Ganondox wrote:
Am I the only person who, when AS is described as Autism with "normal intelligience and language development" slightly misleading? The intelligience and/or language development of many aspies, while certainly not impaired, is definately not normal. I'm not saying that most aspies have unusual language development or are geniuses, I'm just saying that not all aspies are "normal" in those regards, and here it's falsling impling that anything not normal is bad.
Yeah, I think that's a good point. I'm trying to remember the exact wording of the criteria -- I think it's "no significant delay in self-care and speech." OTOH, the criteria for "autistic disorder" includes a speech delay. The trouble is that neither say anything else, so it does give the impression that language is not a problem with AS. So, while the criteria don't strictly say that AS mean normal intelligence and speech, I've gotten the impression that a lot of people think that it does, and that it's a common belief. So, I think it is a good point to address or talk about.
I.e. A lot of people on this board have mentioned trouble turning thoughts into words, getting easily verbally flustered, word-fining difficulty, being much better in writing than speech, and so forth. (I have all that.) And most here are diagnosed with AS (I think).
I've always wondered if a speech
delay is a studied marker that amongst others has been scientifically proven to be the most important -- or if it's just that parents and doctors are "sitting on the edges of their seats" waiting for a child's speech, so that when it's late it gets a lot of notice. ...I just googled something by Attwood about that that's interesting:
Quote:
TONY ATTWOOD: You’ve asked many questions there. I’ll answer them one by one. The language profile in Asperger’s syndrome is different. Whether or not they were delayed in language when they were young children is, I believe, irrelevant. What is important is how they use language in a social context. The art of conversation is not something in which they are naturally skilled. Also, they are not skilled in translating their thoughts into speech. And quite often, their thoughts may be visualisations or concepts which are not easy to convey in spoken communication but which may be conveyed by written or typed communication in e-mails, drawings, etc. But in a social setting, there are problems in the pragmatic aspects of language - especially social conversation. There can also be difficulties with regard to being somewhat pedantic, with rather odd prosody, and with not picking up the cues. But certainly, when I, as a clinician, socialise linguistically with someone with Asperger’s syndrome, it tends, from their point of view, to be somewhat artificial, contrived, laborious and clumsy. Yet, when you start talking about their special interests, then their eloquence, fluency and enthusiasm can be most captivating. So with speech, it depends on what you’re talking about.
27 Dec 2011, 7:39 pm
