What 'other' autism spectrum disorder do you have?

Post Reply New Topic

It's because Asperger syndrome is cool and autistic disorder is not.

Personally, I dislike the term "Asperger's." I have seen some people use it to separate themselves from other Autists.

I think AS explains me better now, but I can put "Autistic Disorder" down; I've been diagnosed with that plus AS at a different place (Gillberg's for AS. Speech delay over here, obviously, plus the other things like pretend play and inability to initiate and sustain a conversation).

Neither is PDD-NOS. In fact, it's the worst of all. I'm diagnosed with it. After I was diagnosed I had been questioning my dx for months, as I really dislike this vague label. Plus, I also feel a bit outsider here too, as most folks appear to have an AS dx or identify with AS.

As for how accurate it is, going by the criteria, is hard to tell. I didn't have speech delay. I had a twin sister, she might have affected my development significantly in a positive sense. The psychs seemed to consider my traits mild, as I'm apparently quite high-functioning now, and according to the available records and my parents' interview I always have been. I lack some stereotypical features of AS, such as monotonous speech (usually I speak fast, jumbling words sometimes), and my perceptual reasoning IQ is higher than my verbal comprehension IQ (in AS the opposite is the stereotype). So, maybe I was given PDD-NOS because I both don't have / didn't have strong enough symptoms (or they can't tell by now), and my symptoms resemble classic autism more than AS, but at a much milder degree.

Infantile autism is just another word that they came up sometime in history for autistic disorder, classical autism, (early) childhood autism, Kanner's autism, Kanner's Syndrome and... are there any more words for classical autism? At least they pretty much stopped calling it infantile psychosis or childhood-type schizophrenia.

I think the soon-to-be changes of the DSM will add autism spectrum disorder and in case of the ICD's recent changes autism to that list of synonyms.


I'm diagnosed with AS but I want to manage calling a psychiatry to make an appointment to have them re-test me either for AS + an official diagnosis of a language/speech disorder or for classical autism.

I want to have some advice on how to deal with the language impairment while becoming a young independent adult and I hope an official diagnosis that says that I have a language impairment will prevent some people from legally abusing me for it and getting away with it (acting as if I struggle to talk on purpose and not allowing me the chance to speak).

Since they don't use PDD-NOS around here and atypical autism is usually only diagnosed in cases where severe/profound MR is present, the only other type of autism I could get diagnosed with is classical autism/childhood autism/HFA.

But between me and that new assessment is... a phone call.

Gillberg's criteria is the reason I've only partially rejected my AS diagnosis.

Via Gillberg's criteria Asperger's is totally the right diagnosis for me. Via the DSM-IV its not. Via what people think of now, its not. But based off of what is closest to what Asperger wrote about, its appropriate. If people actually understood that I'm a passive Gillberg-type Asperger's case, not a stereotypical Asperger's case of what we currently think of, then I'd be accepting of the diagnosis, because Gillberg's criteria is best I've found for me.

Wait, how is that in anyway contrary to the AS diagnosis?

Could you specify what language disorder you suspect you have? What are your issues? I'm asking because virtually all of us seem to have issues with speech, when it comes to expressing ourselves in conversations (pragmatics?).

It's not about technical diagnostic criteria, so much as about what people actually diagnosis. By technical diagnostic criteria, I suspect I meet the classic autism diagnostic criteria (at least by how impaired my "symbolic and imaginative play" still is - I wasn't language delayed but looking back we do see traits before I was 3). I don't know well enough what I was like before 3 to be positive.

I identify with Asperger's being my diagnosis still. I'm autistic - with Asperger's being the specific diagnosis that I've been given. But I'm not an "aspie" in my mind.

It's hard to explain to people who aren't atypical - other atypical people seem to understand.

Unlike most of the 'other ASD'ers here, I actually do have something unusual - Newson Syndrome, also called Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome.

I am very hyperlexic. I fit Treffer's description of "type 3" hyperlexia best, but my autistic tendencies never went away completely. I don't really agree with Treffert's types, so I guess if you're looking for an "official" way to describe my ASD, you'd call me classic (high-functioning) autistic with hyperlexia.

