HFA or aspergers?????

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I'm confused.

I keep reading that "in *random year* aspergers will be called HFA!"

I'm confused by this.

When is it happening?
Who's making it happen?
why?

Are they really the same thing?

If not,what are the differences?

Asperger's is a high functioning form of autism.

HFA is more specifically used when language delays are involved. Aside from that it seems about the same as Asperger's.

They could make them the same thing I guess. It'd be pointless.

They'll probably keep the Asperger's label in the DSM-V, they'll just explain it better; this is me speculating, but I'm probably right.

There's too many arguments concerning the difference between autistic disorder [without an Axis II diagnosis of mental retardation] and Asperger's disorder.

As of the DSM-IV-TR, there are clear differences; people who use different diagnostic criteria put them all in Asperger's if there's the ability to talk in later life (the popular "autistic" Dr. Temple Grandin is AS in Professor Attwood's eyes).

My uncle feels that AS is no different to classic autism, so the label is superfluous, and he's a childhood psychologist. People have varying views concerning this.

I thought the main difference was that with HFA there is language and developmental delays where as with AS there aren't.

It seems to me like theres 3 major types of high-functioning autism

HFA - Overlaps with aspergers but has language delay as a trait
AS - Classic autistic psychopathy
NLD - Overlaps with aspergers but with visual-spatial-organizational as major trait.

But remember, its a spectrum.

They're currently still debating it. Some of the professionals say different things than others so it's confusing. It's a semantic battle, don't worry about it, just think of it as a spectrum.

Yeah, but many "experts" use different diagnostic criteria that allows for a delay in speech and cognitive impairment. The speech must "improve" however to the stage where an adult can verbally communicate adequately. If not, it's autism then to them.

Thanks for explaining that better that I did

I read everywhere I go, and doctors always tell me the big difference from HFA and Aspergers is how poor the persons self help skills are, and how poorly their speech is. If somebody is having trouble with speaking, still might need assistance with other ways of communicating, and their self help skills are very poor, but are able to do other things for themselves, like for instance hold a job, then the person would be diagnosed High Functioning Autism rather then Aspergers.

I thought that one of the differences was that people with AS /want/ to be social, whereas people with HFA don't. Has anyone else heard that too?

I was diagnosed HFA because I had speech delays when I was a kid (~1998), but my mum thinks that if I was diagnosed more recently I would have been diagnosed with AS.

I dont know if thats true, i know some people with aspergers who aren't into socializing also. I know I hate socializing, growing up my mother thought i would never have friends haha, I dont have a huge interest in people at all, even today hahaha, sorry everybody haha.

It's a common thought: if autistic disorder equates to more severe social impairment, then someone with such will "appear" more aloof to social contact out there, whereas the person with AS can attempt it, but they suck at it.

Then you have people who say that those with AS don't want to be social, and are aloof too (they "appear" uninterested whether they want to do it or not).

Personally, the two labels are so fudged up (AS and autism), some people use this, others use that, some are put here when they should probably be over there, and vice versa.

IIRC my psy told me the opposite!

I have heard it, but it's not true.

I've also heard just about all forms of that one. Here are the versions I've heard (the divisions don't reflect my beliefs, just the various common almost... urban legends or something... regarding autism and socialization):

• AS people want to socialize and don't know how. HFA people don't want to socialize. LFA people don't even know what socializing is, so can't possibly want it.
• AS and HFA people want to socialize but don't know how. LFA people don't even know what socializing is, so can't possibly want it.
• AS people are introverted despite being more capable of socializing than any other autistic people, they just don't want to. HFA people want to socialize but don't know how. LFA people don't even know what socializing is, so can't possibly want it.
• AS people are introverted despite being more capable of socializing than any other autistic people, they just don't want to. HFA people want to socialize but don't know how. LFA people want very much to socialize, and may even have excellent understanding of other people's socialization, but can't get their bodies to look as if they show interest in socializing.
• AS and HFA people are introverted despite being more capable of socializing than any other autistic people, they just don't want to. LFA people want very much to socialize, and may even have excellent understanding of other people's socialization, but can't get their bodies to look as if they show interest in socializing.
• AS and HFA people are introverted despite being more capable of socializing than any other autistic people, they just don't want to. LFA people fail to socialize in the normal way because they're telepaths and don't need to socialize in the normal way.
• AS and HFA people want badly to socialize but have poor social skills. LFA people fail to socialize in the normal way because they're telepaths and don't need to socialize in the normal way, and have way better social skills than AS and HFA people.

Yeah, some of those are really weird, but those are the combinations I've generally heard.

Which is to say, yes I've heard it, but I've also heard all the other combinations, so it doesn't mean a lot to me.

I'm diagnosed with autism, just autism (not HFA, not LFA, although at one point in the past my records described me as "low functioning" for reasons I'm not clear on). And I have always been suspicious of the divides there, because they don't match my actual observations.

I'm fairly introverted, and have difficulty initiating (there have been times when I could initiate by walking up to someone and saying a bunch of weird stuff, but overall that is rare and difficult), but I can often socialize (and sometimes want to) if someone else starts it.

When I was a teenager, I remember someone telling me that I was clearly non-social and wanted nothing to do with anyone else. This confused me, because I was actually very uncomfortable with not being included in interactions with other people. I was not able to start conversations or to use body language to show interest, so it was assumed I had no interest.

That is why I am skeptical of claims that autistic people simply don't want to socialize unless we're AS. My guess is that people likely to be diagnosed with AS are among the best at initiating interactions overall, and therefore get seen more as "wanting to socialize and not knowing how". Whereas the rest of us, if we want to socialize, we might be able to do the "active but odd" initiating in weird ways sort of thing, but we're much less likely to be able to do so, so it's just assumed about us that we don't want to socialize.

I think that in reality, autistic people overall (of all sorts) have the full range of wanting to socialize and not wanting to socialize. I think, though, that some of us can get pushed into not socializing by bad experiences, by overload, by unawareness, or other things, despite possibly otherwise having the same innate desire or lack thereof as anyone else if we were in other circumstances. But overall, I think the range is pretty wide.

I also think sometimes autistic people think the definition of socializing is doing something very specific, one specific kind of socializing, and don't realize that, say, posting on a board like this and receiving responses is a form of socializing as well, even if it's purely on factual topics or whatever.

The DSM-V workgroup has not yet released any official information. However, some people speculate that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will be introduced as an umbrella term, and that Asperger's, (Kanner's) autism, PDD-NOS, and possibly one or more others will become subcategories of ASD. Other conditions (like OCD and ADHD) could be named as dimensions of ASD (similar to the concept of comorbidities). I suspect that the Asperger's name will be retained, but that is just a guess on my part based on its common use in the literature.

I would dislike that, as I was severely Autistic, and have managed to become HFA. However, I DO NOT have Aspergers.