I keep coming across this

[pingu]

Asperger syndrome - a form of autism where people share the three main areas of difficulty but do not have learning difficulties or delayed speech development.

 

I was searching for proverbs, and this is the third time i have come across this statement. Im struggling here coz K does have Delayed speech and learning difficulties. so does he have AS?

 

Confused

 

shaz

[Tally]

The reason you are confused is because it's confusing. Does that help?

 

Normally, AS means autism with no significant speech delay. Yet the criteria laid down by the DSM IV for AS describe a child with a fairly significant speech delay:

 

The essential features of Asperger's Disorder are:

Criterion A. Severe and sustained impairment in social interaction

Criterion B. The development of restricted, repetitive patterns of

behaviour, interests, and activities

Criterion C. The disturbance must cause clinically significant impairment

in social, occupational, or other important areas of

functioning.

Criterion D. In contrast to Autistic Disorder, there are no clinically

significant delays in language (eg: single words are used

by age 2 years, communicative phrases are used by age 3

years).

Criterion E. There are no clinically significant delays in cognitive

development or in the development of age-appropriate

self-help skills, adaptive behaviour (other than in social

interaction), and curiosity about the environment in

childhood.

Criterion F. The diagnosis is not given if the criteria are met

for any other specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or

for Schizophrenia.

 

I had speech delay as a child, yet I am diagnosed with AS. "Significant" is rather too subjective really, and does not have any impact on adult outcome anyway.

 

I've also heard of IQ being used to distinguish between AS and ASD. An IQ of below 70 means ASD, whereas 70 or above means AS. But IQ does not measure your ability to tie your own shoelaces or remember to eat regular meals, so it's another fairly useless method of dividing people into groups.

 

Tony Attwood says that the only difference is the spelling.

[Pippin]

We've battled with this too. P has been given a diagnosis of High functioning ASD rather than Aspergers as he had a speech and language problem initially. The Paed said it really make no difference and is just the form of words they have to use. I do sometimes describe him as having Aspergers rather than ASD, depending upon the company I'm in. He's a very bright lad.

[paulathomson]

my son has dx of AS and he has significant speech delay.. didnt speak til age 4 and he is now 9, but some speech is age equivalent of 4-5. i was confused by this too..

[rmt]

My friend's son is in a school for MLD on his statement he has ASD.

Everyone thinks he has AS but the consultant said he can't have AS because of his Learning Difficulties.

AS children can still have LD can't they?

 

Any advice?

[mandyque]

My friend's son is in a school for MLD on his statement he has ASD.

Everyone thinks he has AS but the consultant said he can't have AS because of his Learning Difficulties.

AS children can still have LD can't they?

 

Any advice?

 

My dd certainly has both autism and learning difficulties. There are many different conditions which can affect someone on the spectrum, but sometimes they will only want to diagnose the most pervasive condition, so for instance, if a child had dyslexia and autism, they may only diagnose the part which affects them the most. Completely wrong IMO because there are different techniques and teaching methods that can be used if a child diagnosed with autism has dyslexic problems.

[Cariad]

Tony Attwood says that the only difference is the spelling.

 

My son is ASD and has learning difficulties but is the top of his class for spelling and beat the other AS kids hands down. I find it confusing too, the only difference is my son finds it hard to get the right words when he speaks.

[mossgrove]

Many peaditricians will diagnose whatever disgnosis will unlock the most help from the LEA. Some LEAs appear to take the view that children with Aspergers do not require statements as Aspergers is mild (No space here to go into how wrong that is!) and will only provide services for children with Autism, hence a diagnosis of 'Autistic Spectrum Disporder' (ASD) even if the Pediatrician privately thinks the child has Aspergers.. In other areas there does seem to be more awareness of Aspergers on the part of the LEA, but less awareness HFA so Aspergers is a more effective diagnosis.

 

My own personal 2p worth is that a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder is suffuicient in most cases, and attention should then be given to the childs individual needs rather than the label.

 

Simon

[UltraMum]

Those with AS fret and worry

Those with HFA couldn't care less

 

My own personal hypothesis

 

Should have been here for the evening of fretting on Monday when I booked a train ticket online for hubby and he had to collect it from a ticket machine .... had to write down the instructions and go over it so many times I lost count. Eventually found a flash movie of how to collect them ... !!!

 

Came home on Tuesday night pleased as punch cos he was able to show some young lads how to use the machine!!!

[cmuir]

Hi

 

My son has learning difficulties and also has language problems - not sure about learning difficulties, but I'm aware that the latter is generally not thought to be present in someone who has AS yet this is something that has been identified by my son's consultant. Guess it's back to the old thing that someone doesn't have to tick every box (or shouldn't!) for get a diagosis.

 

Caroline.

[LizK]

This is why my son has a diagnosis of HFA not AS as he has a speech delay. The best explanation I've seen is that in AS the child has normal early speech development in the first 3 years of life and are of normal or above normal IQ. That is related to early development of spoken speech but they still have the other communication difficulties associated with ASD like not understanding non verbal communication or pragmatics of speech. So they might speak Queen's English but not be able to hold a conversation.

 

I think personally it is just semantics and a diagnosis of ASD is actually a better diagnosis that separating this into its own arbitrary category which is fairly meaningless. My son functions better than a friend's child with AS despite him being further along the spectrum and allegedly more 'severely' autistic. I think the whole criteria around diagnosis are due to a revamp because of the vagueries around all this

 

Lx