all people with HFA have a “GDD’ apparently

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Previously I thought Global Developmental delay was used to refer to when a child was delayed in ALL areas of development, and that it was only seen in things like Down’s syndrome or LFA. However after doing some research, I found out that you only need to be delayed in a minimum of two out of five areas (Social/emotional, speech, cognition, motor skills, self-help skills).

I fit the criteria as I was delayed in speech (like all people with HFA are) and the social/emotional area (like pretty much every autistic person on earth is).

However I never really felt like I functioned at a level below my age (which is the stereotype attached to GDD). Sure, I had uhm my way of communicating, but otherwise I wasn’t that different from your average five year old. I don’t like being lumped in with a five year old kid in nappies who is like an infant mentally.

Where has this come from? I am fairly sure I did not have a delay in speech. Nor would I describe my social/emotional situation as delayed.

If I were you I wouldn't concern myself with the views of experts who are dividing/lumping together people based on how they see us based on what they think are the priorities, and just learn about autism by communicating with other autistics. We all have some things in common and some things that are different.

I think some people with HFA would fit into the category of GDD, speaking from a strictly diagnostic viewpoint, though others wouldn't meet the criteria. To my knowledge I never had any delays in the areas of speech or emotional development. Social development is a slightly different story.

I think I had a social/emotional development delay.
My mother described me as babyish and slow.

I didn't go to kindergarten. It wasn't mandatory in those days.
Before I started first grade they tried to get me to stop sucking my thumb and carrying around my blanket.
I held a flannel crib blanket against my cheek while sucking my thumb (I liked the way it felt on my cheek). They threw my blanket in the garbage and refused to get it out of the garbage.

In first grade my parents thought the work was too hard for me but i didn't think it was to hard.
I got bad grades all through grammar school and high school and didn't talk to the other kids, They were surprised to find out that i had above average IQ.
I got bad grades because i didn't like to memorize things. In math I didn't memorize my times table and counted on my fingers instead. It made me slower, but I understood the concepts.

They said I was "globally delayed". From what I understand its like the polite way to say the R word

I would say that most people who were diagnosed with "Asperger's" probably didn't have a "global developmental delay."

I am not Aspergian. I believe I was globally developmentally delayed, though some things "caught up," eventually.

I didn't have a speech delay, but my younger brother did.

I did not have a speech delay. In fact, the opposite. My Mom would recount how at the age of two I would speak in many complete sentences advanced for my age. A certain memory in particular that stuck with her when I was two and ordered my own food at a restaurant: "I would like some French fries, please." spoken clearly and deeply for a child. It freaked her out.

All HFA children have speech delays??

I didn’t speak till age 5 1/2.

I am diagnosed with aspergers. If one only needs to meet two of the five criteria for GDD, then I met it easily as a child. (Social/emotional, motor skills and self-help skills). I was always several years behind my peers on these items. The self help skills and motor skills ultimately did catch up. The emotional/social never really fully developed. Still a struggle to this day.

If people use GDD as a politically correct term for the "R" word, then they are wrong. I also graduated Magna Cum Laude from college in Electrical Engineering and am presently pursing a Masters in Data Science. So if people are doing this, then they are the dumb ones.

I was never diagnosed with GDD, only developmental delay. That was because they probably thought I would catch up in speech and language and other areas. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia around 11 years of age and I was always emotionally and socially immature and it took me longer to understand things. My language always improved as I got older until it was appropriate.

BTW I don't think they diagnose autistic kids with GDD if nothing else is explained for their developmental delay. To me GDD seems to be a NOS label they use when they don't know what diagnoses to give the child because nothing fits.

I think in the U.S that is called PDD, Pervasive developmental disorder.......but yeah that is actually what I am diagnosed with not specifically autism spectrum but PDD-NOS, so pervasive developmental disorder (not otherwise specified). Its difficult diagnoses because its like almost autism but not quite sometimes, or it can be if someone had an intellectual disability but they don't have downs syndrome. Kind of seems like a diagnoses for people they can tell there is something different about but it doesn't quite fit one of the specific disorders.