Is it possible for AS kids to regress down the spectrum?

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After a bad, bad couple of weeks at school (I won't bore you with the loong details), I am half expecting the suggestion from teachers that my 8 yr old son may be getting autistically "worse". I am inclined to think that there are a lot of environmental triggers going on at the moment (again, I won't bore you with the details) in the classroom dynamics, and the behaviour is just him reacting to the stress he's under because of these.

What do others think? Are people born at a certain point on the spectrum and stay there? Or is it possible to move up and down it?

The spectrum as a completely defined mathematical entity does not exist.

Your position on the spectrum is generally defined by your characteristics, not all of which are immediately obvious.

In addition, environmental factors can influence how you deal with your characteristics and the degree of impact/severity each has on your day-to-day activities.

If you were re-evaluated by someone who wasn't already tainted by the knowledge of the original condition it is almost certain that you'd present differently and therefore would appear to change position on the spectrum.

So, the answer to your question is yes... people can appear to change position on the spectrum throughout their lives.

As far as whether or not your son is changing position is concerned, you'll have to make that call yourself. You might consider however that it is environmental factors influencing his behaviour.

Can you explain what you mean by this?

yes, you can degress and get worse with age. The most common PDDs that do this are childhood disintegrative disorder and multiplex developmental disorder. people with PDD's commonly develop more disorders as they grow older too. I have multiplex developmental disorder and i started developing psychotic sympotms around 7 thinking that the government had invisable cameras were watching me and that ghosts followed me and i thought that the ghost would chase me up the stares. Not many people know about multiplex developemntal disorder becuase it is not in the dsm but you can look it up on wiklepida. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-c ... l_Disorder

If one was originally Autistic, and then improved to a level that professionals deem as Asperger's as they developed; it's possible to return to the level of Autism in early adulthood. Usually, there's an improvement or none during childhood, whether AS or Autism; then they can "regress" to how they were before this improvement as they reach young adulthood. They can then improve later on in midlife.

Stress and illness can make someone appear worst than they innately are.

What I mean by this is that there is no precise measurement - or even a precise means of measuring ones position on the spectrum.

All of the tests are subjective based on the opinions and observations of doctors and on how individuals perform in certain tests, environments etc.

With Aspergers in particular, you can't get a blood test that says "you're at 40% on the spectrum".

Your son may indeed be worsening but it could just as easily be environmental factors such as the school, teachers, stress or even things at home. Give some consideration to those factors first.

(Cycles.)

I get up Perpetual change
I get down
-Yes

I would say that school is stressing out your son. When under stress a person with ASD can appear much lower functioning than they otherwise are. I pulled my son from public school at age 8. When I saw him in his classroom, he looked so autistic .... spinning in circles, rolling his eyes into the back of his, disconnected from people (even from me when i walked in the room). His school placement has dismal.

I haven't seen him spin out of control in over a year (he doesn't do that home, but he was doing it everyday at school).

YES--environment plays a tremendous part in the regression or movement downward. Certain places will cause my son's autistic symptoms to come out--flourescent lights or signs-he is drawn to these for some reason.

Stress, fatigue and illness as stated by previous posters.

If people don't understand him properly, he is more liable to regress and have an outburst. He is eight. These are the moments I'm reminded that he is in fact on the spectrum.

equinn

Stressful conditions will make aspies appear to regress. I don't know if they have regressed at their very core but any coping mechanisms they have developed over time become exhausted if they are put under too much stress. I have seen this happen with adult aspies who usually cope okay in life but go to pieces when too much pressure is put on them.