AS or ASD

[Tilly]

Can anyone in plain speak tell me the difference between AS and autism. I've been reading some of the posts and some parents have said that their child is atypical autistic; severely autistic; mildly autistic; High functioning autistic; aspergers syndrome e.g.

 

I have read numerous books and website pages but I seem to get more bamboozled - not hard to do I know lol.

I think it would be interesting to hear from other parents at least they are walking in the same shoes as myself!

 

My dd has been diagnosed autistic and attends a SEN school. I know that autism is a very individual and complex disability in a very wide spectrum so I think that Autism is a very general word for such a wide and various disability.

 

Tilly

[phasmid]

I look at it this way. I am a diabetic. My son has an ASD. There are degrees of treatment from diet to injections for my diabetes, there are a range of descriptions for his ASD from Classicaly Autistic to HFA. I am a diabetic he has an ASD. Whatever way you look at it those facts will remain the same.

[DaisyProudfoot]

My son is described equally as having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder that being Asperger Syndrome. At least that's what his diagnosis report says.

[Tilly]

This is the bit that gets me.

 

Its like saying any one with a sight problem is in the "visually impaired spectrum" whether it be they are blind or they need reading glasses. So if I invite you to come and meet my dad and tell you he's visually impaired you wouldn't know whether he had a guide dog by his side or was colour blind. Does that make any sense I'm a bit crappy at explaining myself

 

I just think its too wide a spectrum for one diagnosis. In my dd school 75% of the children have ASD and all have different quirks and fears - I suppose like their NT peers. The thing that concerns me when people know she has ASD they believe she won't want to be touched, have her hair brushed, share a joke learn to read etc. Things she will do now.

 

Tilly

[DaisyFulkirk]

As far as I can tell, children who talked at the age that children usually talk get diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome, and ones that talked later get diagnosed with autism. Certainly by the time you're all grown up there can be no difference at all between someone diagnosed with AS and someone diagnosed with autism, or even difference in the 'wrong' direction like my friend Colin has a diagnosis of AS and I have a diagnosis of HFA but I think he's more severely impaired in a lot of ways than I am. Its all much of a muchness... all cats are felines but some felines are not cats but lions. Everyone with aspergers is autistic but not everyone that's autistic has Aspergers. At least, that's how I think it works. Anyone else?

[ceecee]

You can also have two people with Aspergers syndrome that will have the difficulties in the same core areas but their difficulties will be different within those areas.

 

Hope this makes sense

[Zemanski]

try this thread

 

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=6720

 

z

[sylv]

My son is dx with Asperger Syndrom, but didnt talk till he was 3 years old and still has problems with speaking yet he is talking in 3 languages????

 

At the NAS website was written that:

 

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, a condition that affects the way a person communicates and relates to others. A number of traits of autism are common to Asperger syndrome including:

 

difficulty in communicating

difficulty in social relationships

a lack of imagination and creative play

 

And that:

 

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. Children and adults with autism have difficulties with everyday social interaction. Their ability to develop friendships is generally limited as is their capacity to understand other people's emotional expression.

 

People with autism can often have accompanying learning disabilities but everyone with the condition shares a difficulty in making sense of the world.

 

There is also a condition called Asperger syndrome, which is a form of autism used to describe people who are usually at the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum.

 

 

I hope that made sense...it made it to me....anyhow...

 

<'> ,

 

 

SylvXXX

[amberzak]

I say that I am autistic, but when I tell people they ask me why I can talk ???? its the stereo type I think. I am Aspergers and I have a lot of problems.