Whats the difference between ASD and Aspergers?

Post Reply New Topic

hey, Just wondering if anyone knew the difference between Autism spectrum disorder and Aspergers please?

Aspergers is part of the autistic spectrum.

ASD is from the DSM V (Autistic Disorder, some people with PDD-NOS, and Asperger's all got rolled into a single diagnosis), Asperger's is from the DSM IV (outdated) or the ICD 10 (current) but still under ASD. Everyone with Asperger's has ASD, but not everyone with ASD has Asperger's.

An article online stated that those with Asperger's Syndrome do not have speech development delays in their youth. This is a part of the reason why I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism because I barely said a word until three years after my conception.

I'm a mental health worker in the U.S. I deal with diagnostic labels everyday. There is no difference between asperger's and ASD. They are the same thing. In the U.S., they decided to get rid of the diagnosis of Asperger's and lump all the developmental disorders related to autism into one big diagnosis known as Autism Spectrum Disorder. That means people in the U.S. who would have formally been diagnosed as having Asperger's are now being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder (mild or moderate, depending on the severity of their symptoms). Someone who is non-verbal and having severe problems functioning would be diagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (severe).

As a teenager, I was diagnosed with Asperger's. Being generally delayed, it was determined instead the autism is more severe.

I was told like 5 years ago by people who deal with providing services to people with developmental disabilities, that Aspergers is a type of personality that isn't always due to autism. I was told they couldn't provide services to me because my Aspergers wasn't caused by autism.

As far as I am aware nothing. When my son was diagnosed they told me they don't use the label Aspergers anymore, they just use the umbrella term ASD.

"My" psychologist told me, that the distinction: language delays vs none has been watered out now,
so, as a kid, despite normal language dvelopment and even a quite advanced one, I could easily have got that IA label today, because of other signs, that were present.

There is just ASD at different levels, classifying Aspergers as Level 1.

They were dead wrong. Aspergers is a form or subcategory of autism or just autism period.

This assertion constantly bandied about
is questionable. There is severe Aspergers that might "impair" a person enough to get to near if not actually ASD level 2 . A common diagnostic criteria for Aspergers is an IQ above 70. That is correct 70, not 120, not genius which is all you see in media portrayals.

Based on what I read here some people ever today, even in areas where the DSM dominates are still being diagnosed with Aspergers.

Yes, so we´re left to see, how they set level distictions in the future.

Yes, implementing the changes in the new DSM is a gradual process, with many providers being resistant to it.

To be honest, I think some doctors ignored language delay anyway when DXing Asperger Syndrome. I know SO many children (my son's peers) who were DXd Aspie although they had significant speech delays. So why not simply ASD rather than AS? Because they were "so smart!"

It seems (just my experience, and my circle is a small sample) that some assessors leaned more toward "AS is the smart ASD" than "AS is the non-language delay (among other factors, obviously) ASD". That always sort of bugged me. It made for almost a "class system" among ASD, or at least that's how I saw it. Especially given all the for all we know erroneous "Einstein and Newton were Aspies!" cheering. First of all, it gave the false illusion that Aspies are all geniuses. Second of all, if Einstein was on the spectrum and if we are to believe the reports given by family members, he DID have a speech delay, and a fairly significant one. IIRC, he is reported not to have spoken meaningfully until the age of 2 years, 9 months. Isn't that language delay? But he was SOOOOOOO SMART which meant he HAD to be an Aspie, he COULN'T be just ASD, that's the not-smart autism.

On more than one occasion I asked a parent how his/her child could be an Aspie considering the child had an obvious, DXd speech delay (we were in SDC/parent participation until my middle son was four and then again for my youngest son). The fury that followed that I could possibly lump their child in with the "not-smart" autistic children was not to be believed. I quickly learned just not to ask.

Arghhhhhhhhhhh, why did I even think of this much less answer the thread, this always gets me riled up. Calming down now and apologies to all.