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

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It depends if you're talking technically or not. Technically speaking, from a UK standpoint, both are not really officially recognised conditions so there isn't really a set definition to compare any more.

Stating the obvious, HFA is the old now-retired diagnosis of Autism with the coloquial but non-technical prefix of high-functioning. Asperger's Syndrome is also a retired medical definition.

I don't know how much is to be gained by comparing such messy and historic terms. But, given that the question essentially asks for comparison between Kaner Autism and Aspergers Syndrome definitions, the only big technical difference I'm aware of is mutism or significant verbal delay in the case of autism (HFA) which isn't required in AS. By adulthood, this isn't relevant anymore rendering the two the same to all intents and purposes.

However, things aren't always that straightforward and, since my ASD diagnosis five years ago, I have tended to use high-functioning autism when speaking to the laymen and ASD when speaking to doctors and professionals. I do that to account for common old-fashioned preconceptions people have about the word autism. There is an argument that this does a disservice to the wider autistic community by being seen to be almost distancing myself from the condition by emphasising my functionality despite it.

Si

To me I think Aspergers and High-functioning autism is like shyness vs social anxiety. They both look very similar on the surface but once you break them down and learn why they do the things that they do, then you realize that they aren't the exact same thing.

What those differences are I have no idea but, I do feel like there are differences.

One topic I have observed trying to differentiate the two(my own observations based on myself and others.) Is that on "friendship". I see a lot of those with Aspergers or self-diagnosed Aspergers have had a friend or recognized what a friend was but it seem like they don't have interest in having friends or very particular with who they choose to be their friend.

I myself don't have friends because I just don't know what it is. I don't recognize it and I can't tell when someone is a friend.
It isn't lack of interest it's just not knowing what it is.

That could be one difference in AS and HFA or it couldn't, I only know from myself and what I read or observed in a person which could be wrong.

In my opinion, there should not be a differentiation between “high-functioning autism” and what was formerly diagnosed as Asperger’s. To start, HFA was never included in any diagnostic manual, and was merely a term used by some professionals originally to describe patients who had more classic signs of autism (primarily speech delay) in early childhood.

The issue with this was that despite the language deficit, patients diagnosed HFA were virtually undetectable from their Asperger’s counterparts later in life. Everyone experiences autism at least slightly differently, and there likely/definitely isn’t one cause for the wide diversity of symptoms and variations within the spectrum. However, it is superfluous to have separate diagnoses for disorders with the same presentations. It is irrelevant and becomes very confusing when trying to differentiate between disorders “on the autism spectrum.” Autism presents differently in each person affected. We don’t need subcategories within the diagnosis to describe groups of people.

This is why the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder makes much more sense when it comes to diagnosis and treatment options. It is specified, such as when adding “with or without accompanying language impairment” as well as the level of support required. It doesn’t require certain isolated groups within the autism community. A person has “autism spectrum disorder,” period. Not HFA, Asperger’s, CDD, Heller’s/Kanner’s Syndrome, autistic disorder, or anything in between. This makes it easier for those diagnosed, professionals, and loved ones to truly understand the disorder. This is just my own opinion, though.

On a personal level, it's a bit funny.
It's likely to do with being more of an HFA and being formally qualified for AS as a diagnosis.
Because in my case: No speech delay, unlike what makes most of HFA. And PIQ>VIQ/lack of NVLD profile, unlike what makes most with those who are diagnosed with Aspergers if someone looks it that way.


On top of that... I live in a comparatively outdated system. Do accounts of US and UK count here? I dunno. For all I know, it's not how it's implemented here.
As the top diagnostician here only ever talk about labels to guardians, but never writes any diagnostic labels down on any evaluation report. (Said diagnostician is the very guy who diagnosed me)


On the serious level, it varies.
It's obsolete if it is based on IQ and speech. That didn't helped much.
Based on difference and gap of VIQ and PIQ, maybe I understand. But there's the 'AS vs NVLD' already, and other things to take account of what measures these aptitudes.
But if it's basing it on physicality and the ability to look inconspicuous, especially at childhood? I'd be laughing. Because it's what may likely led my diagnosis as AS instead of HFA. But better within the autistic spectrum, than mistaken as something else entirely.
If the debate is actually about differences in social motivation and success, it's pointless. Because neither labels are personality types, nor an outcome of circumstances. As any neurology may even have the same experience and opinions about sociality, people or society as whole.

And so on, and so on... Whatever it is based to, and how it is debated.
Mostly it's 'as long as it doesn't help in the long run, it's pointless to debate about it'. Case to case basis still, no matter the label -- that's my serious opinion.

Still, for me, it's personally funny. No matter how others thought about it.

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Well, my opinion is I'm not sure there is a clear as glass differentiation between the two, as when I was 3 years old, I was identified as being classically autistic; though very much later in life was diagnosed as having Asperger. Honestly, I'm not concerned with wording rather simply acknowledging person(s) as being within the spectrum overall.

Aspergers and autism are not two separate diagnoses. Autism is like a spectrum and aspergers syndrome is on the high end of the spectrum. If you have Asperger syndrome, then you have a form of high-functioning autism.

To have high-functioning autism you need to have cognitive skills that are at least normal (Have an IQ of 80 or higher) and you have the capability of living and functioning on your own.

It is my opinion that the term and usage of "Asperger's" only existed to make people feel better about not being diagnosed as "Autistic." It's also my opinion that Asperger's, particularly in the US, has been over-diagnosed and inappropriately applied. I agree with the elimination of Asperger's from the DSM and I don't think any professional has ever said they think it's two different conditions - it's only the common people who argue about it, and I think it's because most people are not comfortable mixing up the "low functioning" and "high functioning" groups. Probably because we've always viewed Autism as completely disabling, and folding in Asperger's cases challenges that view. So now we'll either have to call people with Asperger's disabled - which many don't want, or have to call Autism not necessarily disabling - which many others reject.

Scientifically speaking, they've already proved that AUT and ASP brains are similarly divergent from NT brains. There are some minor differences between AUT and ASP, which probably accounts for the increased verbal abilities and social awareness, but they're the same basic divergence.

I also don't buy the speech delay distinction. It's handy for scientific labeling, but it really means nothing for adult functioning. I am extremely verbal, pretty socially adept (at least, in short-term interactions), but have never been able to keep a job nor make friends. I'm diagnosed ASD 1, but I'm fairly sure if I'd been diagnosed 10 years earlier, they would have diagnosed me Asperger's, because I come across so "normal." Contrast this with my friend who has Autism, diagnosed as a child, very obviously disabled. He has speech issues and is much more stereotypically autistic than I am. He lives independently, had much more success in employment and has a pretty decent social support system. In many ways, he's higher functioning than I am. I just pass for normal better. To me, that smacks of privilege, and I kind of resent the assumption that I'd *want* to be labeled "Asperger's" simply because I can pass for being not-so-autistic.

When Asperger's was a diagnosis, in order to get the diagnosis, you had to be able to prove that you had traits and symptoms in early childhood. Even if all of the traits and symptoms were not strongly obvious to lay people, a good diagnostician would be able to recognize that they were there in early childhood from the history provided. You cannot develop Aperger's or Autism later in life, the traits and symptoms must be present since early childhood to get a diagnosis.