The problem with calling AS autism.

Post Reply New Topic

I know many of you support the upcoming redefinition of Asperger's Syndrome into Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and Asperger's Syndrome is frequently referred to as autism in the news, but here is the problem with that.

We use labels to convey information about something and that information dictates how we interact with or perceive the object or thing.

For example, if we started to call all types of fruit "fruit", and one ordered a "fruit pie", what does that tell the person taking the order about what kind of pie the customer wants? Not much. An apple and an orange might both be fruit but an orange generally doesn't do well in a pie.

What if we, if we didn't differentiate the common cold from bacterial pneumonia from liver failure and we just indicated that someone was "sick". Sick how? It doesn't really tell us much in the way of information pertinent to handling or understanding the situation.

When I come across news articles that refers to a person as "autistic", it doesn't really tell me anything. With such a wide "spectrum" such a label often fails to serve it's purpose of relaying information to the degree such that there is no longer a point in even using it.

What am I to assume about a person because the news story indicated they were autistic? Does that mean someone who's non-verbal, with no basic life skills, who needs to be cared for 24/7? Does that mean someone like the character in "Rain Man"? Or are they talking about someone who is intellectually sharp and can talk in depth about a subject, who just has trouble dealing with other people?

I have no idea. The word "autistic" conveys no real information to me about a news story at all and is nothing more than space filler on a page or in a sound byte.

That's why we use phrases like "mildly autistic" or "low functioning autism".

People just don't like saying aspergers.

When I hear the term which is AS for Aspergers Syndrome I think of it being on the Autism Spectrum and it is probably classed as High Functioning Autism which is what I have being diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome.
When I hear of a person with Autism I think of a person who may not talk if at all possibly a child as most children can be diagnosed with Autism not Aspergers initially. I have heard that the difference between Autism and AS is that a person who is diagnosed with Autism has a speech delay and a person diagnosed with AS usually speaks on time and doesn't have a speech delay.

The Autism Spectrum though is like a rainbow and AS is near the top. So there are people who have AS and who may be able to cope with day to day life and you may have another person with AS who has more severe difficulties who may need help for the rest of their lives and is near the bottom of the spectrum. I think the Austism Spectrum depends on your difficulties but each person with an Autism Spectrum disorder is different. That's how I see it.

Would be interested to hear what other WP members think on this topic . . .

And the term Aspergers to a lot of NTs is a word they have never heard of but it does exist.

I think this is all assumption and it lies on the person to decide what they take from it. To me it would be like saying we should stop calling Asians, Asian, because (at least here) Most people automatically assume they are from China, that's up to the individual to assume, not everyone as a whole, some of us might take the effort to find out WHERE in Asia the person came from, same with Europeans, etc.

I have known people all over the spectrum, from non verbal right up to Asperger's and many places in between, so I never personally assume autistic means non verbal, worst case scenario.. People will make assumptions regardless of what it's called, right?

I know what you are saying, however it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers you. A lot of people don't know what Autism is let alone Aspergers, and can we say Aspergers or do we have to say Asperger's Syndrome. I was diagnosed as a child as autisic with delayed speach until around the age of 5-7. now I can communicate more I could be diagnosed as Low to High functioning autism with my problems or Aspergers with my social issues. I personally think there are too many letters and diagnosis that I can't comprehend or understand, most people on another forum group yesterday had that many DX letters after the initial aspergers, autism it just looked like the alphabet to me.

What I don't like is the abuse Aspergers gets on sites like Youtube where people call it Ass Burger etc and in the press at the moment people who have committed so called bedroom crimes are seen as sad lonely psycho stalkers and it is giving Aspergers a bad name by the media. Probaly if you did tell anyone you had aspergers they would think you were like the stereotype of aspergers in the news paper. I think the autism (sorry you don't like that word) Aspergers organisations spreading the awareness need to cover more positive cases of people with Aspergers before we are all locked up.

