ebec11 wrote:
I think there should be a difference. I don't have Aspergers because I was severely Autistic when I was younger, and I can't change to Aspergers. I have most of the symptoms of Aspergers now, but I would say that I have HFA because of my past.
I was autistic when little, albeit I only had tantrums when I was detached from my mother (hospital for example), but I only had basic receptive and expressive speech until I was 5 (one to two word replies and the same with requests), aloof to nearly everyone until the same age (this is classed as "severe" autism).
As I said to you before, people with autism who gain adequate speech, i.e., the ability to communicate verbally and fluently in complete sentences will be seen as Asperger's by many experts now; there are many people with autism who don't gain this ability no matter how intelligent they are (so the LFA/HFA classification really holds no merit). If you look at the whole AS/"HFA" population who can speak adequately, you won't find many differences at all in severity and outcome.
Keeping it as autism and AS cuts down on the confusion; communication difficulties versus nuances in communication that aren't severe compared to the former (whether there's a delay of the development of language or not).
11 Mar 2008, 4:11 pm
