Jump to content
martinjs

"Atypical autism" - better characterizations?

Recommended Posts

"Atypical autism"

 

As someone with this diagnosis, I personally tend to feel that it does not give an adequate characterization of my condition.

 

Basically, this is the diagnosis you get if you do not fit into either of the two main categories of recognized autistic spectrum condition (Asperger's syndrome or Kanner's "autism"), but it is still felt that there are certain stereotyped traits to your behaviour that may be indicative of some underlying neurological cause. It is sometimes also known as "pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified" (PDD-NOS).

 

The trouble is epitomized by the response of a police officer to the (same) diagnosis of my sister - "what, so that's like, severe autism, then?"

 

I had to explain that actually, no, it was actually a mild form of Asperger's syndrome that was in fact too mild to be formally recognized as such.

 

And as far as Kanner's syndrome (aka [usually] lower-functioning autism) is concerned, she wasn't even tested for that.

 

I have been thinking about ways that this situation could be remedied. I think that it is particularly important for other people to be able to gain a concise characterization of your condition from a social perspective. This is important because ASD (but also, ironically, a diagnosis of ASD) can often affect your ability to interact with the rest of society in general, when it comes to things like driving licences, visas, employment, social services, etc.

 

For instance, people may be horrified at the thought of giving someone with "atypical autism" a driving licence, but if you say "mild Asperger's syndrome" people are probably more likely to be amenable - subject to their own assessment of your condition, of course.

 

However, I can also see that the problem from the medical perspective is that a label such as "mild AS" may be seen as unscientific.

 

My proposal is as follows. The main "title" of the diagnosis can still be presented as "atypical autism", but with a more loose sort of characterization in brackets. For instance "Atypical autism (mild Asperger's syndrome)".

 

I have come up with a number of proposals for "social-level" characterizations of a condition similar to mine. Some of these are still not suitable, to my mind - for instance, "border-line Asperger's syndrome", coming after "atypical autism", would probably make people think that it meant the border between Asperger's and "autism", and therefore a sort of "low-functioning" Asperger's. It is important that the characterization give a clear, and non-misleading impression of your condition - that is the whole point of this exercise, after all.

 

Here are my ideas so far:

 

* mild Asperger's syndrome

* (close to) borderline between Asperger's and neurotypical

* borderline Asperger's/neurotypical

 

(the part in brackets may be omitted)

 

I know that there technically is no "border-line", but like I said, we are aiming here for something that will be easily understandable on a social level.

 

What do you think? Any more ideas for characterizations? Any preferences? Reasons? Is this necessary/would it help people?

Edited by martinjs

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

hi martinjs

 

You have raised a very interesting point. I think the thing would be - which area did they feel you did not meet the criteria for full AS or ASD diagnosis? This is what people would need to understand. Once this is known then there should be a secondary part of the diagnosis for example a-typical As without deficit in communication, or A-Typical ASD without obsessive interest….or scores were not high enough in area of….

 

This seems to me to be a problem even with full blown diagnosis - no two people on the spectrum will have exactly the same difficulties, they will fluctuate massively. My son has been given varying diagnoses over the past 7 years and none of them seem to fit so it has been vey difficult to get the right help,( still battling) but without a diagnosis it would be even harder.????Actually sometime I think it has made things worse having a diagnosis at all. I do wonder, really the reason we did any of it was because he didn't fit the system. He might actually have done far better if we had just taken him out of the system and restored his self esteem.

 

anyway thats a different area. All the best.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Personally, I think fewer diagnostic titles would be less confusing. As "a spectrum syndrome" I do think people with Autistic traits could simply be described as having various degrees of the syndrome, such as: "High Functioning Autism", "Medium Functioning Autism", "Low Functioning Autism". Thus I am inclined to recommend the term "High Functioning Autism" (HFA). Might this already established term not cover the predicament (?)

 

I acknowledge that it does not address the specific presence of elements from the Triad of Impairments, however, perhaps that's not necessary, as everyone is so individual anyway (?)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a late comment on the topic, but since autism is a spectrum, and no two people are ever on exactly the same point of the spectrum at any given time, why isn't Autistic Spectrum enough? The more labels there are, the more things there are that inexperienced people have to learn to interpret.

 

What is needed is eucation - people who do not know/understand autism need to be taught something about it. What we really need is an easier way of helping others to understand what it means to be autistic. Which means we need to somehow simplify the definition of the condition.

 

I struggle with defining it; I know what it is in my son's case, and how it affects him, but it's so difficult to explain to others. And he is nothing like either of his cousins with an ASC diagnosis, each of whom were able to cope with mainstream education, while he was not. Yet they are all fairly similar in terms of social interaction.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...