DSM-V

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YEP! Aspergers criteria is also average to above ave intelligence, autism and PDD-NOS dont have to meet that criteria either. Of course many kids with Autism and PDD-NOS are ave to above ave intelligence, but that criteria doesnt have to be met for their diagnosis as it does in Aspergers!

For the speech criteria, a case like my son ,born with a cleft lip and palate, who was speech impaired due to the cleft, it raises a good point that not all kids who are speech delayed cant be Aspergers diagnosed. I LOVE that the speech before 2 criteria is taken out of the DSM-V. My son DID have speech all along, just a bit delayed due to cleft issues. He cought up brilliantly with therapy and surgeries to repair his cleft.

I guess if we knew that we would be rich...lol. I also know plenty of PDD NOS and HFA kids that did speak as toddlers. I think more then having speech, is using it socailly and to get needs and wants met.

Also, thats probably why they are getting rid of the age and just saying early childhood speech development.

This:

and here in NY, that is the district classifying your child with AUTISM. My district flat out refused to classify my son with Autism, despite his psychiatrist stating it is medically necessary due to his Aspergers and the isues that comes along with it. The district can decide what classification to give your child. Basically, they told me that my son is way too high functioning to get the Autism classification. Amongst a slew of other rediculous reasons, such as, I dont want people to read the IEP and think my child is Autistic, yep they said that ot me! Other then a diagnosis of classic Autism, they dont have to classify Aspergers or PDD-NOS as Autism either. We have numerous freinds in all different districts with the same issues, they are usually classified Other Health Impaierd(OHI). My son is classified Speech Impaired right now casue he gets speech due to his cleft, butt he Chairperson wanted to change the classification to OHI when he got diagnosed Aspergers. Autism diagnosis guarantees your child a certain amount of speech per week, as well as Autism consultant and parent trainer. It costs the districts MORE $ and they dont want to give it. SO, those of us with Aspergers kids or PDD NOS, they dont HAVE to classify them with Autism, which gives the most services.

MMJMOM -- We had the same issue. Our son, with PDD-NOS diagnosed privately in January, qualified for nothing at all other than accommodations. He is too successful. Carries a 3.8 GPA so flat out denied an IEP for no academic need. Not considered autistic by their check lists. He passed their speech tests easily, but cannot initiate a social conversation 90% of the time and does not ask social questions of others at all. They ignored my bringing in a social communications list that showed his areas of clear deficits. I was able to check of 2/3 of them as applying to him. We will have to do it privately. He hadn't gotten together with his only friend in 8-9 months, but he sits with other kids at lunch so they considered him okay. He is too high functioning for the AS high functioning social skills group in the schools so that is another thing we pay for and do privately since he needs it. Finally got a 504 last week and a school counselor willing to listen and work with him a bit (1-2x a month), but the social worker who is more experienced with ASD kids will give him no help since he doesn't qualify for an IEP. Very frustrating. HIgh functioning kids can and do get shoved under the rug.

alongforthe ride:

Agreed, this is partly why I hoomeschool my son. The district DID give social skills group casue I was causing a stink about the classificaton, and the chairperson asked what services I felt he needed that he would get under the Autism classification, so I said soial skills group, and he gave it to us. 2x a week. WELL day one of group, the social worker came to me and said she absolutely didnt see aspergers in my son, she saidthis BECASUE he walked into the group room, and took over the group. She told me he practically ran the group and this was the first time he was with any of these kids. There were 3 other kids, and him and the social worker. Consequently, she reccomended a stopping social group for him next year as she stated he has no issues socailly in that group room. That is all they care about.

First of all, he walked in and ran the group, can you say contorl issues? That is a HUGE part of our problems. My son is fine if he is in control, calling the shots, etc...but not all of life can you take over.

They also told me becasue my sons academic scores were, in some areas in the superior range, he absolutely wouldnt qualify for anything. The only reason he has an IEP is becasue of his cleft palate issues with articulation, he gets speech.

So yes, the high functioning kids already get swept under the rug. I hear this same scenario for HF kids with PDD NOS as well.

I wonder if these school districts and govt groups will start saying that autism 1 doesn't get services, only autism 2 and 3?

that is possible, I am sure they will have a way around that. Although it says with support...but I guess the term "support" is subjective. How much support?

The speech impairment is a delay in spoken language for communication without compensation using gesture or mime for communication. The key is for communication. In autism, both Asperger's and Kanner's, there is a general communication delay that goes from total lack of verbal+non-verbal communication to not enough communication to meet basic needs like mommy I need to go to the bathroom to not enough communication to meet social demands, like a conversation with parents. For children of a certain age, say five, there is a spectrum of communication impairments within the autism spectrum, and children diagnosed with Asperger's often have communication problems, such as not being to have a simple back and forth conversation that is natural for NT children or not being able to tell what happened at school or not being to initiate communicate spontaneously without very specific questioning, even if these particular autistic children spoke single non-echoed words like "bye-bye" by age two and used communicative phrases like "I eat cake" by age three.

In Kanner's, the speech delay is not as clear cut as no spoken words at all by a certain age or the totally non-verbal child. A child might be able to speak words just fine, but can only do it as echolalia, which you can do for animal noises or words, it doesn't matter, you're just making the noises that you hear, not communicating. Or once you learn to put single words into sentences, you might only be able to say a sentence for communication when you really need to, as in a crisis situation, but be non-verbal almost all the time. That would be because the idear of communication does not occur to you regularly, so you can only think of it when you really need to communicate something, at which time you are suddenly able to speak in a way that people thought that you couldn't speak, and you go back to normal-for-you afterwards. For some children, it is clear that they cannot speak words. For some children, it is not clear whether they cannot or donot speak words, cannot or donot speak words without echoing, cannot or donot speak words for communication, cannot or donot put words together into phrases for communication, or donot speak or gesture at all due to lacking a communication instinct and not knowing what own or others' speaking or gesturing means. What you see on the outside is a non-verbal child, but it is unclear what is going on inside, and not being able to make speech is not the whole story.