Sweetleaf wrote:
Well I know its referred to as a developmental disorder....which kinda makes sense, but also seems a bit off because it seems like it could imply that people with AS develop slower and I have always been under the impression I just developed differently I don't feel like my social skills and such match up with a younger NT.
But otherwise I guess it could just mean different development rather than slow development.
It does. "Developmental delay" is the specific term for slower development, and occurs in preemies, children in poor environments, children who have chronic illness, and those who will eventually be diagnosed with intellectual disability.
Autism is not the same thing as developmental delay, though. Developmental delay includes the assumption that you are pretty much on the typical schedule; only you are going along that path more slowly, so that at age four, you may have the same skills as a typical three-year-old, or at age twelve, you may be able to accomplish tasks that are possible for an eight-year-old. Autism isn't like that; you can't put an autistic person anywhere on the typical schedule, either ahead or behind. An autistic person will develop skills in an atypical manner--he may learn them "out of order", like learning to read before he learns to talk; or he may have one skill far ahead of the other, like being able to solve long-division problems but not kick a ball. He may learn things very quickly, just "getting it" in a day, or stay at a developmental plateau for ages, or even lose skills, especially under stress.
That atypical development is true of all autistic people, including both highly independent, self-supporting people and those who need 24/7 care. That's why I am a bit leery of labeling someone with autism as also having intellectual disability, because even though he may be far behind the neurotypicals on all areas of development, his development still isn't on the same schedule and can't really be compared to the development of a non-autistic person with intellectual disability.
That is a better description of what I was trying to say.....but it would seem some people are under the impression having autism just means you develeop slower, which I disagree with.
02 Dec 2011, 1:37 pm
