Autism or Aspergers

[DAS999]

My girlfriend was diagnosed with Aspergers but after reading posts in the forum she sounds more like autistic. What do you think and should I raise it with a doctor?

I have read about people with Aspergers being extra smart like with numbers. Yes my girlfriend has an obsession with numbers but struggles with anything over 50, likes simple sums but hats times tables, fractions...

She can talk and does talk but its very childish, repetative, copying things she has heard, refers to herself as a 3rd person or says "is John happy" rather that are you happy or "John want drink" when she wants a drink (usually revets to this level of communication when stressed / early melt down)

Loves Thomas the tank engin, tweenies, books on tape (struggles with long words in books)

Has no / very little imagination

Does not understand feelings

Hits out and bangs her own head

Didn't talk till 4 and a half then stopped at 5 (started just before 6 years of age with losts of speach therapy)

Walks on tip toes

Flaps hands, flicks things, spins things, sniffs things

Food fads loves toast, chips, garlic bread, crisps, all dry foods that crunch

When stressed puts fingers in ears and humms

Sorry this is a long post but I don't really understand the differences between Aspergers and Autism so I was wondering if someone could help me out

Thanks

DAS

[Suze]

Hi Das when you see the GP tomorrow I think it,s very important that you stress your partners difficulties and ask to be referred to camhs.They hopefully will be able to help you both, via CBT, counselling and stratergies for anger/stress etc.Reading your post you both sound like you are coping with a lot , but you really need to shout to get any help.Good luck tomorrow.Suzex.

[phasmid]

Autism (as you see and describe it) and Aspergers Syndrome (AS) are a part of a sliding scale if you like. Professionals would see Aspergers at one end of the scale with the public percieved version of an Autistic child 'locked in their own world quietly rocking in a corner' as the other end of the scale. The triad of impairments is as clearly present in AS as it is Autism. There is a school of thought that says AS should not be considered as part of the Autistic spectrum but a condition of its own, on its own. I would disagree and see the two as different degree's of the same disorder. Liken it if you would to two children with mumps. One does a very good impression of a greedy guts hamster whilst the other shows barely any symptoms. They can both be proven (with a blood test) to have it though.

 

Some people do seem to think that AS is just mild autism and therefore not much of a problem and that we all make too much of a fuss about it (Yeah right - live with it for a while!). I'll let you draw your own conclusion on that one.

 

That probably reads back as being as clear as mud! If you can make any sense of it I hope it helps.

Edited November 14, 2005 by phasmid

[Zemanski]

Aspergers is a form of autism, the only clear diagnostic difference is whether or not there is language delay present, the rest is largely subjective and one diagnostician might give an AS diagnosis where another would give HFA or even autistic - many now give ASD as the diagnosis rather than stipulate the kind of autism.

 

the thing is that there are huge variations in the presentation of autism in a person, AS, as I see it, is just one of those presentations.

 

Zemanski

[DAS999]

Thanks for all your replies. Once again this site has proved a grate help.

[helenl53]

I agree - and I feel that having different names for the different spots on the sliding scale, only confuse and seem to be there for clarity for professionals!

 

I do not like hearing distinctions made between areas on the spectrum as being 'mild' or 'severe'. The difficulties are 'real' and should not really be descibed as a degree of intensity. Who decides whether a persons difficulties are mild or severe. None of us, thats for sure - we all accept the difficulties without enquiry and qualification of where on the 'spectrum' our loved one is.

 

Best wishes

 

HelenL

[tinminer]

Well, I've just been diagnosed with AS, and still getting used to all the terminology.

 

Neurotypicals (NTs) - who comes up with all the jargon?

 

Can be very confusing! Having AS is bad enough, without the added treacle of 'jargonesse' on top.

 

My son also has AS (diagnosed a few years ago), and at the time needed a dictionary when we met with any medical professional.

 

Autism vs Aspergers.

 

My opinion?

 

It is a total spectrum, and I am not convinced that Kanner type is at one end and Asperger is on the other. After all, conditions like OCD and Dyslexia are also part of the ASD (depending on which specialist you speak to).

 

I would put Asperger somewhere in the middle (or at the top, if you want to continue with the rainbow analogy). Severe Kanner would be where the rainbow hits the land, and the less full on autistic conditions (OCD) would be at the other point where the rainbow hits the land.

 

I don't see anything 'mild' about AS. Indeed, you can have mild autism, but not have AS - there is a seperate set of criteria. In addition, AS individuals usually (but not always) have high IQs. Classic autists usually (but by no means always) have a learning disability or other moribund conditions (e.g epilepsy or ADHD).

 

That's the way I see it - for now anyway, until another specialist changes the skew of the rainbow!

[smallworld]

Hi,

I beginning to think that rather than a spectrum of asd, it's more like a colour wheel where someone may have strong/pure 'colours' for some traits but varying shades or tones of 'colour' for other features of asd. There would be thousands of different permutations of asd with no-one person having the same shades as another.

Does that make sense ? or have I been watching too many make-over/' transform your house for a tenner' shows ?

 

wac

[Guest hallyscomet]

Hi I can explain this.

 

I do not like hearing distinctions made between areas on the spectrum as being 'mild' or 'severe'. The difficulties are 'real' and should not really be descibed as a degree of intensity. Who decides whether a persons difficulties are mild or severe. None of us, thats for sure - we all accept the difficulties without enquiry and qualification of where on the 'spectrum' our loved one is.

 

A lot of children who are not diagnosed with Autism from the word go are usually classified Autism Spectrum Disorder the new name for Aspergers. Some children with ASD are not diagnosed with it until 8 or twelve.

 

Before they were diagnosing children on the Spectrum with ADD OR ADHD these were classified and mild to severe. This is then carried on as some children with ADD & ADHD also have ASD.

 

When they are talking mild to severe, they are referring to

mild is on the scale 1-4 usually not diagnosed until age 9 tend to grow out of ADD

moderate 4 -8 usually diagnosed around 7 may grow out of ADD around 14

severe usually diagnosed around 4 - 5 but if have been advised severely disabled by ADD or ADHD it means they will never grow out of it, the child will need medication for life.

 

e.g. My son was diagnosed with Autism at age 4 however, in Kindy half way through was diagnosed moderately disabled by ADD then by the end of the year in Kindy after more assessments he was diagnosed Severely disabled by the condition. Thats what Paediatricians in Australia call it.

 

The severe language loss is Low Functioning Autism - High Functioning Autism is speech delay, but a milder form of Autism. (Higher functioning - being able to integrate better)

 

Its 11.09pm I am a bit tired, so I hope that clears it up a bit for you, why they call them mild or severe.

 

Regards

Hailey

Goodnight all