What is your opinion on the "HFA vs AS" debate?

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Some people think they're identical in adulthood, others believe they are completely different. What do you think?

I believe HFA has the component of an early speech delay. With AS, there is generally no delay. Speech may have some unusual qualities, but usually occurs at the appropriate time.

Plus HFA often shows up real early in childhood. Asperger's seems to be later.

Have gone back and forth on this issue.

Sometimes I think that HFA and aspies are like kitty cats and p**** cats. Two names for the same darn thing.

Other times I see evidence that aspies are like VW Bugs, and HFAs are like Citreons. Similar bubble shaped freaks on wheels that are outwardly similar, but are radically different under close inspection.

HFA supposedly have greater spatial reasoning skills, and aspies supposedly have better verbal skill than HFAs.

Shrug...who knows?

Based on DSM-5 and the upcoming ICD-11, there's no such thing as AS. The "Asperger's Syndrome" diagnosis no longer exists and was folded into Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In DSM-4 and ICD-10, there was a difference.

Nonsense . Both conditions appear at birth.

You could argue that some forms of autism get detected earlier than aspergers because aspies might not stand out as much until later in childhood. But even that seems suspect to me. If aspergers had existed as a diagnosis in the mid Sixties its highly likely that I would have been diagnosed when I was eight, or even younger, instead of waiting until I was almost sixty to get diagnosed.

When I was in early elementary school, I had some pretty heavy duty learning assistance in which they told my parents that I have trouble "seeing the trees for the forest". My elementary school report cards have quite a few comments in them that would probably today point to ASD.

But that was around 1986, and Asperger's didn't exist as a diagnosis until 1994. By 1994 I was doing much better at school (academically anyway, although not socially), so I slipped between the cracks.

Like you, I'm pretty sure if I were about 10 years younger, I would have been diagnosed in first grade rather than at age 37. I think (and hope) that adult diagnosis of ASD will be much less common 10 years from now simply because we're now much better at detecting it in childhood.

Incorrect, besides the fact that they are the same thing, I showed signs of autism in infancy, and I was diagnosed as an aspie.

Are we discussing the diagnostic Aspergers or the colloquial Aspergers?

The diagnostic Aspergers is a subset of HFA. The difference is language abilities before age 3. So it makes a difference in early childhood but at some point after that, they describe the same thing.

HFA describes Autism with average to above average intelligence, the colloquial Aspergers is becoming a personality type describing socially awkward very smart people.

Yeah, I can relate to that debate, naturalplastic, I too have gone back and forth on this.

I've heard the same skills difference, and I've also heard that aspies have more obsessions. Someone once told me that the difference was like if an aspie was obsessed with trains, then they'd eat, sleep and live trains (not literally), and they might want train models, train bedcovers etc, trains this and trains that, but for someone with HFA it would be more like "I like trains". They wouldn't get all excited over everything else connected to trains in some way.
I don't know if that holds true, but that was what another aspie with a HFA sibling once said.

I think the discussion on real differences is very interesting. I like classifying and putting differences in to boxes. We'd no doubt need a heap of terms to define everyone, so that's not realistic (although it'd be welcome for me), but I wish there were more classifications than they have now.

The OP asked for opinions and that's what I gave....I didn't state it as fact....yet y'all got to be dicks about it......oh well it really doesn't make any difference to me....the new dsm doesn't separate out Asperger's......

Nobody on here has the right to disparage someone's opinion or observation as incorrect and than claim their opinion as fact.

If you have a different opinion, share it or preface it with "in my experience, both conditions appear the same."

HFA non Asperger's types may have profound speech delays. An Asperger's person could have timely speech development but have noticeable social deficits.

The same right to free speech that gives you the right to express an opinion ALSO gives everyone else the right to critique, vigorously critique, and to even dump on and disparage your opinion. Lol! It cuts both ways.

Second: the way you stated it -it didn't even sound like an opinion, but a fact that wasn't a fact. You sounded like you actually thought that the scientific community consensus was that you're not born with aspergers but that it onsets late in life. And that's simply not what the experts think. It maybe that aspies don't stand out as different until later in childhood than other types of autistics. But the experts assume that all autism is something that your born with.

Asperger's, when it was a diagnosis in the DSM, was similar to autism, but ruled out a speech delay (though not all people with autism have a speech delay either). It also didn't require communication difficulties (though some Aspies have them) and required fewer symptoms overall. HFA, though never an official diagnostic term, usually refers to those without intellectual or verbal impairment. The visual vs. verbal aspect is just a generalization, and doesn't apply to all.

There seems to be a lot of talk here about speech delays, when is speech officially considered delayed?

Personally, I started out developing speech normally (except for an obvious stutter and slight lisp) but then due to social anxiety and insecurity about my speech issues I became withdrawn. Got labelled with selective mutism at four years old, had to start seeing a speech therapist.

From my understanding, that wouldn't be considered a speech delay because it was due to anxiety, correct? The only person I spoke to at that time was my sister, I would use her to translate so I could speak to my parents because they couldn't understand me. I also was developing language at a normal rate, so I guess I wouldn't be considered delayed.

These days I don't stutter very often, but when I do I think "Dammit, why can't this stutter just leave me alone for good?". Usually happens when I'm talking to cashiers or attractive strangers. Maybe even an attractive cashier, then I'm really done for. One conversation in particular went like this:

Cashier: Oh, this is a good book for people who like cats.

Me: ...y y yeah, I um, er, it tum... um, y.

Cashier: *Looks confused*

Me (internally): Brain what are you doing?

Cashier lists the price and I pay her.

Me: B-

*Quickly leaves regretting everything* *Face palm*

Another time a stranger asked me a question and I froze up and didn't reply, so she asked me if I knew English and I left. Oh well, who doesn't have awkward moments now and then? Haha, ha. Sorry, I went a little off topic there.

The OP was asking for opinions. You disparaged instead of simply providing the OP with your opinion. That was rude.You can disagree without telling someone they are wrong.