Why early detection is so critical

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I am a 23 year old man with Aspergers and feel that my life thus far has been a perfect example of how messed up an aspie's life can be if they dont get diagnosed early and get the help and support they need. When I started kindergarten way back in '96 my parents and my teacher thought I might have had asperger's but neither party pushed for a diagnosis. So I went throughout elementary,middle,and high school without getting the proper help or any recognition of my problems. When I was in 3rd grade my parents divorced and it was just me and my mom. I love my mom dearly but she was in no way equipped to deal with a difficult child like me. Most of the time she let me get my way and didn't discipline me or provide the structure and support a child like me needed. A lot of times she would just get angry and shout at me for being difficult and I would feel bad for being a square peg in a round hole world. I always hated school and rebelled against going and of course my mom let me skip school when I wanted to, to this day I wonder how i managed to avoid truancy.this trend continued throughout high school until I ultimately dropped out and got my ged. After high school i entered the job market and continued my bad habits and would quit a job or miss work when I got stressed. I failed a lot..... And was never able to keep a job longer than a year at most. Last year i was at the end of my rope and sought help. I was officially diagnosed with aspergers this past july and suddenly everything made sense. I just wish i had been diagnosed in kindergarten like I should have been! If I could have gotten the help, structure,and support i needed maybe i would be a success right now instead of playing catch-up at 23. If any parents who suspect their child may have aspergers is reading this please seek help now! It will save you and your child a lot of grief down the road.

I think I disagree on this. Getting early diagnosis will too often lead to getting straight into a non-productive life. Really early diagnosis will lead to forced ABA programs which could destroy the child for life. The ultimate solution to this is not diagnosis, but acceptance.

I'm very fortunate to have been able to go through the ordinary school system almost totally mute and getting a career instead of social welfare.

i suffered because I didnt get any help. I dont see how getting help and being self aware could be a bad thing.

I assume this was posted here for discussion?

I'll assume you know what is best for you. So my reply is more a general counter-point.

Apparently i was never diagnosed because my parents didnt want me labelled. Life is hard and I have never been able to use aspergers as an excuse to avoid anything. This basically resulted in over a decade of self-injury, but i am living independently and stuff. was it worth it? maybe.

I think due to the social stigma around the label, if parents think their child might be able to make it without the extra help, i can see them trying.

I've had the same thoughts, Allen91.

The reality though is that some individuals will really reach out. But a label/diagnosis doesn't mean schools, parents, or professionals suddenly know what to do and do it.

The reality is you still depend on luck and encountering those who really care. And that systems do the minimum, not necessarily what is needed. Individuals sometimes do more, but systems do what they must. No more.

And that there are advantages and disadvantages to having gone through life essentially alone until adulthood. There's a strength that comes from this as well as weakness. And now, it's an essential part of who you are.

Exactly my experience, Alien 91, - only 40 years earlier. I had a short period in kindergarten at age three and was just the weird kid with the "bad manners". After a few months of screaming each time I had to go there, I got off the hook, - probably because my mom was an undetected aspie herself and could identify. For that same reason, I was allowed to stay home from school, when the mobbing got too rough (in this school, the teachers thought, that the problem would regulate itself!).
I never learned to fend for myself, or recognize that I missed social cues or how I was different with weak and strong sides.
That has cost me during my life, especially because it produced a social anxiety in me, - and depressions.
In my school years, nobody knew who Hans Asperger was, - not even, that an autism-spectrum existed.
I wish, that I had had access to a mentor to teach me social skills and interpretation back then.
So, yes, I think early detection is important, so you can keep an eye on those children and accomodate their special needs, if it turns out to be a good idea.

I was a happy child and content with being different and I'm glad I wasn't diagnosed as a child. But it would've been nice to be diagnosed when I hit the 6th grade time when school and my social life and mental health started its decline. But instead I wasn't diagnosed until 23 after enduring truancy and being sent to a "bad kid" school where I was treated like a prisoner. So yes, I agree that early diagnosis is helpful, but not too early, let a child be a child.

The danger of early diagnosis is what your parents do with it.

Every child should be pushed to excel as much as they can. You don't know your limits until you truly test them. A disability is not an excuse to never try to make something of your life. It is, however, a reason to rethink how you approach challenges in life.

Look at the bright side, you know at 23 that you likely have AS. You can still do something about it.

Try being 40 before you ever hear about AS...after DECADES of failing to accomplish anything or build anything.

The implication is that with diagnosis comes some sort of therapeutic or adaptive regimen that makes life better for the diagnosed, but there is no evidence that this is the case.

There seem to be some people who have benefitted from an early diagnosis and appropriate interventions.

