High functioning Autism

[Alexandra]

Hi all, I've read that High functioning autism isn't a proper diagnosis

 

and not always recognised as a proper disability. My son has a diagnosis of HFA

 

to us he seems to be getting worse, his symptoms are more pronounced,

 

can a diagnosis change from HFA to AS they seem very similar, I'm confused.

[Karen A]

Hi Alexandra.I think that in practice the difference between HFA and AS mainly comes down to the choice of terminology of the proffesional giving the Diagnosis.

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.ph...PERGER+SYNDROME

This thread may be helpful.The question crops up here a lot.Karen.

Edited April 6, 2008 by Karen A
word change

[Thea]

Hi all, I've read that High functioning autism isn't a proper diagnosis

 

and not always recognised as a proper disability. My son has a diagnosis of HFA

 

to us he seems to be getting worse, his symptoms are more pronounced,

 

can a diagnosis change from HFA to AS they seem very similar, I'm confused.

With HFA speech is impaired/has been significantly delaid, were as with AS speech development is, one the whole, age apropriate.

[Shnoing]

HFA doesn't mean 'high' functioning, only that the person concerned has succeeded in scoring 70 points or more on an IQ test. It's a mis-nomer with sometimes disastrous consequences.

HFA's need support, too. There may be a lot of areas where they don't function at all (not everything is covered by your standard IQ test).

[Juney]

My sons diagnosis is HFA. when I asked the paediatrican who's diagnosed him as I thought the diagnosis would be AS - she said that indeed the diagnosis was very similar but was depend on verbal language skills - she said that children with AS tended to speak at a younger age than children with HFA. My son didn't communicate with anyone outside of our immediate family till he was about 6 years old. I think theres pluses and minuses with bothe diagnoises really.

 

juney