Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional new dsm5- my son no longer autistic? 2E Questions

thanks ccn!

and deedee, i knew what i was posting is controversial, if that's the right word, even among autistic individuals themselves.

and re aspergers, and autism (high functioning), i beg to differ, but i think there is a big difference between the 2. maybe i understand it incorrectly though?

the main thing is aspergers don't generally present with a verbal delay. they usually have very good verbal skills- not to say that they have good social language skills.
and autistics are verbally delayed, and/or they are typically developing in language and then lose their communication. but even when auts get their language skills back, they don't go on and on and on and on like an aspie will...
at least this has been the case with just about all i have ever met.

also aspergers tends to have that huge 1area focus (or several) whereas auts don't as much though they might still be repetitive, which isn't quite same thing as always wanting to talk about say dinosaurs. and only dinosaurs.

but sorry, i wasn't wanting to get into debate of what aspergers is and what autism is. and i am appreciative to all feedback, but again, i think there is a difference.

and i don't mind saying low or high functioning or level aut-- because the spectrum is so wide, and high to one person means something different than high to another but on some level it means that the child does have some normal functioning, i have never met a parent of an autistic child who did not infact describe their child by either high or low or mild or severe... and then the ones who say aspergers...

still i like the facts of why you choose not to, and that gives me something to think about and perhaps reconsider my own views so thank you for that deedee

I was language delayed, assessed as having Autism as opposed to aspergers, and I go on and on and on and on and on.....

But I do wonder if severity of functional impairment is the right way to break down the ASD diagnosis. There does seem to be some kind of type difference in there. Certainly my vague understanding of the genetics supports that.

None of my friends (incl DH) who are assessed as aspie stim significantly, or have noticeable troubles with self-care or self-injury, which, somewhat embarrassingly, I do. The one person I know who does turns out to also have had early language delay and described a very similar thought process about how to present himself to what I describe below. Also, even amongst a crowd of mostly aspies, I have a well known and fairly intense reputation for not caring what other people think... which is wierd, 'cause I feel like I care painfully deeply what others think. Now, if I look at my life as objectively as possible, I have to say that my major life choices make it look like they're correct, and I'm out to lunch on that point. So... er... um.... yeah.

When people ask me about it I usually pretend I think the diagnosis was a misdiagnosis, or at the very least avoid any mention of the term "autism." I pass pretty well, apart from having some trouble holding down jobs, and most people just can't wrap their minds around applying "aspie," let alone "autistic" to someone like me.

When I'm being genuinely honest, I would self identify as HFA and not as aspie. But it's a minefield, and I've learned to not be honest most of the time. I think it's going to be a long time before this terminology can be made to matter in any valuable way. I think the DSM change (as I understand it) is all to the good. I was surprised it did't come up on here sooner.

uh. so now that I feel like I'm standing around naked... bye!

I think it's interesting the way the various Dr's interpret the criteria, personally. I would never have described my son as having any language delay. He starting speaking right on time (I want to say 8 months with 'car'?) and always knew more words than whatever the pediatrician asked at his appointment. However, I guess the neuropsychologist counts his massive pragmatic language delay and that's why my son received a PDD-NOS diagnosis as opposed to Asperger's? I honestly don't know, because I didn't think to ask her while we were there... I think that getting a diagnosis will in the future, as it does now, depend on which doctor you see on which day. Some will interpret the DSM guidelines very broadly, others extremely narrow. For me, I would love it, if, eventually, my son no longer met the criteria for ASD. I know that wouldn't mean he's cured, but it would mean he's progressed enough that his ASD isn't impacting his life in a negative manner.

Michaela - thanks so much for your insight and honesty, that really gave me a lot to think about as I try to figure out whether there is a difference between aspergers and HFA and which I think my DD has. It doesn't seem to be distinguished here in Australia. And when I have read about ways of teasing out the two it's been more about issues like aspergers may be more verbal but more non-vervally challenged, HFA may be more verbally challenged but more non-verbally able/gifted... And my DD is certainly more in the verbally weak/non-verbal strength camp, and like Epoh's DS she spoke early and "well" so I had no idea she needed speech therapy until now, years later as I have come to understand the difference between speech and language development and that she did indeed have a significant language development issue (it took me many months to teach her the correct use of pronouns, she would regularly bitterly argue for the exact opposite of what she wanted and then have a meltdown when she got what she argued for, numerous other issues)...

Locally at least, the tendency seems to be to use "autism" as an umbrella term, and Asperger's/HFA almost interchangeably. My daughter was speech delayed, somewhat, but still met criteria for Asperger's if you considered that she was youngest, a twin, and had no particular need to speak for herself since others were so happy to meet her needs without it. The "manipulative vs speech delay" quandary, I guess. (I use both terms, and oddly, her IEP uses neither, but spells out different aspects of the whole thing under "other health impaired".)
Add that to the wide range of clinicians' opinions as to criteria for "high functioning", and I can understand why there seems to be a need for reclassification. It would be helpful if at least some of the world were on the same page.