There also seem to be some people for whom an early diagnosis has been a negative influence with parents and teachers lowering expectations and discouraging the autistic person from even trying a great many things.

There are people who have carved out rich lives for themselves without the benefit of understanding or appropriate intervention. I don't think there are any of us in this category who are not scarred by the experience, but then, that's life. I don't think NTs ever live much without accumulating hurts either.

The key thing is to start where you are. You can't go back and redo your childhood. You can't get reborn into a richer family or one with more sensitive or compassionate parents. Your circumstances are exactly what they are and this is what you have to work with.

You can do a lot in this life, starting now. The more you know about the way your autism patterns your interactions with people and systems, the more skillfully you can work to create new, interesting and rewarding experiences for yourself.

But you have to deal with the real. You can't get those rewarding childhood interventions that you imagine, and they might not be what you think, even if you could. Now is the time to do the best that you can with what you have.

If you do your best to live a kinder, more creative, more pleasurable life for yourself and the people you have to deal with, things will get better. It's also helpful to focus on stuff you like and limit the time you dwell on stuf that makes you feel bad.

I won't say I was pushed, but was always encouraged to excel and have.
My parents always challenged my diagnosis instead of just folding their hands and accepting it.
And am mighty grateful for that.

Last edited by EzraS on 08 Mar 2014, 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

I feel like maybe it would have done me some good to be diagnosed earlier...though having said diagnoses wouldn't have necessarily meant teachers and school staff would have known how to appropriately 'help' me or deal with it. I didn't get a diagnoses till last year, and was thinking having AS was a possibility for a couple years before that. But yeah I just got picked on by other kids and even teachers and school staff would be in on it at times. By the age of 15 I attempted suicide because of feeling like a worthless piece of crap that wasn't worthy of being treated human I then had to go to therapy...but it didn't really do much and I didn't 'improve' and then to really top it off someone came in my school and shot a student I knew when I was in 10th or 11th grade I still remained ostracized and all that, no one bothered to think I could possibly be disturbed by what happened since as far as they were concerned they were surprised I wasn't the one shooting up the school.

But then fast forward, I graduated...tried going to college and failed at that, then I tried staying out with family in Minnesota and was going to get a job ect, but I couldn't handle it out there due to some conflict so then I returned to my moms house and tried finding work which I failed at...so attempted part time college which I couldn't handle the stress of so now I've gotten on SSI. But yeah its really hard to function at all, let alone well enough for any kind of work(I can understand why employers wouldn't want to hire me or keep me around on the job). Perhaps if I had some support more early on I'd be more functional and not so burnt out....but its hard to say.

Maybe if I had been put in impatient treatment for my suicide attempt at 15, I'd be more functional...but hard to say with that to, impossible to know what the outcome would be had the past been different.

One of my friend's younger siblings has all the asperger symptoms. He is 7 now and I don't think I am going to tell them my suspicions anytime soon. I don't think he needs a diagnosis, in his case it could even be counterproductive. He is healthy and happy, so why bother him with a label?

I'm 26. I always thought early detection would helped me more than not. Like I would have been aware of my differences and responded accordingly. I thought I was just shy with some weird quirks until then. Not saying, AS means there's something "wrong" with me but I would have liked to known earlier I guess so I could adapt better.

Everyone has at least one label, most people have multiple labels.....people act as though a 'label' is some kind of sentence being handed down by a judge. When in fact labels actually just help explain things, if someone has autism the label of autism helps explain some of their oddness compared to neurotypicals. Unfortunately society might add stigma to labels and such, but then its not the label that is the problem but rather how someone with the label is treated.

I don't know how I feel about getting the label myself. Much less getting it late in life.

As a parent I sought the ASD and LD labels for my children because of their inability to meet expectations without some accommodation for who they are as individuals after resisting labels, for both, other than wonderful.

I wish we didn't have to label people to have some slight tolerance of different.

Both my kids would have struggled and did struggle. And still struggle, despite help. Early detection is important, but then what? Doesn't every child deserve and need to be treated as an individual?

There isn't enough love and there aren't enough resources and people only are willing to give so much. I get angry thinking about it, but that's the way it is.

It's also true that there are people who will give regardless of label because there is need. Not enough but a few. If we can teach our children to be open to this we have helped them live in this world.

The main reason why early detection and diagnosis is not a good idea is because there are no treatments that are appropriate. Early intervention relies on trying to make the child neurotypical (which is NOT what the child needs), and later diagnosis is used in order to excuse the problems and can easily lead to the individual stop trying to fit in and instead use their labels as an excuse. Proper treatment would be to help acquire NT-type interpersonal skills WITHOUT an aim to make the "client" neurotypical. These things are most appropriate for teens, and not for small children.