Is HFA the old Asperger’s?

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Hi I’m very confused by the difference between HFA and Asperger’s

The general consensus is there is no language delay with Asperger’s as opposed to HFA.
My three questions:

1. Approx. 20% of toddlers with Autism talk on time 12-18 months and stay talking (no regression), is this classed as Asperger’s or HFA or both?

2. Are they referring to the same thing when they mention speech and language, or are they regarded as two separate skills, i.e. a kid that has a fairly good speech vocabulary at 2 but lots of echolalia and poor receptive and expressive language cannot have aspergers?

3. Is HFA the old Asperger’s?

I tend to use both terms interchangeably. The term Aspergers appears to be out of vogue in today's world. They have in a way smashed this condition into the definition of Autism by creating a term called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The traits exhibited by Aspergers is fairly well defined. So I generally related to this terminology. Also the nickname has an endearing quality to it - Aspie.

So from my perspective, I will refer to someone with High Functioning Autism or Asperger's Syndrome as an Aspie both for clarity of the condition and also for the endearing quality of the nickname.

This article tries to technically describe the difference between HFA an Asperger's.
Asperger’s Syndrome vs. High-Functioning Autism: Understanding the Difference

It aint that complicated.

Aspergers was simply a subdivision of "high functioning autism". More specifically it was that subdivision of HFA that consisted of folks who had no speech delay. With speech delay you have HFA, without you are aspergers.

But then a couple of years ago they got rid of the "aspergers" label as a medical label in DSM. So now folks who would have been labeled "aspergers" are just lumped under HFA. HFA has not replaced aspergers. Aspergers is subsumed under the already existing HFA label.

But where it gets complicated is that "high functioning autism" was not an official medical label (neither was low functioning, nor middle functioning). Unlike "aspergers" it was just a colloquial label used by docs and lay folks alike, but not actually officially recognized.

But recently that changed. Now they officially parse up the autism spectrum into "Level 1"(needing some support), Level 2 (needing moderate support), and level 3 (needing lotsa support). Which in effect makes the colloquial "high, medium, and low, functioning colloquial labels into official medical labels.

On top of that some newly diagnosed folks are termed "level One autism, without speech delay" ( ie high functioning autism, but you learned to talk at the normal time toddlers learn to talk). As far as I can see the label "level one autism without speech delay" amounts to the same thing as the old term "aspergers". Saying "half of a dozen", instead of saying "six".

Thanks for relying

So where does "little professor syndrome" come into it? With some sites claiming that is the symptom of aspergers?

Maybe theres multiple forms of aspergers with some talking kids that are not so gifted?

Many Aspies become very involved with their favorite hobbies or interest, almost obsessed. They study the subject in fine detail. They become subject matter experts. When conversations stumble upon one of their interest, they will talk on and on about the subject driving others insane. Others will then tune them out. They are like little professors simply talking about what they most enjoy.

There is a free ebook on Aspergers (pdf). The introduction explains a little of the recent history and how the names have been managed.

http://christianpioneer.com/blogarchiev ... e_2017.pdf

I prefer the term Aspergers as it tends excludes the physical brain damage usually associated with traditional (severe) autism. I do not think that calling it a "spectrum" helps disassociate the "brain damage" connotation.

If your browser cannot open a pdf book, you may have to right click and select "save as".

I would say people with Asperger's, in a general sense, just might do better in verbal things, and not so well in visuospatial things.

I would say people with HFA and who are not Aspergian (and talked at the "normal age), just might do better in visuospatial things, and not so well in verbal things.

Children with Asperger's are sometimes described as "little professors" because of their obvious advanced verbal abilities manifested at very young ages.

They messed around with terms to bump numbers and get better govt funding for programs to offset learning delays in school. By throwing Asperger's with its better PR in with the rest it was a hope to soften the stigma as well.

I was able to talk early but I had major sensory issues early as well. Plus dyslexia, speech impediment, dietary problems. Plus weird episode of just wandering off like a ferret. My daughter talked early but seemed affected more than I was as an infant. My kids are physically adept except odd things like riding a bike.