I'm not sure which diagnosis it would be. It might be mixed receptive-expressive language disorder but the diagnosis doesn't exist in the ICD-10. The only similar diagnosis in the ICD-10 that I know of is F80-something receptive language disorder.

I'll just list what I think isn't directly related to AS or not usually associated with the social impairments of autism/pragmatic language impairments.

I suspect that I have a somewhat restricted vocabulary because the spontaneous speech of my peers is much more varied. When I talk spontaneously (no repeating) my sentences are usually very short and full of mistakes. When I'm busy (eating, tidying up, trying to read, practising kung fu, listening to my friends...) I usually only talk in sentences of 1-2 or 3 words such as "like this?" or "water - over there" and primarily use exclamations such as "no way" or "really?" to participate. If my family's talking about chocolate, I say things such as "no want chocolate" when I wanted to express the concept "no, you know that I don't like chocolate that much so I don't need you to buy it".

I often attach prefixes incorrectly or omit them altogether. Same with word endings. I tend to mix up whole words that sound similar/rhyme or that start with the same or a similar syllable and have about the same length.

I use a lot of stock phrases and repetitions too which is fine, I think, though occasionally it's why I end up saying "no" to something I very much agree with or accidentally reject something to drink or fail to participate in an activity I would have loved to be part of.

I mix up articles and prepositions A LOT.

It's not that I don't understand tenses but I frequently use them incorrectly. I mix them up, saying something that has happened will happen or insert grammatical forms that express a past tense (more rarely a future tense) in a sentence that otherwise consists of present tense.

I have trouble using and understanding directions such as "here", "there", "on the cupboard", "behind the..." during spontaneous speech (although I have no trouble understanding them when I'm given time to think about them and sort them out). While I am perfectly aware of the difference between a cupboard, a table, a cabinet and a shelf, people get upset with me often because I misunderstand and will look under the table instead of on the cupboard.

Or when someone's offering me an apple, I instantly think of fruits and red and accept but get upset because I expected a nectarine. I know the words but I can't understand them in time even when I heard them correctly.

When reading or watching films, I supposedly miss out on stuff that others have read/heard even when I'm totally focussed on reading or listening. I don't understand a lot of information texts (of schools, unis, clubs) for some reason though I know that I should understand them just fine. I only started watching series in the company of others recently so I didn't really notice before. I'm not even sure how to correctly describe what I miss out when I don't notice it until people point out to me that they know things I don't from watching or reading the same things as me.

I do not have any problems with repeating sentences (up to whole texts) that I've learnt by heart however.

If I am given the opportunity to prepare what I might say beforehand by trying to predict as many possible courses of the conversation that I can picture, I can speak fairly fluently and will refer to short stock phrases or just keep silent when I'm faced with something that I did not predict (odd questions and such). As long as I can prepare my answers and statements for hours/several days and nights, I can talk well and talk fluently. That's why my therapist doesn't believe me one bit about my language issues that everyone else knows about.

Also, I am perfectly able to write rather well if I'm given a lot of time to formulate my sentences and the opportunity to look up words that I'm unsure about. (This got so long, sorry about that.)

The Asperger stereotype that I don't fit at all is formal pedantic advanced speech. I lean towards the other eggstreme of speaking, and I have problems unbersmanding that kind of speech. Is it only a stereotype, or do people ackshuly have it? Most of the people in my GRASP group have pretty good speaking skillz, but not really formal and pedantic in my view.

Agreed.

I actually have the formal and pedantic and articulate part - whether I'm actually good at speaking skills is entirely dependent on the situation and your definitions. But yes, some of us actually have that. That's part of why I like the Gillberg criteria for myself so much. Sometimes my speaking skills are abnormally good for my other impairments, sometimes they're horrid. Generally I'm formal and pedantic and articulate.

Or at least, if I'm not to that then I'm imitating animals - either attempts at real animal noises, fake animal noises, or lolspeak type things.