Social communications disorder..is it on the spectrum?

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You bring up good information, i bet most of us living in the U.S had no idea of that!
I didnt.

Yes, I am truly asexual, and I find it quite offensive that you are claiming my entire orientation does not exist. We are sick of people saying we don't exist, harassing us, claiming we're frigid or haven't met the right person or our hormones are out of balance or we're just deeply closeted gays. Yes, we exist, and no, we really don't want to have sex. Deal with it.

NT gifted people can have mild social problems because they don't see eye-to-eye with their peers. We know that. But Asperger's, whether in a gifted or average person, is a whole different thing. For people with AS, socializing is as difficult to learn as it is for a dyslexic person to learn to read. The disability is real, and it's awfully stuck-up to say, "Oh, I'm just too smart for all those dumb people. That's why I have social problems." Or maybe just a form of denial that comes from having bought into the idea that a disability is a horrible, shameful thing and you should never ever admit to it or you'll be worthless forever. Whether it's denial or pride, though, either way it makes very little sense. Giftedness and AS are two completely different things.

I think you should take your debates to private messeges, i want to stay on topic.

And can anyone please answer my question if a person with Social communications disorder can be "cured" or is it permanent? I know ive had it my entire life, like i said i was an aspie before this came into play. And quite frankly i feel left out because of it,. anyway stick on topic please.

No, SCD is not NT. Whether it's on the spectrum or not, it is definitely not NT.



Both groups will need social skills training and possibly speech therapy (STs also treat pragmatic speech, plus SCD can have language delay). However, SCD won't need help with sensory processing issues, handling change, etc. And the strategy of using special interests as motivators won't be as effective for SCD as it is for AS.



But if you have SCD rather than AS, you only have the social communication issues, and AS is a lot more than that.

In fact, in my case, my social issues are one of my milder issues. My executive dysfunction and sensory hypersensitivity cause more impairment than my social issues.



I guess I'm a shrub then.

Seriously, what would you call someone who has never had a crush on anyone, never found anyone sexually attractive, and doesn't even respond to masturbation? Because that's what I am.

Now, it has not; like I said some posts ago, the proposed version of ICD11 is changing everyday, and now "social communication disorder" is classified in the "Disorders of speech and language", and has nothing to do with Autism or Aspergers.

http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd ... F854708918

In the DSM-5, SCD is the the group "Neurodevelopmental Disorders", like autism, ADHD and specific learning disorders; in the current version of ICD-11, SCD is NOT included in "Neurodevelopmental Disorders".

What concerns me, is that SCD gives unenlightened clinicians even more scope to misdiagnose Aspies. Especially females. I think it's slightly ridiculous that they could decide that someone with social communication is totally without any other autism spectrum traits at all. I know it's a spectrum, but this is taking it too far. Roll on the day when they can identify specific brain wiring and state categorically what someone has.

Your Aspie Quiz scores strongly suggest you are an Aspie. I expect SCD is supposed to be somewhere in the middle between Aspie and NT. I think the DSM is wrong. It's made things even more subjective.

For the record, im as of now classified as having SCD, however its alot more than just social communications issues, in fact the DSM5 says the only thing keeping me from being an aspie is due to the fact that i dont have stereotyped or repetitive behaviors.

In fact, according to dsm 5 aspergers no longer exists as you know, and also , it may sound like you have a more severe form of what used to be known as aspergers.

So what you are saying that its not a neurodevelopmental Disorder anymore? Strange, because ive been this way my entire life, are they saying that we ARE NT those with SCD? If we ARE NT then those with SCD can be cured somehow since their brains are not wired differently? slightly confused.

Its strange isnt it? Before the DSM5 i had aspergers and was not NT and on the spectrum, so now im totally not on the spectrum.. i dont feel like a NT at all, i see other people out there not struggling socially, THOSE are the NT people.

I used to be an aspie, the only thing keeping me from that is the not having stereotyped and repetitive behaviors, at least that i know of.

Why? Yes, I know that could be very subjective to decide if someone has RSB at a relevant level; but the same occur for almost every symptom of almost every disorder listed in the DSM (for example, could be also subjective to decide if someone has social impairment.

According to the DSM, it is a ND; for the present version of the ICD-11, no.