When you see NT does that explain the person or mean anything other than so called non autistic, would you rather the alphabet of all the diagnosis some one has? like Autisic Non Comm ADHD ADA BiPolar PDHP or Aspergers ADD Depression ABC XYZ because I would still be lost and confused.

Speaking as a parent, the word Aspergers doesn't really help in the description of my child, but I don't think the word autism is any better. Some people have an image of what Aspergers is like, which is usually wrong anyway and my daughter is almost the opposite of what they expect. So, I have to start off by telling them that their image is incorrect. It's really difficult, because autism doesn't have the right image either. People only seem to know about the kids who don't speak, etc. I suppose the key is public education.

I think that a diagnosis should be as specific as possible about the set of symptoms a person with said diagnosis may exhibit in order to make suitable support (or "just" understanding) quickly available to that person.

I like to think of diagnoses as metaphorical road signs. It usually takes longer to reach your destination just knowing to "walk west" or if you know to "walk west, go down summer's street, turn right at the end of the road...". (I don't know how to explain this metaphor any better hehe)

But is ICD-10's and DSM-IV-TR's Asperger's more specific in describing a subset of autistic people and are possible specifications of relevance when considering suitable support, the public's understanding of and expectations for someone with AS?

What can we expect from a person correctly diagnosed with AS? I'm going to stick to language development because that'll be long enough.

ICD-10: They did not show a clinically significant delay or loss of language (=if they don't speak there must be an unrelated cause that directly or indirectly led to their lack or loss of spoken language). They spoke single words by age 2 and used communicative phrases (they used words to initiate interaction or to respond to social demands) by age 3.

Except for a significant delay of language, AS may feature stereotyped and repetitive use of language (such as echolalia), marked inability of initiate or sustain a conversation (social difficulties may lead to this as may language difficulties), a lack of compensation for spoken language (such as signing) and doesn't and/or can't spontaneously adjust use of language to the conversational partner/situation.

The question that comes up for me is: how "noteworthy" are these language deficits in a person with no significant language delay?

Simply put, how much echolalia does a person with mostly age-appropriate language development show as a mean to express themselves in spoken conversation (echolalia as in stimming supposedly goes under the section of restricted interested and stereotypes as it isn't a communication/language deficit)?

How likely is it that a person who uses language mostly "age-appropriately" does not try to compensate (by gestures or written language) for moments in which they cannot convey their wants with spoken language (not knowing that an answer is required supposedly goes with the section about social impairment as it isn't considered a language problem and being "overwhelmed" and thus unable to remember right then to compensate for lack of language can be entirely unrelated to a language deficit)?

I'm surprised to say that the DSM seems to answer that a little more precisely... at least when it comes to toddlers.

DSM-IV-TR: There is no clinically significant delay or deviance in language acquisition (=if they don't speak or "talk funny" there must be another cause). Single non-echoed words are used communicatively by age 2 and spontaneous communicative phrases are used by age 3.

That's more restrictive than what ICD-10 spells out. It does allow "some" delay and deviance in language acquisition though. (What is some?)

I am not entirely sure if phrases by age 3 simply cannot be echoed directly but may be remembered ("someone said this once"), echoed as in echolalia and adjusted by trial and error (pronoun reversal and such) or if it absolutely must fit every definition of spontaneous language use.

Language use may seem deficient because of social difficulties as described by the social impairments present in AS. (adjust language to the situation, do the back-and-forth of conversation, acknowledge that a response is expected, agree to meet other people's expectations when to enter or end conversations)

Language (beyond early childhood) may be "unusual" in regards to special interest and "verbosity". That's quite open to interpretation. Does "unusual" only describe social impairments pertaining language use or does it include (mild) language impairments? How unusual can "unusual" language use be if clinically significant unusual or impaired language use for communication does not yet show in early childhood?

I have higher functioning autism and tbh, ive met 3 aspies in my life and only one of them was on a similar level of ability as me. I (with my hfa) have spent time in the armed forces (which is about as tough a life as you can get) and my cousin has been diagnosed with aspergers and he can barely look after himself. The word aspergers doesn't say as much as you think it does, there are plenty of people with plain old autism that are more capable than people with AS. The words are already muddled in meaning imo.