In my own view though similar, not the same. may as well lump Alzheimers as adult onset "CDD". Rhetts syndrome is now removed from ASD now that it found a definite mutation connection.

I have my own kids as well. The two older kids are Spectrum and similar to me and their dad. I have DX of Asperger's as did their dad in the 70s.
My youngest with serious delay and speech regression is like a cuckoo left in our nest the is so radically different in his exhibition of symptoms. I honestly thought he had a stroke it was so quick and severe an onset. It is diagnosed as Autism. I think in the next two decades the symptom types will be separate again as causes are pinpointed

HFA was its own thing and just gobbled up Asperger's.

Does selective mutism count as a speech delay?

I work with autistic children and they are all extremely different to each other with no particular correlation between speech delay and other skills.

Strangely for myself, I didn't regress in speech but did undergo a dramatic social regression at around 16 months which alarmed my parents and can be seen in childhood videos.

I hate the functioning labels, so I always refer to myself as aspie even when people say it's wrong and that Hans Asperger was a Nazi. Hitler was supposed to have liked animals, be anti-gun and an advocate for women's rights (not that any of that makes what he did okay).

If the whole world was aspie and being aspie was the norm, then what acronym would everyone else go by? Would they be? NTD? Neurotypically disordered. Would social people just be considered PITS? Pains in the asses? Pests?
I used to listen to people talk on the train to work. It was just considered "conversation". It was mindless dribble.
I used to wish that these social chatterboxes would just shut the H up already, put their heads and take a freakin' nap already!! ! Do they ever tire of talking? Yak yak yak yak yak Do they ever tire of listening? Is the coffee that they always carry on the train with them to blame for them going on and on and on ..................GOSH!! !

A lot of NT's I work with don't function at all. If they would just SHUT THE F UP and do some work once in a while, the world would be a better place.

You didn't regress. You recoiled. Some children are aggressive and mean. They say psychopaths are born that way. Doesn't that mean that they are infants, tots, children, etc...? Maybe at 16 months, you came across one and that person changed you forever. It may have even been another 16 month old. Babies communicate in their own ways. Labels are for the wicked, not for us. It's a shame what happens to good people. Your parents were alarmed at your behavior, actually they should've been alarmed at what triggered it - who and what was around you at or around the time. I was raped at 7 by a 13 year old. Nobody believed me and he got away with it. I never had a label until that time - first it was "withdrawn" then came all the other labels - all guesses. There's was nothing "wrong" with me.

Pre-2013 DMIV there was Aspergers - basically autism minus language delay + moderate - normal IQ
HFA was an informal category for children with Kanners autism who were only moderately impacted by language delay but able to speak, write, draw, play etc moderate IQ?
LFA - functional disability, low IQ and complete speech delay (I think?)

What was confusing in those days was the link between speech and language, I never quite understood what psychologists mean't by speech delay (I think this was supposed to be language/communication delay as HFA kids could speak from a young age). The language delay assumed IQ was < 70 which was a requirement for Aspergers. Of course these labels never had any predictive validity about how a HFA child would turn out as an adult in terms of IQ or functional ability

The whole high functioning and low functioning thing was crap - basically three types of autism in my view
functional - able to live independently
semi-functional - requires varying degrees of assistance to function in society
dysfunctional - requires constant care or residential care

If you're an eight year old who lectures the family on the planets, or on the history of sailing ships, like myself at eight, you were a "little professor". And thirty years later Aspergers became an official thing in the DSM, and one of its symptoms is "being a little professor" so my family suspected I was aspie. And then ten years later I got the official exhaustive test and was officially diagnosed with aspergers.

So the little professor thing fits me to a T. But I am sure that there are many folks who have gotten the aspergers diagnoses who were not little professors when they were little children the way I was.

My own speculation ( and it is just speculation) is that maybe aspergers and HFA actually aren't really the same thing after all. They are like volkswagons and Citreons (two different makes of weird bubble shaped cars that outwardly look similar, but underneath are quite different). Folks with good verbal skills should be label aspie, and folks with good spatial or other kinds of intelligence but lacking verbal skills could be labeled HFA.