Can people with Asperger's have speech delay?

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I had minor speech delay when I was a child. I said very few words and they were simple and I would often mix up my words, mispronounce, and make up my own words altogether. I was not speaking at my age level. Doesn't this mean I do not have Asperger's, but Autism instead?

I didn't bring up this speech delay when I was diagnosed a couple of years ago and now I'm reading that people with Asperger's have exceptional language skills, often at a younger age than most and they use big words and speak a lot about their favorite topics. I have favorite topics but I am in no way an expert in them and I don't talk a lot about them. Also I don't use complicated words when I talk. I mispronounce everything and always have and often I have to look up worse in the dictionary that people use because I don't know what they mean. So yeah...I know it's just a label but still it'd be interesting to get the correct diagnosis once and for all.

Last edited by pnd3376534 on 15 Jan 2011, 10:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Are you saying you have Apraxia of speech instead of Asperger's?

well I was wondering if it's just HF autism that I have. Well I know in 2013 they may be putting Asperger's as Autism Spectrum Disorder in the diagnostic manual but as of now it's either Autism or Asperger's. But the difference between Asperger's and Autism seems to be speech. If you have had speech or language difficulty, it's not supposed to be Asperger's, I've read. I'm high functioning but the diagnostic criteria states that Aspies have exceptional language abilities, which I never had.

So I was just a little confused and I'm wondering if my diagnosis of Asperger's should be autism.

I think that people with strictly A.S without the speech delay and or major life impairment will be dropped because it is not a substantial disability. These folks with very mild symptoms seem to go onto college, function well in life and experience no major impairment \ differences. Socially not fitting in I think is a separate concern. I've never really wanted to fit in but my diagnoses is HFA. Once I am hooked on an interest it seems to be the center of my life whether or not another person wants to talk about it and if they do not well I have no interest in them.

sometimes I think I'm a lot lower functioning than most people with Asperger's

Where I live people with A.S are not provided with Regional Center services. Without Regional Center services I'd still be quite isolated and if not near grocery I'd likely end up in the hospital again. I've been there once before during a heat wave. I think it is explained as my brain just focuses on one or a few things and everything else is not focused on.

Are you kind of like that?

What are you like in life?

I am one of the most highest functioning individuals part of the Regional Center and it just happens that I am also gifted in a way that I can do very well in advocacy for myself and others.

Nathan Young

I have HFA. I was a few years delayed in speaking and barely spoke after that. I guess you could think of me as a very late bloomer.
Still can't take care of myself properly. I can't go to college. Maybe because I know that would be too much for me. I can't get work.
My interests are pretty much my life. And I still have speech issues. I pretty much rely on people to get me to places.
Interesting that you said you don't think you know enough about your special interests unlike those with AS. I'm like that too. I constantly have to revise all the information.

I had a speech development delay and I'm officially diagnosed as Asperger's.

A.S with speech delay is HFA.

Yes (!), Asperger's certainly can be associated with a verbal language delay/difference!

I'm like that as well. I have narrowed interests but I don't know enough about them to be an "expert" in them. I sort of do things that I'm interested in but do not pursue them obsessively. And my interests change. For a few years I'll be into one thing and then I get into something else that replaces them. No matter what it is though I'm always having to learn new things about it. I have HF autism and I had speech delay.

I had a speech delay. I didn't speak until I was four or five. I grew up thinking AS was my actual diagnosis but then my parents were probably told that because at the time knowledge about hf forms of autism was in it's infancy.

I was diagnosed as Aspergers at age 6. I actually had a normal NT development until age 2, when I suddenley regressed, stopped talking, and lost social skills. Even tough my doctor and my family considers me to have Aspergers in its way, I officially fit the criteria for DSMIVs "Kanner Autism". But official studies say that a speech delay (or for me a developmental regression) in autistic people who are high functioning is not good enough to distinguish HFA from Aspergers.

I had a speech delay. I didn't speak until age 5 1/2.

After I spoke, I presented strongly as an Aspergian.

There seems to be many cases of this.

One of them is presented in a book known as "Elijah's Cup." Elijah presented as Kanner autistic before he spoke, Aspergian after he acquired speech.

Do you prefer the DSM-V criteria, just a single spectrum?