HFA or aspergers?????

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It kinda makes sense then - that my HFA son, who goes to a school for kids with AS, is the only one who can't put his own clothes on after gym, although he does well with maths, reading ect.

It kinda makes sense then - that my HFA son, who goes to a school for kids with AS, is the only one who can't put his own clothes on after gym, although he does well with maths, reading ect.
What made you start talking/functioning at a higher level danileismyname/ebec11/age1600? Don't have to answer if it's too personal.
BTW my son is very interested in being social, but it is SO hard for him to get it right. Even his humour is pretty warped - I think he is hilarious - he thinks he is hilarious - but lots of other people think he's over the top!
There was talk of changing his diagnosis from "infantile autism" to AS. I feel ambivalant about it. Obviously, he is verbal. And the AS diagnosis is pretty cool. But I do see a big difference to the AS kids.

Ugh I had so much trouble with gym clothes.

They nicknamed me "Pokey" because I spent so much time in the locker room.

Before you said this, I thought that this was 'typical' (=somewhat prevailing) for AS.

If it's a school for kids with AS, I suppose this doesn't cause a problem? That people are understanding even if he's the only one? Just checking. I remember that it's totally horrible if you can't dress, have no idea where to start and teachers really really urge you to just get on and hurry.

Asperger acknowledged that there were many similarities between his syndrome and Kanner's early infantile autism. Nevertheless, he considered they were different because he regarded autism as a psychotic process, and his own syndrome as a stable personality trait. Since neither psychotic process nor personality trait has been defined empirically, little more can be said about whether they can be distinguished from each other.


Van Krevelen (1971) and Wolff & Barlow (1979) agreed with Asperger that his syndrome should be differentiated from autism. They differ in their accounts of the distinguishing features and the impression gained from their papers is that, although there are some differences, the syndromes are more alike than unalike. The variations could be explained on the basis of the severity of the impairments, though the authors quoted above would not agree with this hypothesis. Thus the autistic child, at least when young, is aloof and indifferent to others, whereas the child with Asperger syndrome is passive or makes inappropriate one-sided approaches. The former is mute or has delayed and abnormal speech, whereas the latter learns to speak with good grammar and vocabulary (though he may, when young, reverse pronouns), but the content of his speech is inappropriate for the social context and he has problems with understanding complex meanings. Non-verbal communication is severely impaired in both conditions. In autism, in the early years, there may be no use of gesture to communicate. In Asperger syndrome there tends to be inappropriate use of gesture to accompany speech. In both conditions, monotonous or peculiar vocal intonation is characteristic. The autistic child develops stereotyped, repetitive routines involving objects or people (for example, arranging toys and household objects in specific abstract patterns, or insisting that everyone in a room should cross the right leg over the left), whereas the person with Asperger syndrome becomes immersed in mathematical abstractions, or amassing facts on his special interests. Abnormal responses to sensory input - including indifference, distress and fascination - are characteristic of early childhood autism and form the basis of the theories of perceptual inconstancy put forward by Ornitz & Ritvo (1968) and of over-selectivity of attention suggested by Lovaas et al (1971). These features are associated with greater severity of handicap, and lower mental age. They are not described as typical of Asperger syndrome, and they are rarely seen in older autistic people with intelligence quotients in the normal range.


The one area in which this type of comparison does not seem to apply is in motor development. Typically, autistic children tend to be good at climbing and balancing when young. Those with Asperger syndrome, on the other hand, are notably il1-co-ordinated in posture, gait and gestures. Even this may not be a particularly useful point of differentiation, since children who have typical autism when young tend to become clumsy in movernent and much less attractive and graceful in appearance by the time of adolescence (see DeMyer, 1976, 1979 for a discussion of motor skills in autism and autistic-like conditions).


Bosch (1962) considered that Asperger syndrome and autism were variants of the same condition. This author pointed out that, although Asperger and Van Krevelen (1971) listed features in the early history which they thought distinguished the two conditions, in practice these did not cluster into two groups often enough to justify the differentiation. The child in Appendix No. 6 illustrates this problem (see also Everard 1980).

Asperger's is a high functioning form of autism.

HFA is more specifically used when language delays are involved. Aside from that it seems about the same as Asperger's.

They could make them the same thing I guess. It'd be pointless.

I think somebody who was nonverbal more severe growing up becomes more higher functioning yet still faces the challenges like not being able to do their own hair or make a bed right(for instances me ugh!) or can't nessacarily live on their own without assistance unfortunely, but since I can drive, and have a bf(even though idk how hes still with me) I'm considered High Functioning Autism rather then Aspergers. Does that make any sense to anybody?

What kind of language delays? occasional slurred speech? Can't talk faster than a moderate speed?

The DSM-V workgroup has not yet released any official information. However, some people speculate that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will be introduced as an umbrella term, and that Asperger's, (Kanner's) autism, PDD-NOS, and possibly one or more others will become subcategories of ASD. Other conditions (like OCD and ADHD) could be named as dimensions of ASD (similar to the concept of comorbidities). I suspect that the Asperger's name will be retained, but that is just a guess on my part based on its common use in the literature.

I don't think it will be much different then since my report says "...I have given you a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and more specifically Asperger Syndrome (AS)." It doesn't say the word 'dimension' though.