It'd be better to get the idea out there that no two people with autism are the same and leave it at that, that at least would give us all some breathing space with peoples assumptions .

I don't like saying ''Asperger's'', but I don't like considering myself ''Autistic'' either. I don't know why. It just sounds like such a morbid word. ''Asperger's'' just sounds so cringing, and most NTs haven't heard of it, so that's why I don't like to say it. But I do consider myself an Aspie, and not a person with Autism.

The original poster is right when he or she said about the fruit. That's how I feel about AS too. It's an ASD, but I wouldn't just clasify it as Autism and leave it at that. I always like to break it down, just like you do with anything. I know some people say, ''I'm going to have a piece of fruit'' when they're getting an apple, but they do have apple in mind.

I don't really know how to explain it. I suppose it depends on the way you feel about your diagnosis.

I tell people that I have a mild case of autism called Asperger's Syndrome and than I explain that I'm comfortable with the way that I am and I don't wish to be cured. I tell people that I have a unique way of viewing the world in a good way and how much I love and nurture my quirks. I also tell people that we are all unique and that we should all be accepted as we are. I have no problem with saying that I'm autistic, because I'm not ashamed of that label. The thing that I'm shamed of, are the different organizations that want to erase autism from the planet, such as Autism Speaks, DAN and CAN. It seems very clear that the majority of the people have not learned anything from the Holocaust that happened in the 30s and the 40s. People have been passing down those attitudes from generation to generation to their offspring. I can see why the typical teenagers of today have the same archaic attitudes as their grandparents and even their great grand parents did during the Holocaust. A lot of people with disabilities were killed and burned in the ovens as well. It wasn't just the Jews and other racial minorities.

It's interesting you brought this topic up now - I was at my college internship meeting yesterday (we are working at a public middle school as student mentors/field researchers) and our cohort leader (administrator at the school) was telling us about the type of students we will be working with. He told us that a good amount of their student population were identified as "special needs" - and that those with autism were classified under "mentally ret*d" (yes, really) I can't even begin to get into how illogical this is, as well as nonfactual.

I wanted to speak up and say something about this, but ended up not doing so because it would put a bigger target on my back than I already might have (I have to fight for everything in my life, it's exhausting) Oddly enough, I did disclose to the cohort leader on my application that I had an "informal diagnoses" of Asperger's, but he hasn't brought it up - well, yet anyway (can't help but wonder if he will "drop the ball" on me later so to speak, or I will be under more scrutiny than my peers) My professor (of this class) knows about it, and says it should be okay, but who knows really...

Though, another thing I kind of find weird about the whole scenario is that there is a high probability we will be working with "special-needs" kids - we are a class of senior-level social science majors, how are we qualified to be caregivers to these types of kids? It seems worrisome to say the least...

The name "Asperger's" by nature, invites fun-making. I like High Functioning Autism better, because it sounds official, and honestly, I meet many many people who think I made up the word "Asperger's". Nobody makes fun of diabetics, so the same should be expected for autistics. If, for instance, someone named "Dinglefoot" discovered diabetes, they'd make fun of it.

Many of us with Asperger's or HFA, already have to combat enough teasing and fun-making, without the name itself adding to the problem.

Charles

The word autism conveys more information than the name Asperger.

the problem is with the erroneous beliefs people have about autism. changing the terminology wont actually solve anything. the solution is education. autism doesnt require a speech delay, even tho a vast majority of the population seems to think it does. it also doesnt require a cognitive delay, another common misconception.

even professionals are often clueless about the actual diagnostic criteria. last month i was arguing with a psychologist who insisted my SO had AS because he is highly intelligent. the psych thought you had to have a cognitive delay to have classic autism, and that there was nothing about self care deficits in the AS criteria. he was wrong on both counts.