Confused about Aspergers info??

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Hi

I know Asperger’s now officially gets classed as high functioning autism, but many sites say you can’t have speech & language problems like echolalia with Asperger’s. In fact they say the difference between HFA and Asperger's is speech and language problems in HFA.

Other sites will mention speech & language problems existing with Asperger’s, so which is it??

Can you have echolalia with Asperger’s?

This "Asperger's no longer exists" annoys me. If it isn't a thing any more, then I wouldn't be qualified for an ASD any more because I just don't feel one bit autistic. I feel like an eccentric person with anxiety disorder and ADHD, with a history of being socially isolated as a teen. I may hate social events like weddings but I feel it's a social anxiety thing, as social events do not cause sensory overload for me, they just cause severe boredom and, well, social anxiety. Any NT with social anxiety will feel the same. I still like being around people, I'm interested in people, I love gossip, and I can express my feelings to others just like an NT can.

Asperger's syndrome is still a thing. Why is it no longer diagnosed? Because sometimes HFA and AS are very similar and if sb is being diagnosed as an adult their speech development may not be well recordered or remembered by parents. Like, how old was the child when the child started talking? When did echolalia end? I mean, most kids exhibit echolalia and before they are 3 y o it's normal. What was the speech like? Etc etc.
Also, there are studies that look into the difference. Like this one.
https://spectrumnews.org/news/brain-cur ... om-autism/

The Aspergers disorder diagnosis was subsumed into Autism Spectrum Disorder in the American Diagnostic manual. The manual is a guideline, clinicions do not lose thier license if they do not follow the guidelines so not all do. “High Functioning Autism” was never a diagnosis in any manual I know of yet plenty of people get diagnosed with it.

High Functioning Autism is basically autism without intellectual disability. Aspergers is considered a form of high fuctioning autism. What is supposed to seperate HFA from Aspergers is “no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).” It has nothing to do with echolalia. Echolalia has always been considered a common autism repetative behavoir.

Aspergers was added to the diagnostic manuals correct underdiagnosis of mild or high functioning Autism. It was felt that because of the Aspergers diagnoses there was an overcorrection and thus Autism Spectrum Disorders were being overdiagnosed. This was pissing off insurence companies and school districts that had to pay for services.

^^So, in AS echolalia is present in adults? I mean, is it common?

Far as I know it exists as a comorbid. Not uncommon to have autism + whatever.

The possibility of echolalia being present with Asperger's is mentioned in the Wikipedia article about it.
I have no experience with it, though. I think I've read other people write about it.

Isn't this just semantics in action? Aspergers has always been an autism spectrum disorder. It's just that the terminology more accurately reflects a single spectrum, rather than separate entities. I was diagnosed post-DSMV, but to me it's simply meant that I've had to relearn everything I thought I knew about autism (most of which was incredibly wrong!).

It was predicted that post-changes some people would lose their diagnosis, but isn't that helpful if the terminology more accurately represents the nature of the condition? I'm not arguing one way or the other for whether the new crit. actually does that, as I'm too ignorant of the argument details to have an informed opinion. I just hope it doesn't leave people in a "diagnostic hole". I feel like sometimes people treat mental illness as not valid, while developmental disorders get a different response. I've been really angry that since my diagnosis has changed from severe anxiety/depression with OCD tendencies to ASD people have been suddenly more understanding as though it's ok now but wasn't before??

As more and more autistics from all points on the spectrum are given a voice, my impression is that a lot of those NT assumptions about what autistics do or do not want for their lives (especially in the case of women) are being shown to be very wrong. Especially the empathy stuff. I explain to people that I have "dysfunctional empathy", not no empathy. I don't assume other autistics feel exactly the same about that though - I'm just describing my experience. I'm interested in people (hate gossip, but that's personality I think), but I express it differently to NTs. I experience intense empathy, but my husband recently said he's always felt I lack empathy. Just shows that the outside and the inside don't necessarily tell the same story. I can experience such intense empathy that I feel like I'm going to vomit, but then apparently forget to communicate that to the person who needs to be empathised with... hmm!

I think the main reason it's all being lumped into one big diagnosis is that there is so much variety on the spectrum, and there is no such strict delineation between 'Aspergers' and 'autism'.

I've seen a lot of attempts to separate similar conditions from each other. For example 'People with NVLD want to be social, unlike people with Asperger's, who are uninterested in having friends.' or 'People with autism avoid eye contact, while people with Asperger's eat you with their eyes.' Both statements are wrong, but they show how much effort people put into constructing differences. The answer to both statements, of course, is that it varies from person to person.

Basically, a lot of the explanations of the differences can be completely disregarded, as they have no basis in science. Secondly, even the science we do have is incomplete and unreliable, because until recently, too few women have been diagnosed, which means that a lot of the things people think they 'know' about autism are really just male traits unfiltered by social skills.

That's such a helpful way of putting it.

While I agree Aspergers and autism should have never been separate diagnosis I do not understand why so many are against Aspergers being a sub type of autism. We do that with most other conditions. For example most people have no problem understanding breast cancer or stage 1 cancer is cancer, but with Autism it is considered a divisive offense against Autistic unity of something.

The DSM 5 elimination of Aspergers was a classic over correction.

What? I have lotsa female traits unfiltered by social skills. It's no better or worse.

........q.e.d.

I agree with you.
Everything has mild/moderate/severe cases, but people just get offended when it comes to autism.

Thanks for all your replies just trying to understand my son's condition better.

Aaah. So you're a parent.

Maybe this will be useful to you: think of it as a menu with about 100 dishes available. Maybe your son gets 50 of these. Each thing can be extreme in either direction. For example, he may be either hyperlexic or dyslexic, hypersensitive to sound or insensitive to sound, blind to the emotions of others or completely overwhelmed by the emotions of others, etc. Very few people get all the 100 - sometimes in tv shows they show an autistic character that's got every autistic trait known to man, but this is not usual. It's good to read a lot and to try to get to know your son's specific traits.

Aspergers is no longer diagnosed in the US as the medical profession uses DSM-5 in which it has been removed, in Europe the medical profession uses ICD-10 which does still contain aspergers.