Do you think AS is really autism?

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Or just something else? i was reading somewhere on the internet that a popular idea out there is that its a personality type. rather than a form of autism. what do you think?

i think AS fits into more of a "non verbal learning disability" than it does with classic autism.

If AS is a personality type, than so is autism, since AS is by definition on the autism spectrum.

Also, the almost negligible difference between HFA and AS would seem to say that yes, AS is a form of autism.

hmm thanks. i think HFA is autism, rather than AS. and i think it should take AS's place. i think AS is really a non verbal learning disability.

http://www.nldontheweb.org/Dinklage_1.htm

Unfortunately for that idea, there really is no difference between HFA and AS besides the language delay in HFA. That indicates to me that AS is on the autism spectrum. If the shoe fits...

Since AS affects your psychology, some people have referred to it as a culture.

I talked about this with my psychatrist once, and he feels that AS is less related to Autism, and could possibly be seperate altogether from classic Autism and/or the spectrum.

i think thats the general feel im getting aswell. now someone just needs to be brave and go ahead and prove/make the clear definitions about where if anywhere AS fits into, or if its just all by itself.

It might be unrelated to Autism, but there are some strong similarities.

As far as the "just a personality" thing, that's something that people like to say because then they don't have to accept that we are actually unique.

I'm wondering if there are strict definitions of the two? SPecifically high functioning autism. People interchange HFA and AS all the time and some of even say, "he was autistic, but with treatment he is Asperger's". I have also talked to parents and professionals who use the term HFA but the degrees of severity are different. For instance, I have been in conversations about "HFA"s that are non-verbal and lack the tools needed to be in a regular classroom. My son is called HFA but I have had one teacher state she felt he had a different learning disability.

I have to say that I definitely believe it to be a form of autism. I'm personally on the high-functioning end of Asperger's in most areas, but then I also have some symptoms that I've only seen so far in low-functioning autistics.

I do think that we need some better classifications though. Especially when it comes to HFA and AS. I think it sucks that we won't get "official" better classifications until 2010 - 2011 when the DSM - V comes out.

I definitely feel that AS should be classified seperately from Autism. Yes, there are some common traits, but there are also common traits with many other conditions and that doesn't mean they have to be grouped. I do not consider myself to be Autistic. I consider myself to be an Aspie, and I see that as something quite different, merely with some associated traits. To me, the difference in verbal ability is a big enough thing by itself to diffrenciate AS from Autism, and the very existance of a community like this is also proof to me that Aspies and Auties are fundementally different. So many of us break the classic 'autism' mould by being creative, having imagination, having strong verbal skills that aren't merely 'by rote', and indeed having the theory of mind to discuss our own condition so insightfully. Yet we are classed on the Autistic Spectrum because with the combinations of our social difficulties, sensory problems, and non-verbal problems there is nowhere else that fits... nowhere else for us to be grouped. I think it's high time that AS was looked at without being grouped under the Autism umbrella (with all its assumptions).

But there are autistics that would argue that those differences are perceived differences. Most of the autistic traits that are labelled "behavior issues" originate from lack of communication tools and sensory disintegration. Essentially, the same origins of aspie "problems" or differences. There are autistics that are able to express those same things you listed, "imagination, creativity, theory of mind".

What happens to a HFA who becomes very verbal? Was the original dx wrong? Were they "cured"? Or is the spectrum a fluid aspect?

this really sounds like where As fits in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_verbal_learning_disability

as far as the autistic spectrum of disorders, AS should be taken completely out of the autistic spectrum. and HFA should be requignized as a true diagnosis. i mean if there rarely going to dx people with normal intelligance with classic autism thats where i think HFA can play a role. and whoever said HFA and AS aren't the same thing i completley agree, alot of people with AS are mistakingly calling themselves high functioning autistics. when thats clearly something else.

Aspergers Syndrome is a form of autism, I see Autism as a spectrum from people who are slightly affected and are very neurotypical to the low functioning autistics.