My language skills are "too good" for ASD?

Post Reply New Topic

I would agree with what others have said thus far. My language skills are great as well as my 6yr old 2E son who is also on the spectrum.

One of our WP members is fluent in ten languages. A number of members here have excellent language skills. It is really concerning that a professional person has such a level of ignorance about a condition he considers himself qualified to diagnose. I am appalled. I hope he did not advertise his services as specialising in Aspergers Syndrome diagnosis. If he did, you may be able to lodge a complaint with the local standards board that governs psychological practice.

What is frieghtining and harmful is how common ignorence among professionals of adult autism is. This is what you get when one to two percent of money goes to Adult Autism research and services in arguably the most influential country in the world.

This doctor's potential only saving grace... albeit not complete in any way, was if they indeed said "language" and meant it in the holistic not-strictly-verbal sense. I have tremendous "language" issues despite having an exceptional grasp of written and spoken English, contextual syntax and vocabulary. ...but if you non-verbal me too hard or too often I will be UTTERLY unclear on what you are saying.

Being able to comfortably communicate with other humans... in that sense, good "language" skills are going to make a diagnosis harder to confirm.

Still, your doctor might just be an idiot. I once had a psychiatrist tell me I was bipolar and not ADhD because I wasn't hyper and all her other ADhD clients couldn't sit still for 40 minutes. I didn't bother explaining that the "h" was optional. I just found someone else (who diagnosed me in about 15 minutes).

As everyone else has said... you can go back, or find someone new, but prepare yourself and go armed. Know why it makes sense and why it doesn't make sense before you ever go into their office, and you will be victorious, to hijack the words of Sun Tzu.

Well, then according to him, I wouldn't have aspergers either. I had no speech delay or other language problems. I learned to talk early and had a great vocabulary. I think everyones "main problem" with aspergers (or autism in general) is the social aspect. The two other requirements (speech and repetitive behaviour) seem sort of.. Not as important to me.

I'd hoped that I made it pretty clear to him (the neuropsych) that I am impaired by numerous things. But my verbal skills leave something to be desired. I speak choppily and a little slowly, and get caught up in synonyms - I'm far better on paper. I'd have written him a note, but apparently he has Papyrophobia, because I can never bring any with me!

I have not stressed to him my low stress/frustration tolerance (and possibly, poor emotion control), my OCD tendencies, my motivation issues, poor practical memory, and poor self-care. I feel impaired by these things.

Anyway, he was unquestionably referring to my good grasp of English and my desire to learn a foreign language, and said "That flies in the face of ASD."

My "people language" skills are... non-existent. But since I took distance learning all my life, he blames this problem on my "sheltered life", and offers that I simply go socialize and learn. As if I have not tried!

He did, at least, verify that my processing speed & working memory are "bad". I'll be seeing him again at some point, I think? He is not straightforward so I really don't know.

Is there an opportunity to obtain a second (or third) opinion elsewhere?

As an autistic person with a special interest in linguistics, I would certainly say a knowledge of language and / or an eloquence of speech is certainly not enough to rule out a diagnoses. When I was little, I was nonverbal by choice, not by lack of a ability, and in fact I was very articulate when I did speak. As for reading, I learned at a normal pace [though I had trouble reading silently, and still do sometimes].

Verbal communication skills are not the only thing that makes or breaks a diagnosis; many of us, like myself, have decent ability in this but a lot of trouble in other areas [expressing emotions, sensory sensitivities, strong attachments to objects or subjects, etc].