5 year old son diagnosed today

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Hi my 5 year old son was diagnosed today with autism but they did say he is high functioning, sitting here feeling a bit shell shocked at the moment. We live in the west of scotland the therapists said they have strict guidelines to stick to and due to the fact my son showed signs before he was 3 that is why they have came back with a diagnisis of autism but all the reading material and websites they have directed us to is for aspergers. Due to the fact we had to leave the meeting in a hurry today I've been left with a few unanswered questions,not sure if its aspergers he has or is that what high functioning autism is?

I think the main difference is that HFA people have language delay, and Asperger is defined by not having language delay. There is a list of other differences here on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism
I understand you're shocked, but on the positive side you now know what he has (or is), so you can get the tools to help him. Many older people went through their lives without knowing why they were different.

Hello, and welcome! My son was also 5 when he was diagnosed, and I remember that feeling of shock and mild panic that I had those first few weeks very well. It took about 6 weeks for me to get some therapies (speech and OT) started, and once I was doing *something* I started to regain my equilibrium.

Mild or "high-functioning" autism and Aspergers are essentially the same, to the point where there was little consistency between clinics on which diagnosis the same child would get. In the US, they have recently removed the distinction entirely, and all future dx of these kids will be "mild autism spectrum". I've heard that Europe is planning a similar change. (The primary distinction was whether there was a significant delay in language development before age 3. Some also saw a distinction between where there was a discrepancy on an IQ test between verbal and performance subscores -- Aspergers tended to have higher verbal, where those with autism tended to have a higher performance (ie visual) subscore.)

As you are looking for information, though, it can be helpful to read things oriented toward Aspergers or HFA, since your son will likely have more in common with those descriptions than with a child with more severe autism who is non-verbal or has much less engagement with the world than your child does.

A few books I found very helpful (I'm a bit of a bookworm, and especially in the early days read everything I could get my hands on):
Asperger Syndrome and Young Children: Building Skills for the Real World by Teresa Bolick
Parenting Your Asperger Child by Alan Sohn
Aspergers Syndrome by Tony Attwood
The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene

The label of aspergers or autism doesn't say anything about his future, and they probably directed you as they did because your son has language now, so look at the resources they suggested. Practically speaking, there is so much overlap once past the earliest years that you may hear the terms used interchangeably. Aspergers has become synonymous with HFA in how many use the words.

Asperger's IS a form of high functioning autism, but in some places the term Asperger's isn't even being used any more, so a child with what would have been diagnosed as Asperger's a year or two ago will simply be described as "high functioning autistic" now.

As mentioned, the difference seems to be no language loss or delay with Asperger's, whereas other forms of autism, even high functioning, do see language problems.

How's your boy done with language development?

Don't worry, bookworm - your child's future is bright. "Functioning" and those kinds of labels don't have a lot of specific meaning and that was one reason they rolled all the different diagnoses into an umbrella term "autism spectrum disorder" Different children have different needs in different ways and at different times, and it's too difficult to stick a thermometer on all of them.

As one poster usually says when a parent is first here with a diagnosis - you have been handed a set of keys for your child. Research and read up on what you can do - their outlook is good, but they will need you to support and advocate for them as they navigate life. Check the stickied posts at the top of this board, they're a great resource, and also look up your local autism society to see if there are parent groups or other supports you can take advantage of.

I'm no fan of Autism Speaks (they tend to catastrophize) but they do have a very good toolkit for when your child is first diagnosed: http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-serv ... 00-day-kit

Thanks everyone for your replies, one if the things they focused on was that I had mentioned that although my son who is a boy/girl twin spoke within the normal development range it was only to me and his dad, grandparents aunties etc did not think he could speak until later just because he never did in their presense but this was what we thought at the time was due to both my twins being extremeky shy so they actually took that as a language delay. Tony attwood was one of the websites and books they recommend we look at so I think this will be my firsts port of call! I really hope this is now the beginning of making my boys life better since starting school he has been extremely stressed and unhappy.