Let's clear this up...
When I say I am "Autistic":
I use "autistic" as a general term for the entire autism spectrum. I think Asperger's and other types of autism are too similar, with too much overlap between them and no clear dividing line, with too many cases on the borderline between them, to be truly separate entities. Certainly you can pick examples of other types ( Read more... )
I use "autistic" as a general term for the entire autism spectrum. I think Asperger's and other types of autism are too similar, with too much overlap between them and no clear dividing line, with too many cases on the borderline between them, to be truly separate entities. Certainly you can pick examples of other types ( Read more... )
Yes, exactly; only doctors don't use the literal ASD criteria, and didn't when they diagnosed me. That's probably because they're as annoyed with the written criteria as I am. Most professionals seem to be going with the criterion that if you use spoken language and have an 80+ IQ, you're diagnosed with Asperger's--even though, technically, most of those cases would be Autistic Disorder.
That's why I'm saying that, if they did diagnose by-the-book, the Asperger's category would be very small--it's because most Asperger's cases would have to be re-categorized as Autistic Disorder.
The problem with trying to fit autism into categories is that there's so much overlap. The guy with the childhood speech delay may now be completely independent; the kid who spoke on time may still be so naive that he's living with parents at thirty. Asperger's plus mental retardation is automatically Autistic Disorder even though you may have spoken at the same time as NT kids with similar IQs. There are even people in the narrow category diagnosable as only Asperger's who are severely disabled and require 24 hour care (usually due to meltdowns) despite having normal speech development.
The problem of most Aspies fitting the Autistic Disorder criteria too is symptomatic of a messy DSM write-up; but it also illustrates the underlying fact that the Spectrum is just too diverse to put into clear-cut categories.
Reply
I really think doctors need to go by the book; it's THERE for a reason.
I guess they must not follow this, then:
"Asperger's Disorder is not diagnosed if criteria are met for another Pervasive Developmental Disorder or for Schizophrenia."
I definitely think that a person with severe autism as a youth can grow up to be much more successful than someone with Asperger's, which is why I, personally, think they are different types of ASDs. I've noticed many differences between myself (and other people diagnosed with autism) and people diagnosed with Asperger's. There seem to be different cognitive "things" going on in the brains of people with AS vs. HFA. I know most people think the only difference is a speech delay but, from my experience, I REALLY disagree with that.
Reply
I do think that people who had speech delays can be different from people who didn't, even if they now match identical diagnostic criteria. In general, it seems to be a matter of cognitive style; the non-delayed group often tends to be better with verbal information than with visual-spatial, and the delayed group tends to be better with visual-spatial information. It shows up on IQ tests as a sub-score gap, one way or the other, with verbal or visual being higher.
Functionally identical and diagnostically identical does not necessarily mean that they think the same way.
I don't know whether I'd agree that they are two different kinds of autism; people with and without sensory integration problems are fundamentally different, too, as are people with and without severe difficulty reading non-verbal communication, or people with and without the desire to socialize. I think autism is just simply very diverse, and they are making a big mistake when they assume two people with the same diagnosis must be the same.
Reply
The one *you* made up?
Because on your blog you not only repeatedly claim that people with AS aren't autistic (wrong by "the book") and you also question the diagnosis of autistics with an autism dx, even if they made their dx papers available to the public.
In the name of avoiding hypocrisy I want to suggest the following:
Everyone who posts vicious rumours on their blog questioning the diagnosis of other autistics should maybe post their own dx to prove *they* have a right to represent autism.
Reply
(I forgot to paste in my URL.)
Gonzo
Reply
I don't know whether the people with autism who are diagnostically identical to people with Asperger's in adulthood tend to be more successful. I've been digging through the research a lot, and that's an awfully long-term study that I haven't seen yet. If so, it may simply be that if you choose someone who has learned an awful lot since childhood (the classic autistic) compared to someone whose development has been more typical (the Aspie), you could simply be comparing someone with a large capacity for learning with someone whose abilities are more average. The closest thing I could come up with is a study revealing that among classic autistic and PDDNOS two year olds, 88% were talking by age nine and thirty-some percent were holding back-and-forth conversations. It only had an experimental group in the twenties and was blinded only to the extent that it's usually hard for a doctor to recognize a child at nine that he last saw at two.
Reply
Leave a comment