Chance Of Having Children With Aspergers

Post Reply New Topic

This is by just my observations, both here, and in real life, so I can't offer proof, but from what I've seen is that females with AS often have children with varying degrees of ASD. From what I've noticed, males with AS, on the other hand seem to mostly just pass on AS. One of my sons' teachers that teaches only preschoolers with disabilities (she's also only taught preschoolers with ASD in her career) has also made this observation, also.

Both of my boys were tested for Fragile X, as is protocol when two males in the same family have been diagnosed with ASD. They didnt show enough extra counts on the x chromosome to be affected by Fragile X, but there were 2 too many counts for it to be normal. In other words, this could mean that the gene was expanding, and my daughter, and I are carriers. With each pass along with this unstable chromosome it may expand until it is enough to have Fragile X. The only way to know would be to have the both of us tested to see if our counts are the same as the boys. Since I'm not having anymore kids, I didn't see the point in traveling all the way to another city to see a geneticist, but my daughter may want to in the future before she has children.

I don't think it's as straightforward as a 100% chance if both parents have an ASD... i.e. it's not entirely a genetic link (although one is strongly suspected).

How much of that is learned? As one of my friends explained to me, "Inherited does not mean genetic. If both parents speak English as a primary language, chances are the kid is going to grow up speaking English."

Hi, new here. Here's my own personal experience. Keep in mind that most of the people I'm talking about have never been officially diagnosed and aren't pursuing it. Most won't even consider it, or accept the reality. If you want to skip my life story, scan all the way down to the bottom where it says "Long story short?"

***************************

I'm daughter #4 of #4 (all from the same mom and dad).

Dad definitely has ASD traits. His siblings (brother especially) also seem a bit 'different'. Of all of his siblings kids, only a few seem to have tendencies. Dad's family is IMO only mildly ASD. Probably HFA, and that only mildly.

Mom doesn't like to talk about her family, I only know one of her siblings well. He seems QUITE 'different' and my aunt by marriage was 'different' and had a 'different' family. Of his three kids, #1 (my male cousin) is quite obviously ASD and the middle one #2 (my female cousin) was so painfully shy with such severe social issues she was pulled out of school in grade 6 and homeschooled. I assume she's ASD. She learned to drive late in life and still pretty much stays at home with the kids. The youngest one #3 (my female cousin) is officially diagnosed with selective mutism and autism, and I suspect there is probably some low IQ issues thrown in too. Not really MR, but......

#1 has one son with a NT woman. Seems pretty normal.

#2 has three kids with a man I'd bet 20 dollars is also ASD. They are perfect for each other. Their first kid seems NT, their second is diagnosed with Asperger's/HFA. He has aggression issues but is doing ok and is getting better with that. The youngest is a baby and they can't tell yet.

#3 still lives with parents. I doubt she'll ever have kids.

Now of MY sisters?

#1 is pretty darn ASD. Computer programming, stimmed by doing math as a child, full scholarship to MIT, the whole 9 yards. Married but chose to have No kids. Can speed read. Ticced as a child and teen, now doesn't.

#2 is totally screwed up but NOT ASD. As a teen and young adult, she had eating disorders, was manipulative, lied compulsively, and one of the most dramatic, emotional people I knew. She has two kids, both NT. She's the only one of us who cannot speed read.

#3 is HFA, also into computer programming, full scholarship to Carnegie-Mellon, but wanted to go to U of W instead and did. She preferred to stim by reading. Can speed read. Has 2 kids by her husband who is even more ASD than her. Oldest child has just been diagnosed ASD with some Kanner aspects (child will open and close garage door 400 times a day if you let him.) Youngest one is less than a year old and too young to tell, but seems social and makes eye-contact, so HFA and mild at that if anything.

#4 is me. I consider myself HFA. I'm a nurse. My stim thing is organizing stuff. I ticced as a child and teen. Now I mostly don't. Give me a stack of messed up charts and tell me to organize by type of test results, rehab notes, medication orders, etc? I'm happy. Organize it all by date and time as well? Super happy. I hate DOING paperwork though. I can speed read, but hate to hand write things - the sensation creeps me. I have two kids by my life partner - he's ASD too *I* think and more so than me. My oldest one currently has a school label for autism but is probably going to lose it because.............like many people in our family she's learned to Pass For Normal. So we are in the process of securing a medical diagnosis for her. We have also agreed to have chromosomal studies for fragile X done on all of us. My youngest is NT - well, as NT as you can be with mild CP. It's real mild though.

********************************

Long story short? I think that mild ASD is extremely passable. Of my ASD sis and I that have had kids with ASD men? At least 50% of those kids are ASD.

Of my maternal uncle's kids where both parents had ASD? 100% of them were.

If you can't deal with the thought of having a kid with ASD, then don't have kids. Or find a NT spouse and purchase sperm from a lab from someone who is NT.

I personally love my autistic kid, but she got a lot of help very early (17 months) and she's not that difficult. Sure it's annoying that even though she learned to read at age 3, she is still tearing up books (even board books) compulsively if left unnattended with them, among other things, but I love her. I love my NT kid too. I love my ASD partner too. I don't consider this a curse, just a way of being different.

I'm NT, husband mild AS, daughter #1 NT, daughter #2 mild AS.

Has there been any research carried out to determine the chances of two parents having a child with aspergers syndrome, with neither parent having AS? (Because this is the case with me, both of my parents are NT).

It is less (by the same reasons that two parents of brown eyes can have a children of blue eyes).

Um... nope. The more recent research suggests that autism isn't even a discrete condition like Down's or hemophilia, so it's not going to have such simple inheritance patterns. There's no clear division between people on the autistic spectrum and "normal" people. There's an arbitrary cut-off where if you express enough autistic traits in sufficient intensity you are labeled autistic.