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Jeyradan
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28 Apr 2008, 9:10 am

I'm diagnosed AS because I had no speech delay (though I very often have difficulty verbalizing what I am trying to mean, and I use odd language and grammar despite knowing better - I had impeccable full-sentence grammar even as a young child).
However, I also do a lot of stimming such as rocking, hand twisting, jiggling/bouncing (my whole body or my leg/s), jaw clenching and tooth clicking, and so on. I do this in public also.
I hear that a lot of stimming, especially rocking, especially in public, is more HFA than AS (I think Danielismyname mentioned something of the sort). Yet: no language delay (atypical language development and use, but no delay - so I think that rules out HFA).

So, officially, would you think this would fall under more of a PDD-NOS range, or would it just be AS with more extreme stim behaviors or something?

Edit: I must have been significantly echolalic as a child, because I still am, but my only issue with pronouns is replacing "I, me" with "we, us." I spoke early in full, complex sentences and corrected my teachers' grammar (sort of a "little professor," I guess). When I speak oddly, it is because I feel more comfortable that way, not because I don't know better. But I do have a lot of trouble speaking a thought, or even getting it organized enough in my head to be verbalizable.



Last edited by Jeyradan on 28 Apr 2008, 9:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

anbuend
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28 Apr 2008, 9:16 am

(Note yet again that just because I'm discussing the differences doesn't mean I believe them as so important as some do.)

From what I've been told by a researcher, atypical language development would get a person classified as non-AS autistic, even without a speech delay. If the atypical language development includes such things as pronoun reversal, echolalia, highly metaphoric and idiosyncratic speech, etc. (This is by instruments used in research, which are more detailed than the DSM. But I think the DSM allows for this too.)

I've known people diagnosed with AS who stim a lot. Rigid stereotypes are not the end-all and be-all of all this.


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28 Apr 2008, 9:50 am

Your question will get different responses based on location and school of thought. In Australia and UK Asperger's is highest on the spectrum, with PDD-NOS being lower functioning. In some places in the US, PDD-NOS is highest on the spectrum with Asperger's being further down. So the terms are generally useless in my opinion.

Functioning is not measured by how much you stim or how early you developed language, it's based on how you can function in everyday life. Do you have a job? Are you living on your own? Do you have some friends? If so, you're probably high-functioning. Trying to analyze it further than that is not worthwhile since there are no real standards in the field to describe more than high or low functioning.