AS/HFA: The difference

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I've posted this somewhere before, I think, that I was diagnosed on the basis of how many criteria I met. For a diagnosis of Asperger's, four or five out of twelve for Autism Spectrum Disorder had to be met, and over six received a diagnosis of HFA. I met eight out of twelve.

I learnt to speak on time, but regressed quite a lot when I reached the age of six and had to go to school. I think this was due to the unfamiliararity of it all. Mum said I remained very quiet for years after, and have only just begun talking about things that happened to me that she had no idea about.

In other areas of development, I was slower than my sisters, Mum attributed this to my eyesight problems, however, I don't think this is the case. My social skills were quite severely lacking from an early age and I used to embarrass a lot of people! In the few photos I have, something doesn't look quite "right" about me, like I am in a world of my own.

Well, that's all I can think of for now, I know my views may seem uneducated, but I like to explain things from personal experience.

I was diagnosed at a very early age 2 or 2.5 years to be exact. If I were rediagonised I probably would be diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (If I did not disclose the fact I had a speech delay). Professionals who have examinded me and know little about my development would say I had AS.

This is from a person who recevied zero help from my mother when I was little and never remembered receving the standard treatments for Autistic childern. I went to a special kids playgroup for a year when I was 4 and special school for 3 years that's about it.

Not very many people mention that communication stuff, most people just think of the language delay. I find this all fascinating since I'm self-diagnosed and still trying to figure out where I fit on the spectrum. I talked in sentences early (around 10-11 months I think) I walked late, around 2 years. I do have the "marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others" thing though. And also some of that aloofness and a few other things that tend to be more typical of autism rather than AS. Even when I first started talking my parents say that I mostly just talked to my toys, I didn't talk to people much.

Like you, newchum, I was not helped when younger either. But I was not diagnosed until almost a year ago.
I was very aloof when younger, my sisters thought I was being snobbish. I just remember not feeling the need for company or constant reassurance.

See, that's the unfortunate loophole which the DSM and ICD unwittingly provide. Taken from these criteria, MANY Aspies could technically be diagnosed with Autistic Disorder instead. I mean, Asperger's are known for pragmatic and semantic communication problems as well.

Whether this is intentional or just poorly researched, I don't know.

Jee, this is an old thread. Yeah, it is really quite ambiguous. I've often wondered about that criteria, because its something almost all Aspergers people have problems with. If this criteria were taken into account all the time, there would be no separate AS diagnosis. In many aspects, there practically isn't a difference between the two. The aloofness etc seems to come down to an individual basis, much like you have shy people and extroverts among the NT population. Being an extrovert doesn't make you more NT than a shy person is.


I've also posted this to you before, that its not how many criteria you meet, but which criteria you meet that determines which diagnosis you should receive. The criteria that Sophist posted, is the criteria that is nonexistent in the Aspergers diagnosis criteria. If you meet those criteria, then you receive a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder, rather than Asperger's Syndrome.

Autism is generally a neurological difference. Though, there are also other aspects that aren't related to the brain, such as the digestive problems commonly displayed by autistics. The neurological differences are addressed by the criteria of the DSM. The current criteria are mainly focussed on differences in social functioning, with a difference in language centres excluded to the separate diagnosis of Autistic Disorder. Probably when the new DSM-IV is finished, they will also include a component reflecting things like hypersensitivity of the senses. In short, the separate diagnosis are meant to separate the different areas affected in autism. Problems with social functioning AND language problems, was called Autism. They realized that you can have problems with social functioning, without language problems, yet is still autism. They designated it Aspergers Syndrome.
With recent discoveries, its not that clear-cut. Instead of specific areas being affected, its things like interconnectivity of the different areas of the brain. Areas not talking to others properly. Our understanding of the brain is still in its infancy. And so we must rely on the external manifestations of these differences. The apparent areas affected by autism. The separate diagnosis of Aspergers is not entirely a bad thing. It serves a purpose. Who knows, it may even be amalgamated into a single diagnosis, when the new DSM-IV is released. But even though its all autism, doesn't mean all autism is Aspergers.

I really wish they'd put a "language" section into the criteria for Asperger's. I mean, everybody knows we have communication problems, too, especially like I mentioned with pragmatics and semantics. It's the invisible criteria, like sensory issues as well.

I'm pretty balanced; of the things Neant listed above, I am more deficinet in the right brain (though my rote memory is crap, or at least in school) but I'm pretty balanced in abilitie. I can work stuff out logically but I'm also pretty creative.

Therein lies the typical danger of relegating brain functioning to SECTIONS.

Generalizing is always dangerous. And fMRIs don't seem to be helping this cause.

