Auditory Processing Disorder + ADHD = Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

If not, what would the difference be?

No, auditory processing disorder + ADHD does not = Asperger's

An auditory processing disorder refers to a class of disorders where the person does not have trouble hearing sound but has difficulty processing that sound. The person may not be able to filter out background noise when trying to listen to someone in a noisy environment, the person may understand the language being spoken but have a hard time understanding strings of verbal instructions due to an inability to processes large chunks of verbal information into relevant information. The person may hear others just fine but may not hear their own speech correctly, resulting in speech impediments.

Most people with auditory processing disorders probably don't have AS or ADHD, and most people with AS probably don't have an auditory processing disorder. They can be co-morbid, however.

ADHD is attention deficit disorder with hyper activity. These people have trouble paying attention to things, tend to be impulsive, and have a lot of energy. Children with ADHD frequently get into trouble because of their inability to remember warnings and anticipate consequences to their actions.

I think the similarities a lot of people seem to see between AS and ADHD due to the tendency of difficult children, who would have been diagnosed with ADHD in the 90's, to be diagnosed with AS now, as AS seems to have become the blanket diagnosis for "bad" little boys even though the diagnostic criteria never insinuated such a thing nor did Hans Asperger note his subjects as being ill behaved.....rather I think a child who actually has AS is going to be quite vigilant about following rules, and only deviates from this when the rules impinge upon the child demands they cannot meet.

No. These three disorders may have symptoms that seem to be the same, but they're not. I'm not going to explain why these disorders are different, since Chronos has already done it.