Diagnosis of ASD to AS?

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Hi all, am new to the site, and I was just wondering if anyone has had a diagnosis of ASD changed to AS. My son is 5 1/2 (sometimes he seems a lot older!! !) and was diagnosed ASD just over a year and a half ago, but from what I have read, he seems to fit! (if that's the word) more as AS than the Kanner Autism. Does it really matter what the diagnosis is for later in life? Should I have him reassessed or should I leave it? Any advice greatly appreciated.

HI!! I'm not sure what you mean by his dx of ASD?? I've usually seen that to mean Autistic Spectrum Disorder, meaning a diagnosis *somewhere* on the spectrum.

Was you son dx with Kanner's autism? Has he had a lot of interventions and made strides since then? Was he maybe just needing some speech therapy and now he's up and running?

I know that children with intensive interventions early on can make great strides, and so as a working dx the Kanner's may no longer fit as the child may no longer be non-verbal or non-responsive, etc.

There are a lot of dx's on the spectrum, from Kanner's all the up through the AS/HFA and PDD-NOS, as well as a disintigrative disorder, etc.

While I'm not a great proponent of labels in general, if your child is in public school then the right label is where its at for getting the appropriate services, etc.

Hope this helps.

I think there is a miscommunication here between your son's doctor and you.

AS is an ASD. AS is part of the spectrum. It sounds like your son's doctor does not want to make a determination just yet as to what part of the spectrum your son is on until about age 6 or 7. You heard Autism though and thought about Kanner type immediately. The consensus is that both Kanner and Asperger researched and brought forward autims independently but looked at different areas of the spectrum. Similar to the research of Lebniz and Newton on Calculus.

I hope this helps.

Hi, thank you for your replies, he has had a lot of interventions since his dx, speech therapy, ot, and I had an ABA home programme for him until he started in primary school, he's currently in a special class with 3 other autistic boys. He has come on in leaps and bounds since he started in the school in September. His language is fantastic, he's very good at maths (he loves numbers) and reading, but he is also very rigid in routine, concrete, does a lot of biting, kicking, shouting, can't touch his things, I just want to make sure I'm approaching him in the right way and that as he gets older that he gets the appropriate services.

It sounds like he is getting some good interventions through school, and apparently progressing well.

Many thanks to Louis for clarifying where I was going. Several days of necessary pain pharmacopia have left me less than on point!

You are your child's best advocate. If you haven't already I would certainly recommend checking out some of the better books written on the topics affecting our kids (just depending on the issues your child is having at the time) and keeping on top of what's going on at the time and the help he is getting for it. Amazon.com or your local bookseller should have a good selection.

That's been the hardest, but the best, work that has produced the best results. Your child will change over time. A result of environment, interventions, hormones, everything impacts them. The dx may change, how the dx is seen and expressed by your child may change.