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diaz85

Whats the difference between HFA and aspergers?

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According to the latest DSM, none. Traditionally the distinction comes down to whether there was a delay in learning to speak: yes for HFA, no for Asperger's.

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Traditionally the distinction comes down to whether there was a delay in learning to speak: yes for HFA, no for Asperger's.

You see I would have guessed no for HFA aswell. I thought the two things were the same thing. and speaking delay in low to moderate functioning autism (?).

Edited by diaz85

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I read somewhere than on a Myers-Briggs test one was INTJ and the other was INFJ.

 

The Myers-Briggs test was created without any knowledge of AS or HFA.

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Further to my last post, I should clarify that Asperger's has been dropped from DSM-IV (or V, or wherever we are now) but not from ICD10 (the British equivalent).

Edited by Aeolienne

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I think this is one of the reasons for the change in diagnostic names.

I think it was down to the child's acquisition of language.

 

For example I would say my son was HFA when diagnosed. He learnt to speak by learning TV dialogues verbatim and then putting sentences together like a kind of verbal jigsaw from all the different TV programmes and films he ever watched.

 

Now he is 16 and his speech has come on leaps and bounds. He still has an American accent, but his use of language and understanding of jokes etc is very good.

 

I think there can also be other co-morbid diagnoses that can cloud the issue too. For example having sensory issues, auditory processing disorder, dyslexia etc can all affect educational attainment initially or throughout the school years. Typically those with Aspergers were thought to do okay in school [usually hitting problems around 13+ in secondary school]. However a child with Aspergers and the abovementioned co-morbid diagnoses may struggle in mainstream school for both academic and social reasons.

 

The best advice I think for parents is to try to find out what the potential is. Which is not easy to do. For example my son is severly dyslexic and also has dyscalculia. But because he is assessed as around average cognitive ability, we were able to get funding for a specialist teacher. He started reading at age 15. He is going to take GCSE maths next year! And although we knew the potential was there, we were at a stage where we had accepted that he may never read or write. But if possible we wanted him to have this life skill. Left to the LA he would not have that 1:1 teaching and he would not be in an independent school and he most certainly would not be reading or taking GCSEs.

 

And as any parent will tell you, getting these things in place takes years and years. It doesn't just fall into your lap. We have had to go to 4 educational tribunals in total. The first one with a solicitor. The second one with an advocate from a charity and the last two I did on my own.

 

Another area of difficulty that is often overlooked is anxiety. Many of our children, and adults on the forum have diagnoses of anxiety disorders or OCD etc. These difficulties can be very upsetting for everyone, including the family. For example the World Health Organisation classes OCD in the top 10 health issues that have the greatest impact on social inclusion and ability to work and support yourself.

Edited by Sally44

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