If you don't have RSB, how you are/were an aspie? Or you have only one RSB symptom (within the threshold in the DSM-IV, but without in the DSM-5?

I found a photo of the description of "repetitive behaviors" in the new DSM, posted by ASdogGeek http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5439775.html#5439775
I'm very surprised that hypersensitivity and focus is under the same category.

It is quite an offensive term really, as it basically means "having strong preferences" (or strong dislike to everything else) - If you like something, of course you will do it a lot. The differences are not in moderation, but in how much we love things (and probably other factors too). NTs often do not have to restrain themselves from "repetitive behaviors" because they do not feel the need for it.

Anyway, even without repetitive behaviors, I think your aspie-score reflects reality better than this new diagnosis does.

Here's my personal perspective, as someone (female and identifying as a woman) who struggled with social skills as a child and teenager, dated an Aspie for a while (diagnosable with DSM-5 ASD based on childhood history), read a boatload about Asperger's and concluded it only "half fits" at most, and has been perceived as having Aspgerger traits by some and normal by others:

Officially SCD is not on the spectrum. They created it because they felt they had to draw the line somewhere, and I think where they drew the line makes sense. People who are definitively on the spectrum tend to struggle a lot with sensory and information processing in ways that I don't, or only ever did a little bit when I was very young. Until maybe age 8, maybe a little later but I don't remember it afterwards, I was a little under-sensitive to pain and over-sensitive to loud noises compared to, say, my sisters who are close in age to me. But when I read about personal accounts of autism as an adult, I feel that my sensory processing falls much more toward the non-autistic side overall. I also never engaged in classic autistic-type repetitive behaviors to any significant degree, neither in my memory or that of those who grew up with me.

I did, however, take things literally, say the darnedest things (aka unintentionally rude things), and was pretty thick-skulled when it came to picking up the appropriate behavior pattern and why it was necessary in many situations for a very long time. I was never the type who could just fake it 'til I made it - far from it. I was openly neurotic. I also was more analytical and, though still able to see the big picture in many cases, fascinated by certain details, and more prone to absorbing myself in somewhat offbeat stuff compared to your average non-autistic person. I became an avid 4-leaf-clover hunter as a pre-teen, for instance, often wandering off into the fields when everyone else was talking and eating and playing games. And psychology, and topics in psychology that fascinate me, may also kind of resemble a "special interest."

I'm in my 30s now, and have learned a lot even since my early 20s, so I usually don't have trouble anymore socially apart from the occasional confusing non-verbal interaction or joke taken seriously. In fact, the very honesty that was once considered a lack of social skills, now more mature and refined, is seen by some as refreshing and a good friend quality. Does that mean I'm cured of the SCD I likely suffered from as a kid? For clinical purposes, I would probably say yes - I seem to be doing fine without professional help now. But in other ways, I'm no more "cured" than a dyslexic who learns to read well enough for everyday life purposes is cured. That dyslexic probably still processes information differently from non-dyslexics. And so I probably still process social information differently from most other non-autistics. A long-time friend of mine has noticed, and found kind of strange, that I'm not very interested in fiction and stories, rarely "miss" people, and otherwise tend not to be interested in people in the same kind of intuitive way most people are. I'm also not a big fan of irony and sarcasm - I don't always fail to understand them, but almost never use them myself, because it just doesn't feel right or make much sense. I'd be a lousy hipster.

Some people speak of a "broad autistic phenotype" where the autism spectrum blends into neurotypicality. I think it's what John Elder Robison calls "proto-Aspergian." And I think social communication disorder is basically intended to span that range, kind of its own spectrum in between the autistic spectrum and classic non-autistics. Some may be closer to autistic, and may possibly even develop toward SCD from having previously been diagnosable as autistic, and others, like me (if I have/had SCD), may eventually come off as mostly just a quirky to those who get to know us and indistinguishable from other non-autistics to those who know us less well, sort of like the social equivalent of a mild dyslexic who eventually learns to read "well enough." 'Cause the deal with SCD is that you have to not qualify for an autism diagnosis on the repetitive behavior/sensory issue side, and SCD might range from none of that at all to just barely not enough to get diagnosed as autistic. It's quite a controversial diagnosis, but I think it would explain a lot that neither Asperger's/autism nor the ADD label that I'd ended up with for a while for lack of anything else can quite cover.