aspergers vs classic autism

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Some regression or hesitancy in reaching milestones is actually quite common in ASD disorders. Some children start talikng then stop and start talking again later, some walk early then refuse to walk until later, some start talking and reading really early but their speech and/or word processing is never quite right. I suppose that the case of a child starting talking early but then stopping and later starting to talk again but never recovering the level they had before would be diagnosed with Rett syndrome (though there would be other abnormalities as well, including physical disability) or childhood disintegrative disorder, or some metabolic disease, or TS, etc. But this is much less frequent than autism, Asperger's or PDD-NOS.

I got a somewhat official diagnosis when I was over 30 (by a friend who is a specialist but not in official settings) so I quite understand your willingness to get to know where you fit in the autism spectrum. But as of now the basic criterion is speech delay, and it is rather strict, not using single words by age 2 and simple (e.g. 3-word) phrases by the age of three.
Everything else might be seen in all PDDs. Even traits which are considered very characteristic of one disorder or another might be misleading. For an example, there are Asperger's people without special interests, and these are considered to be one of the hallmarks of the disorder.
It is a medical and scientific fact though that the presence of speech delay does not serve as a point of reference when determining the course of the disorder. There are many children which start out as classic autists, not talking to a certain age and with a whole bouquet of other issues, then, as speech is acquired and other problems such as stimming and sensory trouble are resolved or at least made tolerable, special interests tend to become prominent and if one is not acquainted with the medical history, the person is diagnosed as having Asperger's.

Last edited by Severus on 16 Apr 2011, 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Watching the Autism talk Tv, If you could say it in words episode, woa...trying to fit it, that's me...trying to be like everyone else...Im ordering the movie I hope it's out.

Isn't there a comfort zone in having the diagnosis, knowing that you don't have to change you don't have to "try" to fit in and bringing awarness to those around you so they may understand you better?

thank you thank you thank you

I think I see what you mean, for myself it was a relief, knowing that I was not plain bad or crazy, just radically different from people around, something that has been hardwired into you from day one.
But then it does not require fitting yourself into a labeled box, it is ASD either way. Autism comes in all shapes and sizes.

I try to collect what I know about myself, I hope it can help, and maybe helps me too. I had no speech development delay, I talked to people around me rather than show my intentions/interests to them without language. I used simple sentences most of the time and used relatively few words. I was always more on the listening side than on the talking side, I liked to listen to people who showed interest in certain fields that also interested me. I don't know about temporary setback in language learning or usage in my case. I started to stutter in the age of aprox. 8-9 years old, since then I always had bad articulation and other problems with speech too.

My expression and vocabulary are not very good, and my narrative ability is also somewhat poor, not only in English. I have trouble first with collecting my thoughts and only secondly putting them into words, sentences. I'm a somewhat slow 'thinker', but not very slow. My memory frequently fails me with things that I know I should know (later I remember) or tried to learn many times still no success with it. I experience traits of ADD too, I suspect it is quite common among Aspies/Autistics (but not a criterion). My IQ is only moderately above the average, nowhere near of really high (as Aspies are stereotyped). My spatial abilities are a mixed bag. I think I'm very much incapable of understanding people's connections to each other, the way they are thinking, the ideas they share, the preferences they share, and usually I'm the last person who knows about what's going on around him. Yet, I have general ideas about them, can get along with some people well, and at least work with them. I have mild but definite sensory issues, do stimming, and I'm definitely clumsy a bit.

I'm also very sincere, to the point of mindless. Yet, I'm learned to use lies, apply them, but mostly I don't understand the mechanism of how they work, I just made the corrections after my experiences. I always use a very limited number of them, since they make me feel shameful, and can strike back on me easily. Somehow I feel some kind of courage or discontentment that drives me forward on my way, one of the results are when I seem blunt or rude, but also when I achieve something important in my life.

About music. I alway had a close connection to music. I listened to tapes since early age (those fascinating spinning reels...), played toy instruments, later played the slide trombone, but felt not enough gifted to continue learning. Now my everyday activities include listening to music of several kind. I'm very demanding about the audio reproduction quality, feel somewhat ear-pierced when not given one.

I was just about to post the link for you! Glad I saw this first!

Yeah, I would say on the mild end. High-functioning end can also have severe people. On the PDD test I scored 170 and 48 on the AQ test. I am definitely not mild. I consider myself severe, but I am high-functioning (I go to school, I work part time, I dress myself, feed/cook for myself, and I am verbal). High-functioning includes mild, but does not mean mild.

Thank you Ojani, I feel many similarities with you. Its a rough day so I don't have a lot of time to reply but wanted to let you know I read your post and thank you for taking the time to explain your traights to me. Wich are very similar to mine. Im learning there are names for things that i do like stimming, music is huge for me too and feeling like the last one in the room to understand, yep thats me. LittleLily thank you too

These sorts of threads cause bickering (well, they do when I start them on this type of thing), but I must say that it is blatantly obvious that there is a line between classic Autism and just Asperger's Syndrome. Forget about the intelligence - I am not talking about that because sometimes IQ doesn't always depend on your neurology. Some NTs can be really clever and other NTs can be really dumb. I, myself, am an Aspie with a surprisingly low IQ, and I can't even focus on my special interests because I'm not bright enough to find out more. So I'm going to put IQ to the side, and just talk about social and emotional and even physical development.
Now, as I've probably mentioned on other threads, I have a friend who has a younger brother who is very, very Autistic. He needs 24-hour care, and can't function in normal society, in any sort of way. He lives in nappies (even though he's 19), and he is just low-functioning. I've known my friend since the age of 5, and I've grew up with her, and all the while her brother has got no better than he was when he was about 6. He might be emotional within himself, but he doesn't show anything on the outside - he is just completely locked in his own world constantly. He was diagnosed with Autism at 2 years old, and 2 is very young to be diagnosed, so the symptoms must have shown really severely. And now someone else who I know has got a 2-year-old boy, and he also has just been diagnosed with classic Autism, so that's another person who's had a child diagnosed with this same condition at 2 years old.
Yes, everybody's different, but I'm talking about the level of the severity. One Autistic person might like animals and be besotted with animals, whilst another Autistic person might be besotted with paper, and there's loads more examples like that, but I'm just saying it's all about the level of severity. At work there's this woman who talks a lot, is always finding things to say to customers, and is completely the opposite from me, as in personality. But just the other day she told me she has high-functioning Autism, which is Asperger's. But we're are two completely different people (she's louder but still struggles socially, and I'm shy but struggle socially in other ways) but we're still on the same social development level, if you know what I mean.

I have clasic autism. mild. but I have full tiem care givers. I am smart. but can not drive. do not have a job. can not cook a meal. I can help. but not by my self. I need help organisign clothign to wear. am semi verbal,1 or 2 word sentence sometiems. I am at the mild end. but not midl enough for aspergers. I think of myself as high fuctioning. I am not diagnosed high fucgtioning. I have decided this. I belive I am corect. It is a self diagnsois. My real diagnsois is jsut autisic disorder. Nothing about high fuctioning. but I think that I am smart is prof.