Proposal: include grading of autism in diagnosis.

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am LFA,use typing as a main communication form besides PECS,AAC,makaton and echolalia but dont present as HFA; am obviously more tuned into the world than someone profoundly affected by classic autism but on a daily basis am recognisedly LFA;am still experiencing very complex highly rigid autism,severe communication challenges and a low frustration threshold as a result, high support needs/the need of two support staff to self at all times and severe challenging behavior every day.
in adulthood,those of us who are labeled LFA are often given functional assessments which makes it easier for specialists to understand our true level of intelectual disability, functional assessments ontop of a WAIS test helps ontop of documented developmental history is how they assess our functioning, its harder to test when we are kids as they are naturaly not independant at that age,mine ID was originaly described at a severe level but was rediagnosed as mild ID late last year thanks to better testing.

I thought you were diagnosed with Asperger's

no,severe classic autism and mild ID [LFA].
but..have actualy had a NHS mental health pyschologist rediagnose as severe aspergers in the past,he brought up that he had never worked with autism or ID before, he never got hold of NHS records or developmental history plus didnt seem to notice was speaking one word answers echolalicaly and unaware of environment;focusing on opening and closing a gameboy advance sp over and over,he diagnosed severe AS, severe combined ADHD,and multiple learning disability which implies profound learning disability [which in american definitions means profound intelectual disability,which if knew what profound ID was woud know am nothing like that].
was put back to severe classic autism by the social services ID team pyschologist and got the ID rediagnosed as mild last year whilst detained in a ID secure hospital,also had the ADHD label removed,it was undiagnosed a few years ago but for some reason never got pulled off NHS records.

According to the article they don't know that what they found actually indicates they are two seperate disorders that just have similarities....also they don't even know exactly how an autistic brain differs from a normal brain to the exact detail so how can they deterimine anything like that....also what if autism does not look the same in the brain of every autistic individual.

There are enough misdiagnoses, I don't know how diagnoses would go as far as 'shades' .

I agree.
I don't think it matters much as long as people get the treatment they need.

exactly.
theres a lot more similarities than differences,isnt this why theyre now often widely viewed to be the same thing [HFA & AS?].
it makes more sense to merge them both,in terms of support and understanding.

I couldn't agree more.






Back to the original question...
I don't think a system like that would work in my case because some of my symptoms are way more severe that my other symptoms. I have very good social skills for someone on the spectrum. Social deficits are still there, but they are very subtle, even to professionals. My sensory difficulties on the other hand, are unusually severe for someone with Aspergers, especially for someone who is so mild in almost every other way. But for me sensory overload causes stimming, unusual language usage (or it makes me unable to talk altogether), a decrease in eye contact and overall difficulty with body language. But if I'm not sensory overloaded, none of those things happen and I appear to be "normal"/NT-like.

So where would I land on the 10 point scale? Would the different severities of my symptoms be somehow averaged together?

I do not know if 10 is the right number but I do think 3 categories is not enough to account for variations of the condition thus help needed. Instead of severity alone I would concentrate on what traits are how severe. There may be broad subcategories and more detailed subcategories. I would dump the word level and replace it with "-Autism". On my end of the spectrum you could have a broad category of Aspergers-Autism with sub categories "Wing-Autism" for people how have relativity steady careers and relationships and "Gillberg-Autism" for people with noticeable speech/motor problems

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 17 Aug 2014, 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

now thats interesting,but what about classic autism as am only familiar with kanners criteria? and atypical,and CDD?
imagine the general public trying to understand the diagnostic criterias without having a hand out to give them though,its hard enough getting them to understand the actual autism without thinking in their movie stereotypes.

