Aspergers and High Functioning Autism?

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What is the main difference between Aspergers and High Functioning Autism?

If you ask Tony Attwood, he'll tell you the difference is in name only. However I've found that the difference lies in people with Asperger's having more of a desire to socialize rather than be on their own.

I was told that with AS there can be no significant language delay. My other son was originally diagnosed with Autism, Kanners High Functioning, and he had a very significant language delay, and he is quite social.

That's what I've read too, that a language delay is required for an autism diagnosis, and that that's the only real difference between a diagnosis of autism and a diagnosis of AS as far as the criteria are concerned.

I've seen that stuff in "What is Asperger Syndrome" leaflets about aspies wanting to be sociable as opposed to autistic people who supposedly appear uninterested in the world around them. I guess it's just written to counter the negative preconceptions some people might have about autism.
Apparently when Lorna Wing coined the term "Asperger's Syndrome" she'd meant it as a way of drawing attention to the fact that many autistic people were high-functioning. But the term seems to have had almost the opposite effect with many people thinking that AS and HFA are markedly different conditions.

the specialist that diagnosised me considers them the same thing.
april

The most common answer I've heard is that in autism, there is a significant speech delay. However, as an aspie/HFA grows older, it can appear to be very similar.

From what I've heard and read, AS is a form of HFA, but HFA isn't necessarily AS. People with HFA have a speech delay, and people with AS had no speech delay.

I have AS, and for the most part, I don't have a strong desire to socialise. I suppose I defy that hypothesis.

I desire to socialize, but I aparently lack the skills. Which is a major bummer. But I fit many of the HFA characteristics as well as almost every single aspie trait. *sigh*

I see no difference that really matters.

Quoting Dr. Tony Attwood "They are spelled differently, they are exactly the same thing, they are snynomous."

The main difference in the US is the language element, either a delay or a severe lack in fluent verbal communication skills (for the child's age). But from what I've seen here on WP, language isn't quite so either-or. There's many people on here who are "just barely" Aspies. Meaning, they talked late but not late enough to be considered having Autistic Disorder. Plus both Aspies and Autties have language deficits. I think usually HFAers have a greater level of deficit in verbal language use, but Aspies also have a deficit frequently in this area.

I don't think there's much difference except where the psychiatric/neurological communities decide where lies the dividing line in language between Aspergers and Autistic Disorder, with many individuals falling in that grayer, borderline area.

In my personal opinion, I see both as having similar underlying deficits where Autistic Disorder just usually has a greater deficit in the area of verbal language.

From the DSM-IV for 299.80 Aspergers Syndrome:

This is really the clincher, in my mind: development in cognition. I would agree with Sophist regarding the language problem, aka it being simply a case of poorer verbal development, for whatever reason. Most of the rest of it is the same, except for cognitive development. In short, HFA cognition is more self-focussed, showing less awareness of external stimuli. This is what accounts for the apparent lack of interest in socializing, not just the absence of interest, but because they're less aware of other people as people.

Asperger's syndrome compared to high-functioning autism:

• AS = Verbal IQ > Performance IQ; HFA = inverse
• AS = motor clumsiness; HFA = motor skills can be an islet of ability
• AS = can be very verbose; HFA = more often silent and withdrawn
• AS = communicates in words; HFA = may communicate in simple gestures, especially as a young child
• AS population average IQ usually higher than that of HFAs
• AS = may be reported as having more interest in socializing; HFA = stereotypically reported as having less interest in socializing
• AS = geeky, intellectual; HFA = "special," odd
• AS = less noticeable stims; HFA = more noticeable stims
• AS = fewer meltdowns and better sensory integration; HFA = more meltdowns and greater sensory integration dysfunction
• AS = obsessive interests are more abstract and intellectual - conceptual systems; HFA = obsessive interests tend to be simple and concrete or systems based in the physical world
  

I would like to disagree with you about the points on who has more meltdowns/sensory integration dysfunction; the types of obsessive interests a type of person has; average IQ being higher in one type than the other; and, on how noticeable stims are. Perhaps it would have been easier to say which points I agreed with, heh.

If that is indeed the difference, I am clearly AS on all the line.

That would make me HFA, I'm all but one!