What is classic autism?

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If you, person reading this post, say/write "classic autism" what do you mean?

If you hear/read "classic autism" what do you think it means?

Unless people are very, very clean about what they mean, I tend to get confused or draw mental blanks when I read "classic autism" because sometimes I think people use it to refer to the "Autistic Disorder/Childhood Autism" diagnosis as opposed to "Asperger's Syndrome" or "PDD-NOS/Atypical Autism". Other times it seems to refer to lower functioning levels or else to severity of autistic symptoms. Sometimes it seems to refer to some tangled combination of all of those things.

thought everyone knew it refered to autistic disorder.
when am refering to classic autism,am personaly meaning autistic disorder of any functioning.

am diagnosed under AD but refer to it as classic autism because its what had always heard it refered to as when younger.
autistic disorder is far to confusing,all ASDs are autistic disorders so how can they formaly label one group with it and exclude the rest? am not sure of the word for it,but it always feels like saying the rest of the spectrum are not autistic enough to be labled autistic.

i have the classic autism

I consider "Classic Autism" to be a reference to the Low Functioning end of the Spectrum, because that is the only mental picture of Autism that most Neurotypicals have.

High Functioning Autism is Invisible Autism to the general public - they are not even aware that it exists and tend to disbelieve it when you tell them about it.

I think of it as the autism that Kanner first described--speech delay or odd speech, communication difficulty, restricted/repetitive behavior, to a degree that can't be explained by a general developmental delay, or in the absence of a developmental delay at all. The best modern definition would just be Autistic Disorder.

I will occasionally refer to the low functioning end as "classical autism" because when I was a child that is what Autism was. If you weren't low functioning, then you weren't autistic.

I agree. I prefer referring to it as classic autism as well. After all, autism is a spectrum and it doesn't make sense to call just classic autism "autistic disorder" because everyone on the spectrum is autistic. I remember when I was told I had AS, I wasn't told it was a form of autism; I was told it was similar. Then when I found out it was a form of autism, it made me feel awkward.

I wish people were more aware of the higher end of the spectrum because of course people on the higher end of the spectrum will make social mistakes since we wired are wired differently. After all, why someone lie about a diagnosis?

AD is:

Kanner's. His paper describes it. His subsequent ones do too (I recall he had follow ups and whatnot).


AS is:

Asperger's. His paper describes it. His subsequent ones do too (I recall he had follow ups and whatnot).

What Kanner described, yep.

In the U.S., there is now just ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). All the categories of Autism have been replaced by a multidimensional definition. Most of the rest of the world (the ICD-11) may soon follow.

If I am refering to a low functioning autistic(I think what some discribe is Kenner's def.) I use LFA or Classic LFA, Classic autism for myself refers to someone the same is above though I don't use that term without a prefix or suffix for fear of confusion. For those who mostly fit the high fuctioning profile like in Dr. Asperger's papers I use HFA or Aspergers Syndrome.

How can you have "severe autism at any level of functioning".

If you're 'severe' than you're at a low level of functioning. If you're at a high level of functioning than you're not severe.

I thought it was autistic disorder.

It can totally happen.

Okay, think of a typical case of Down syndrome/Autism. This is common with DS; about a quarter of people with DS also have autism. But it can be quite mild autism, equivalent to Asperger's if you compare them to a non-autistic DS person the same age. So that is a case of someone with mild autism, but who may not be very independent, who may need 24-hour care. This is common in autism/ID.

Now think of someone with rather extreme autism. Executive dysfunction, problems with speech, problems with social communication. But they are very good at working with their autism. They find ways around their drawbacks. They learn sign language or use a VOCA. They learn how to communicate. Someone like this, with extreme autistic traits but very good ability to adapt to a non-autistic world, will be severely autistic but may be completely independent. Or they may be partly independent, but managing all their own services, maybe even employed and paying their own aides instead of depending on family. That can happen, too.

I think it means the pre-1980 kinda autism that used electric guitars and real drums, as opposed to 'modern autism' that employs synthesizers, and drum machines!