BTW, I am also fairly balanced as per those functions which are labeled as "right brained" and "left brained".

Though I do believe I have a slight lean towards Logic. Maybe about 55/45 or 60/40.

danlo, I sent you my report long ago, you can judge on that how you like.
However, with the extra stuff you mentioned, like digestive problems, there may be explanations. Like stomach/digestive problems. I've had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) for as long as I can remember. I know it gets worse with nervousness. Since I'm almost always nervous and anxious, the IBS is a problem often.
Brain and body linked? Oh, yes.

I also have hypersensitive senses of smell and hearing. I consider those gifts most of the time.

IMHO I think problems with language manifests itself in different ways. With me, I just leave the situation I am in rather than just refuse to talk. I do need to have "alone time" every day.
I just cannot be with people all the time. I like silence and being silent. With situations I can't leave, my speech often comes out mumbled, fast, or with a few hysterical laughs thrown in. I never know what will happen.

Just recently I have read that people with HFA have less of an idea of what embarrassment is. For me, I know of this as I have embarrassed a lot of people, especially my family. Afterwards, though, the emotion I feel is not embarrassment, but guilt.
Emotions are hard for me to sort through and name but this is the closest I can come up with.

I'm not judging you, Renaeden, I'm just telling you that which diagnosis you receive is not based on how many you get. They have separate criteria for Aspergers Syndrome, as separate from Autistic Disorder. There isn't a single criteria list, and then how many you get determines which diagnosis you receive. You've read the DSM-IV, you can see it for yourself. They tested you against the Autistic Disorder criteria, and you met the minimum criteria. If you hadn't, they would then have tested you against Asperger's Syndrome criteria.
Also, your definition of language differences is different to what I mean by language differences. Dislike of talking is not what I meant, nor taking words literally. It's being unable to put what you think or feel into words. Like being asked "How are you?". It's an impossible question. Unless you reply with a stock standard answer like "Ok.", ugh, it's horrible. It's like being asked what is 5 x 4 when you don't understand numbers.
When I get home, I'll post one of the questions included as part of my Traineeship. I can't even begin to answer it. Words just cease to mean anything.

Yes, in my opinion, the WAIS-III doesn't do justice to the cognitive skills traditionally associated with the right cortical hemisphere. If my verbal (logical) IQ is 134, but my performance (visuospatial) IQ is only 94, it's saying that my right brain performs in the bottom third of the population. I would say I am definitely more creative than just a third of the population (creativity is usually associated with the right hemisphere). Somehow, I think the IQ test misses some creative brain functions that I use regularly.

Hello, everyone. Actually, digestion is controlled by the brain. I found this out when my digestive problems led to Candida and a foot-long tapeworm, yikes! This happened before I knew I was Aspergers and I was thinking I had brain damage and wondering if my poor digestion was related.

This is an interesting topic. There is a sense I get of the differences between Aspergers and HFA but I can't explain it in words (partially, I'm sure, because I don't fully understand it). I have noticed that there is a difference in communication styles between HFA and Aspergers which leads me to believe there is a difference but I couldn't define it. I notice that I have TOM with Aspergers but find HFA to be harder to understand. My HFA friend teaches me to look at things in different ways and understand things that I didn't before. It's like she has concepts which she's had to learn to express in words but they are so much more. I know Aspergers are supposed to be more verbal but there are many times when I understand things non-verbally and I can't express them in words. Do any of you HFA feel this way a lot?

I know it's a spectrum with people on all points up and down it, and is the spectrum to be necessarily looked at like a line? If it's a plane, then there are more points in different areas than up and down, or LFA to Aspergers--which seems too simplistic, as does the IQ definition. And then there's our complicated brains which are individual, as well as our personalities and what experiences we've had in life, that form us.

Although I am AS, I have a hard time expressing a lot of things in words. If I'm not stating facts or opinions, I think I really do have a hard time explaining anything else. Then again my thinking is mostly visual so maybe this is why.

The aren't many differences between Autistic Disorder criteria and Asperger's Disorder criteria. Autistic Disorder is sectioned into three topics: 1. social issues, 2. language/communication/imaginative play issues, and 3. repitition/routine. Asperger's has the exact same criteria for social issues and for repitition/routine. AS critera just doesn't inlcude the language/communication/imaginative play issues section.

But the other two sections are EXACTLY THE SAME. And still everyone on here knows that Asperger's has language/communication/social imaginative play issues, too. Look, these are the Autistic Disorder Criteria (well, Criterion A) and I have highlighted the Asperger's Criteria within it:

Considering most Aspies could fulfill 6 or more items from this list with at least two impairments in each section (1-3), there's not necessarily a whole lot of difference between all of us-- at least on the written page.