New Here - 15 yr old misdiagnosed & finally some answers

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After years of being told my daughter had a personality disorder, we now have the results of our assessment. She is autistic with ADHD. I'm relieved because I finally have answers that make sense and I know more about autism than borderline personality. However, I'm completely overwhelmed and I don't know where to start. Our psychologist uses the term Asperger's however my autistic former spouse tells me the term is outdated and offensive. He prefers we say level 1 autistic. How do I know what is appropriate when we talk about my child's neurodiversity? Also, I know there are so many websites and books that are inaccurate! Someone please point me into this right direction, please. I like date and scientific research in order to process information and I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to support my daughter.

Welcome to WP.
I hope it proves a useful resource for you both.
Whereas Asperger's is an outdated term, I rather doubt ANYONE in here would find it offensive unless used as an attack, and then it wouldn't be the word...it would be an offensive person.

The term "autism" used to mean a specific sort of brain damage or malformation in which children seldom reached adulthood. Today it is sort of used as a miscellaneous category into which the former designation Aspergers has been swept. I continue to use Aspergers because it tends to be more specific.

Here is a free pdf booklet http://christianpioneer.com/blogarchiev ... e_2017.pdf

It is interesting to note that there has always been an assumption by the medical community that there is some pathological condition that has yet to be identified that could account for some children not being processed by the educational industrial complex as easily as they would wish.

My own view is that there are variations in neurology perhaps by being faster, more sensitive, or more complex that account for the observed differences.