What do you think of the recommended new DSM?

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I think there has been a serious problem with psychologists being consistent on the diagnosis. One major problem has been "speech delay." Nobody can seem to agree on what is meant by that (at least with the people I talk to). First, there's a difference between Speech and Language. I guess Language is not knowing the words whereas speech, you know the words but have a hard time saying them. For you to be Aspergers, you could not have had a speech delay. Some people will tell you that it only refers to "grunting." Like if you are saying your own language at 2 and not anything coherent, that it's not considered a delay in speech. I've also heard that it means current delay. So a 2 year old who is in the middle of learning speech who qualifies otherwise for Aspergers would be lumped into PDD NOS, but once that child develops a normal speech, then the diagnosis would become Aspergers. Either way, it's too confusing. My nephew has been diagnosed Aspergers, and he did have a speech delay. My daughter is diagnosed PDD NOS because of her speech delay which is the exact same thing my nephew did when he was her age. So, I tell people we are all Aspies with speech delay.

I do think changing the criteria to lump all these things into one spectrum is good because it's too confusing to have all these different categories; we are all part of the same spectrum, and I personally hate the name Assburgers (we get made fun of enough to invite it with such a name), but I do like Aspie because it reminds me of skiing (must be thinking of Aspen).

I don't like the scales unless they turn it into some matrix. What happens if someone is severe in one category and less severe in another? Also, they still have it with categories when they add the last two (you have ASD, AS, and a normal variation?). Whether or not these social problems or special interest interferes with someone's life is pretty subjective. So a nasty psychologist (and we all know that many are very nasty people) could lump someone into almost normal when they know otherwise. It's a big deal because...

The other question is how would it affect a person's social security? I'm not on social security, but I know many people with a form of autism are. Not just that, but what about children in the school system? I can easily see how social security will say "subclinical AS is not considered a disorder for benefits" and someone who should be very mild ASD because they were formerly Aspergers is now having a hard time finding someone to diagnose them with something other than subclinical AS. A lot of people who are pretty obviously AS are having a hard time getting that diagnosis already. I think it would just make that situation worse.

re: terms
I still like NT-Neurotypical ND-Neurodivergant

I know people have different emotional reactions to labels-Aspie isn't ideal but "having Asperger's Syndrome points only to the difficulties and not to the often unique and valuable perspective it offers.

ADLs are "activities of daily living". Everything from brushing your teeth to grocery shopping to doing your taxes. Most people with a PDD are delayed in learning them, though sometimes not significantly so.

LOL

@Tantybi: DSM-IV-TR is clea ron what a significant delay in speech/language is, ie. not using single words by age 2 or not speaking in sentences by age 3.

What I said about it is what psychologists have told me. There must be some confusion with it.

I don't think I fully agree with the whole speech delay being an issue. They will tell you that no two children with Aspergers are alike or will have the same exact symptoms, but in the same breath, they add that all of them cannot have a speech delay. It just sounds like it should be listed as a symptom that is possible to have a speech delay if you are Aspergers rather than a requirement to not have a speech delay in order to be Aspergers. I think that's why they even feel a need to begin with to remove the PDD from the equation because they realized their miscellaneous category of PDD-NOS just became a junk drawer full of things that actually do belong elsewhere. This whole "speech delay" is one of the biggest causes of it. I think it's their way of repairing another "oops."

I'm not sure whether I like it or not, but even if I don't, I will get used to it. I do think it's a good idea to group all different ASDs as either High-Functioning ASD, Moderate ASD or Low-Functioning ASD.

Hmmm...

What are the ASD axis thingies? Social, self-help, routines, interests (focus & intensity)? In that case, why don't they seperate them, and plot it on a graph, so that most people would fall near a certain area (i.e. the 'NTs') and such?

Then we can't call it a spectrum anymore, because it's not monodimensional. Oh well, if it's more accurate...

How about: Autism-Matrix Disorder?

I'm not so sure about the functioning labels, as much as they would be helping with treatment. Maybe I'm being idealistic when I say I like them that way. But the bad thing is that most people think functioning labels are set-in-stone impossible to change defining your life kind of things, and they're not. They can change day to day, even hour to hour, and you can function better in some areas than others. How else do you account for people who can get a college degree but not hold a job as a waitress? If you categorize by functioning, you run the risk of splitting the spectrum into groups in a divide-and-conquer sort of strategy, and that worries me. If only you could say that somebody needs intensive support without also stigmatizing them as "will never amount to anything, where's the nearest institution?"