Do most people with autism have Learning Difficulties?

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I've been wondering something. My mum seems to think that people with autism (not including Aspergers) have Learning Difficulties. Is this so? I was diagnosed with 'High Functioning Autism' after I had, had a bit of therapy, but I also have Learning Difficulties. I thought it was just a comorbid, but aparently (excluding asperger) most autistic people do have LD's. Is this true?

Yes, it is very common. Autism by itself causing problems in a school environment, but it is also very common to have co-morbid issus such as processing disorders, ADHD, perceptual issues and other challenges.

I was in some special classes for learning disabilities when I was in school. The Asperger label wasn't available until a year or two before I graduated.

It's very common for people with ASD's (including AS... not just Autism) to have uneven processing abilities. Someone may struggle at some types of processing, but be gifted in others. I just found out that the company I work for is opening a "formatting" (type of light-end programming) job specifically for me in our Research and Development department. Life is full of surprises. Back when I was little and struggling to pickup things everyone else seemed to find easy, I never thought I would be doing this type of work for a living (work most people have a difficult time understanding). The job is a perfect match for my splinter skill.

Just because you may struggle in some areas, doesn't mean you don't have strengths in others. I didn't find out what my mind was good at doing until my late twenties; or that I was also gifted until I was 31 and being assessed for AS.

I 'm a bit slow I was never any good at maths and measurements but I can read and spell.

Does anyone hear go or did go to a Special School for people with Learning Difficulties?

Yes I went to a special school for learning difficulties.

I was put into special education from 1st to 10th grade. When I was evaluated for Aspergers the psychologist said he saw no signs of learning disabilities. He also added that he thought I was cheated out of a proper education being put into special education without any signs of difficulties. They mistook my Aspergers for ADHD. I was beaten up and spit on because I was in those classes kids could not wait to get their digs in on me for being "ret*d". One of the reasons I did not bother with college was because I thought I was learning disabled and could not handle college level courses so I did not want to waste my parent's money.

Weird...I just responded to this, AND editted it, and now my post has disappeared......

Dunno why that is :S

I do: just realized you must have accidentally posted this question twice. I see a duplicate thread there now--I had no idea what was happening!

As a child, I was never DXd...Aspergers wasn't known back then. Saw several shrinks as a kid, but they couldn't figure out what was going on with me. Anyway, I was off the charts as far as reading & spelling...always in the top percentage for my age, & was reading well beyond my years, all the way through high school. I had to have tutoring for anything mathematical. I had trouble with measurements & was far behind my peers in all things math related (learning to read an analog clock, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, etc). I was enrolled in some special ed classes from 5th grade through high school. Amazingly, in 11th grade, I was put in a reading class for kids who could not read or maybe even write. I aced the class being I had no trouble finishing 6 books, & doing 6 simple one page book reports. Easiest assignments I ever had in school! None of the other kids could do the work. Not sure what the issue was as far as their reading/writing skills. But I pretty much caused all the other kids to fail since I set a high grading curve. I felt bad for those kids, & I should not have been put in that class. I had an idiot for my high school counselor who thought I was stupid. He was pure useless.

I have HFA and yes I've had a history of learning difficulties especially with the written and spoken language. I never got diagnosed so I don't know what most of the issues were/are. In class room I couldn't handle to the small distractions and to this day I have to ask people to be quiet so I can hear what the person is saying.

When I was in the special education classes the kids in there with me hated me for being a know it all and the kids who were in the normal classes hated me for being a "ret*d".

Uh I do and I am diagnosed with AS. Mom says mine is part of it.

I never went to a special school but I did when I was 3, 4, and 5 but it was for kids with developmental delays.

I was in special ed full time when I was 6 and seven and then I was in regular ed when I was 8 and up. I mainstreamed special ed up until I was out of high school.

I was okay with spelling and reading but I struggled in math and reading comprehension and abstractness. I just had a hard time learning in school. I don't have any specific learning disability, it's LD-NOS.

What kind of "LD" are we talking about here?

I know the UK and US use different words for things. So I'll define terms here.
(Specific) Learning disability: Specific problems learning in one area of academics, for example, math or reading.
Developmental delay: Being slower than other people to learn things; also known as mental retardation or a cognitive disability. Will show up as a lower IQ score, and is one of more common reasons to have a low IQ score.

You cannot be diagnosed with Asperger's if you have developmental delay. However, you can still be diagnosed with classic autism. So, some people with classic autism have developmental delay and others do not. Others had a developmental delay as youngsters and have caught up since.

Specific learning disabilities are common for people with Asperger's autism and classic autism.

(High-functioning is a pretty meaningless term; there's no official definition. You can dump it unless you know what your specific doctor meant by it.)

There are also many reasons other than developmental delay or a specific learning disability that people might have trouble in school. Autistic people often have problems understanding instructions, staying organized, communicating with teachers and project partners, "reading between the lines" (understanding information that is implied but not directly stated) in reading assignments and instructions, or keeping focused on school. Attention deficit disorder is very common on the spectrum. It's also common to be bothered by sensory problems while trying to learn--everything from a messy room to noise from other students can be a problem for an autistic person trying to learn.

So--it seems to me that yes, people with HFA/AS can definitely have problems learning in school; and it's very, very common for us to have problems with learning disabilities and ADHD. But if your mom is talking about having global developmental delay, then no, that is not necessary for either diagnosis, though it is quite common for people with classic autism, especially in early childhood.

i don't as far as i know i have been in OT classes and social skills but never had problems with schoolwork. idk really depend what u define as a ld in learning social cues and such i am ld but not in doing things which have explicit instructions.