How do you feel about AS being abolished in the DSM-V?

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So it seems AS will no longer be a valid diagnosis. I was wondering how you parents feel about that and how you speculate that it will affect your children.

I cannot see how the syndrome outlined by Dr Hans Asperger in his 1948 paper can be unwritten?
Lets face it it is just the way we people are; it is not a disease, condition or whatever.

No, it isn't really. However we do deviate significantly from the general population.

i dont see that it will really affect my family much. our youngest is officially diagnosed asperger's, however that is a misdiagnosis and he actually fits the classic autism criteria. if anything, it may make things easier as we've had some resistance from his school based on the asperger's diagnosis.

i think the change overall will be a good one. there is so much overlap between the asds, a lot of misdiagnosis goes on anyway. and hopefully the reclassification into unspecified asd diagnosis will get rid of the assumptions that are so rampant now based on what the subset of asd diagnosis is. even the professionals have these assumptions that are so completely inaccurate. our son was at the doctor two weeks ago and she said to us, "He talks, in what ways is he autistic?" and that was from his primary care physician.

in the end, this will mean nothing for my son. he is still the same child with the same needs, the exact wording used to describe that doesnt change anything. he is still autistic either way. it wont mean anything for my SO either. hes lived 39 years without a formal diagnosis. the words dont change who you are.

I believe one or more of my grandchildren will eventually suffer because of that and especially since their parents are already skeptical ... and that is also a big part of why I am now already isolated from all of them.

In the short term this change will not affect my son at all, because we focus solely on his strengths and challenges and not on the label or diagnosis. However, I believe this change will be beneficial in the long run in terms of how I advocate for him in school and, ultimately, how he will advocate for himself. This is because, in my experience, most of the teachers we have dealt with have no idea what "Asperger's Syndrome" is. However, as soon as I mention "Autism" to a teacher, they get it. Because of this experience, I have already switched and now refer to him as having "High Functioning Autism" when dealing with teachers and school administrators.

I also think this change will make it easier to educate the general population about Autism Spectrum Disorders because it simplifies the concepts and, in this day and age with so many distractions, simplifying the message is a good thing. I believe that reducing the amount of ASD-related jargon will make it easier to inform people about ASDs and, ultimately, bring about tolerance and acceptance sooner. I know, I'm optimistic.

Thanks very much for asking, Chronos. If I haven't said it loudly or clearly enough, I really appreciate your insight and contributions to this forum

Even if they do away with Asperger's, they will still have to have a way to differentiate between levels of functioning. There is a big difference. I see the difference in the children at my son's school.

Also, I think it is going to be tough for those adults that already have an Asperger's diagnosis to have to go back and get re-diagnosed in order to get the assistance they need.

I think it should be left alone.

I have mixed feelings about it, when applied to the population as a whole, but am not concerned about it for our family. The AS family members will simply be HFA instead of AS. I guess it would have been a lot more difficult to swallow in the first round of discovery, but this many years down the road we're pretty clear that there is more the same than different when it comes to AS v. HFA.

I am sorry to hear that. Is the fear that HFA will be a more difficult label to accept? I agree, that is higher hurdle for a skeptical person to cross, to say "autism" for someone that appears closer to normal. Long run, we hope that won't be the case, but short run, it will.

Is it going to be necessary for people to be re-diagnosed? My understanding was that if you formerly fell under the Aspergers diagnosis, you would simply now fall under Autism. I thought it was more of a change in terminology than a change in diagnostic criteria, therefore going through the diagnostic process again would not be necessary. What exactly is changing in the diagnostic criteria?

As far as the original question, I don't think it matters that much for my sons. I do like the way Aspergers can immediately differentiate between someone who is high functioning and highly verbal, and the kids who are dxed classic autism and struggle with many issues that my kids do not. However it doesn't matter much, and there often are more similarities than differences between say my sons (highly verbal Aspies) and the kids at their school who are dxed classic autism than not. Besides my sons really hate the term "ass-burgers", and prefer autistic anyway. Actually what they usually say is "I am a little bit autistic."

Unless of course, we would have to go and get them re-diagnosed in order to continue qualifying for services, in which case it matters VERY much, and they should not be changing it.

As far as I understand it though, not everyone currently diagnosed with AS will fit the criteria for the revised ASD or the new Social whatever disorder....

I don't know. However, before AS became known amongst the English speaking world, I was pegged as "autistic" and this really did not benefit me for the following reasons...

1. Most people think "rain man" type individuals, or non-verbal LFA/MFA individuals when they think autism. I clearly was quite different as I was quite verbal and engaged in the world around me. Nor do I rock back and forth all day.

