with have Dawn syndrom which can be considered as the opposite of autism.


What is "Dawn Syndrome", and why is the opposite of autism?



Willard
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13 Sep 2011, 12:08 pm

TheWingman wrote:
different degrees of autism and different degree of asperger, which is itself a mild form of autism..


AS is not a 'mild' form of anything. It is Autism, period. Asperger Syndrome is a form of High Functioning Autism - we have more effective coping mechanisms than those on the Lower Functioning parts of the spectrum, but our handicaps are not different. Our experiences are not less intense than anyone else with autism, we are simply better equipped to function in spite of it.