Can somene have both Down Syndrome & Aspergers Syndrome?
I once knew a 18-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome, but she wasn't mentally ret*d. She was actually quite grown-up. But I knew she had it because of her facial features and she had short arms and she couldn't eat certain things because of the size of her tongue. She did actually act more Aspie than ret*d. I think she struggled at lessons at school (she went to a special school) but she was very verbal (like me), and very self-aware, and high-functioning and independant, only needing a little bit of help along the way with employment and things (like me).
I met her at a holiday camp. She loved dressing up at night and meeting people, but I could tell she had some Aspie traits, like being afraid of the balloons at a party we went to in case they might pop near her, and she spoke in a monotone voice, and she was very, very honest in everything she said.
But maybe she was good at putting on a front when she was out - she might be more hardwork behind closed doors. I can sometimes be like that but I have selective mutism. I come across as really shy and quiet and calm, then I'm the opposite when having a meltdown at home!
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Female
(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
(IV) There is no clinically significant general delay in language (E.G. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)
(V) There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
(VI) Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia."
I think this is not the "actual Criteria"; it is a short presentation of the criteria (the criteria is all the pages in the DSM, I think).
(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity
(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
(IV) There is no clinically significant general delay in language (E.G. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)
(V) There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
(VI) Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia."
I think this is not the "actual Criteria"; it is a short presentation of the criteria (the criteria is all the pages in the DSM, I think).
It is the full criteria for Aspergers from the DSMIV. Autism can be a co-occuring condition with Down-Syndrome. There are clinically significant delays in cognitive development, age-appropriate self help skills and adaptive behavior problems associated with Down's syndrome, so it is highly unlikely that an individual with Downs Syndrome would be diagnosed with Aspergers, technically they wouldn't meet the criteria.
Whether or not a diagnosis happens, is up to a professional; they determine it based on their observations of behavior, and by testing the individual; I suppose with an extremely mild case of down syndrome, it could happen, but I've never seen any real evidence that it has.
I did a google search and found someone say that a child had down syndrome and aspergers syndrome, but they also went on to talk about cognitive delays the child had, so they might have mis-spoke, or been misinformed.
I think one would be pretty safe in stating that according to required criteria Aspergers's is not a co-occuring condition with Down Syndrome, but other ASD's are noted in about 7 percent of individuals with Down syndrome.
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