2. Until AS came along, all programs for children with autism were geared at the individuals above. These were inappropriate for individuals such as me. Because I presented in a clearly distinct way, and had clearly different needs, though I was "in the system" they did not know how to handle children with AS, and not only did I not get the social skills training I needed at the time, but they frequently tried to handle me as one would an NT child. For example, because I would not go to school (I couldn't handle it for reasons I detailed in another thread, and didn't learn at all there), I was told "If you don't go to school, you don't get to do anything fun," and I barred from doing extracurricular activities when I requested to do them, which only served to isolate me more. As many of you might know, children with AS frequently don't respond to the withhold/reward system because the behavior it's attempting to correct is behavior that's innate to the child and can't be corrected.

It was only by a specific chain of events that I had an epiphany by which I eventually came by some vital realizations and social skills. Had that not have happened I'm sure like would have been very different for me. Had it happened sooner, I speculate life may have been much better for me socially.

I believe there is a disorder neurologically distinct from HFA which presents with some outward similarities that are actually very small, but seem very big to the NT world, and that disorder is currently called Asperger Syndrome (Asperger Disorder).

I believe with the advent of more neuroimaging techniques which allows researchers the convenience of the two different classes, that this will become more apparent.

I feel the reclassification will have a detrimental effect on children with AS because their existence will again be drowned out by the bright light of "autism", and all of the specific needs and strengths of those with AS will again be ignored.

I believe that could eventually be a factor, but my immediate concern stems more from their complete silence regarding my self-assessment and my suggestion they consider certain things I have shared with them in concern for those children.

We only have a school diagnosis and the only distinction the school district currently has is autism; however, the report does specify him as Asperger. My son calls himself an "AS kid" because he read the book by Kenneth Hall and he identified himself the same way. I doubt we will change terminology at home. The AS diagnosis fits him closely. Other than sensory issues, he has never shown many traditional autistic characteristics. The kids we have at met at therapies that have the HFA dx are fairly similar to him. However, most of them did have speech delays and my son never had any delays. Of course, I can see some similarties in him with friends he has that are ADHD too, even though he isn't ADHD.

Funny about how a PP said the school understood with the word autism better than Asperger. Almost every teacher at our school that I have come across (with 5 kids, that is a lot) has had an Asperger student in their class.

It isn't like he talks about it a lot, but when he does, my son calls himself an AS kid. I am not going to change that in our home. He seems to have really identified with it and I am not going to change that unless it becomes necessary.

While I agree with DenvrDave that it's important to acknowledge that there is a constancy to autism, I found the concerns of the social workers where we are currently getting services to be interesting: apparently the DSM offers (or maybe is translated into, I wasn't clear) specific theraputic strategies for each "disorder." They are concerned that the differing strategies they use to help kids with Aspergers and to help kids with other forms of autism will be done away with and all children will receive the same kind of care.

This seems silly to me, because even within a given functioning level there are all KINDS of variations - the only constant seems to be the unique processing system autistic brains seem to have - how that processing system is expressed (whether it be processing sensory information, social information, executive functioning, etc.) is wildly different from person to person on the spectrum.

I do think that some of these graduations and the term "functioning" should be clarified, in that they imply all kinds of things that may or may not be true for a given individual.

This is a complicated issue. There are arguements for and against the new criteria, but I think they by in large are adequate.
For one if you do not fit under ASD, you more than likely will fit under social communication disorder. Both of these will probably entail social skills classes and imply fundimental neurological differences, though it is a matter of degree. Instead of breaking down things in multiple categories, this breaks this down into two where most people will fit. SCD will probably cover the more mild forms of AS, PDD-NOS and NVLD, while ASD will cover much of AS and Autism. Both are identified as Developmental Disorders that effect communication.

SCD was obviously written to accomidate those who may not meet one or two of the categories of ASD, basically meet the new PDD-NOS. Except in this case it is written expansively enough to throw in NVLD, which never found a neat category, sometimes it LD-NOS, other times it was PDD-NOS. This clears up that diagnostic issue. Both ASD and SCD are both communication disorders, just one has more diagnostic criteria. I don't see how one would not fit under either one and be on the spectrum. These two are both clearly written, and both would entail social skills and occupational therapy as part of an educational setting.

I will be honest, the key is for diagnosticians is in the details and descriptions in order to make the diagnosis. From what I heard ASD will be one with a matter of degree.

They key part will be the severity criteria, which has not been released. The severity criteria is often where there are specifics to the overall general guidence. The severity criteria is not yet released.