This is hard to answer in a short answer.
Prior or along with developing task initiation and goal-directed persistence skills, an ASD child needs to learn a sense of time and time management skills.
Task initiation applies to tasks that need to get done but we are reluctant to do, so we make ourselves do. Tasks we find unpleasant, objectionable, or mind-numbing. Teaching starts with preschool kids when we prompt them to do the task and then supervise at least the start of the task while they do it. It matures with the establishment of routines like morning or bedtime routines. The child is taught child that certain things have to be done at a set time each day in a set sequence. Songs and books about the routine are shared so the child understands that this is what is expected in a fun way (http://www.4mylearn.org/Bookshelf/Songs ... akeup.html). A visual sequence the child helped develop is placed in the child?s room along with an analog clock and picture of what the task looks like when properly completed (http://www.4mylearn.org/Bookshelf/Downl ... hedule.pdf). The sequence can have pictures of clocks. The parent provides prompting and cuing that is gradually removed as the child internalizes the routine. Independent action is strongly praised and rewarded in the beginning. The best way to teach task initiation is giving children developmentally appropriate chores to do prior to play.
Goal-directed persistence refers to setting a goal and working toward it without being diverted by other interests. It is taught with delayed gratification. Both build self-confidence and self-esteem. Goal-directed persistence is learned every time a child is encouraged to keep trying even when something is hard. The child is taught that mastering new skills takes time, practice, and effort, praised for sticking with something demanding and rewarded with what the child really wants but doesn't have free access to. In the beginning they learn through chores, discussed above, enjoyable activities such as games and sports, earning an allowance so they can buy what they want. Starting with very brief tasks where the goal is clearly within sight. The child is reminded what he is working toward. The child is encouraged to stretch to reach more distant goals, begin with ones that the child wants to work on.
Prior or along with developing organization skills, an ASD child needs to learn a sense of external space. External space is space that exists outside of their current line of site. Beek-A-Boo and toys under a blanket start teaching this concept. Involving the child in multi-person activities started in the same room then people continue in another room, then rejoin. A child learns that organization increases predictability and reduces stress. By organizing we establish and maintain a system for arranging or keeping track of important items. Teaching organization starts in infancy with bookcases, toy boxes, and laundry hampers used to keep their rooms and play areas neat, limiting the number of toys available at one time, involving the child with replacement, putting away old toy and selecting new, and rules of what is allowed where, such as where they can eat. The parent puts an easily maintained system in place, provides the child pictures of properly maintained, and coaches the child on how to use the system. As the child gets older he/she becomes involved in tailoring and extending the system for new important items.

I dislike the word dumb. It is a word that should be removed from the dictionary. It is used by ignorant people.

I believe the term "ignorance," properly applied, refers to "willful ignorance"--an apparent disinclination towards the reception of information which deviates from one's preconceived notions.

That all sounds terribly overwhelming....I mean maybe that helps some people but I doubt it prevents the executive dysfunction that comes with autism, perhaps it helps it some for some....but I could also see a lot of meltdowns and such. I mean when I was a kid I was terrible with time, if I was expected to do everything at a specific time in a specific sequence I think it would have increased my stress levels........Also with the executive dysfunction its not really not wanting to do a task or avoiding it because its boring, its an actual difficulty to get started on things even things you enjoy or like having major trouble picking a shirt to wear in the morning. Also while it is good to encourage the child to keep on a task even if it is difficult as sometimes things are that way....one has to be careful not to over-do it I mean if the task is really too hard or doing it all at once is causing major distress due to being overwhelmed then I'd think they should back off and acknowledge they did put the effort in.

And with organization that is something else I have always struggled with and....I doubt having my parents on my back about staying organized and having me constantly organizing stuff since it would have likely kept getting unorganized would have made my childhood even worse.....and i don't think it would have helped my confidence just would have been yet another thing people criticize me for. But that is just my opinion....I mean it just seems some of these methods ignore that autism is actually a disability and so simply trying to train a child via those methods might not be effective since no matter how hard you push with some of it the autism trait/symptom is going to persist and might prevent/interfere with their ability to stick to all that.

I purposely did not make suggestions for that part of the spectrum because I did not want to speak for you.

apologies ASPartOfMe,
am to used to people just ignoring our part of the spectrum.