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Annmaria
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09 Aug 2011, 3:52 pm

Wondering if anyone would have a insight to the following question.
Were people given a diagnosis of mildly ret*d before AS was recognised? Or is completely different.


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Phonic
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09 Aug 2011, 3:54 pm

They just weren't diagnosed at all, if they were it would have been with something absurd like childhood schizophrenia. Or classic autism if they were very lucky.


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Annmaria
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09 Aug 2011, 3:59 pm

The reason I am asking is that I have family members diagnosed with mildly ret*d also with AS. I suspect the members diagnosed with mildly ret*d are more likely AS.


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CaptainTrips222
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09 Aug 2011, 4:21 pm

I don't see how the mistake can be made in a professional setting, no offense. Mild retardation means cognitive impairments. AS is very different. I suppose if somebody's special interest involves juvenile things, and they're overly into, you could confuse it with retardation. But most aspies don't seem ret*d at all to me. A lot of them don't even seem aspy.

I'm interested, if you don't mind elaborating, how did these people get a dual diagnosis? Did they do extremely bad on some placement test? You know them better than the doctors- do YOU think they're mildly ret*d? You're obviously conflicted.



Callista
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09 Aug 2011, 4:28 pm

Well--it's not impossible. What if the person with AS just sucks at taking IQ tests, and they get, say, a 60; but they don't have the characteristic delays that someone with mild MR ought to have, and the doctors place way too much weight on the IQ test?

Of course, it's not like you can't have both. Technically, if you had both, you'd be excluded from AS and put into PDD-NOS, but you can totally have all the traits of AS and have mild mental retardation too.

But you could just be seeing the mild social delays you'd expect of someone with mild MR, and be mistaking them for the more obvious ones you'd see with AS. Unless the delays are absent in areas that autism doesn't affect as much, I'd guess the mild MR is probably the correct diagnosis.

If you're sure this person has autistic traits, maybe you ought to talk to them about it. It's their decision as to whether to pursue it further. (Or if they're a young child, talk to their parents about it.)


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Annmaria
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09 Aug 2011, 4:38 pm

They didn't get dual diagnosis for AS I meant that others members of my family have AS dx, There is a lot off different diagnosis, the family member whom diagnosed with mildly ret*d was also diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Have a family history of many diagnosis, AS, Mildly ret*d, schizophrenia, bipolar/depression other co-morbid.

My son diagnosed with AS I would see many similarities between the other members of my family. I wouldn't have seen those members diagnosed with be mildly ret*d as that. They would present with a many AS traits!


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AllieKat
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09 Aug 2011, 4:56 pm

I got diagnosed as a "stubborn, spoiled brat who acted out for attention."



littlelily613
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09 Aug 2011, 5:32 pm

This might have been stated already, but one of the criteria for AS is average or above average intelligence. A few might have slightly below average, and I don't know if there are any with mental retardation. People with classic autism can have mental retardation but many do not (and many are likely mistaken for having that because of no way to communicate). Retardation does not equal ASD or vice versa (and certainly not Aspergers specifically).


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09 Aug 2011, 5:56 pm

Asperger Syndrome wouldn't be mistaken for mild MR, but it's certainly likely many lower functioning autistics in earlier decades were misdiagnosed as 'just' MR. What a lot of people don't realize is the increased diagnosis of autism isn't just the high functioning ones who were undiagnosed before, but also the 'non-classic' lower functioning ones who got a different diagnosis before. The two big ones for that were MR or childhood schizophrenia (or both together!).



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09 Aug 2011, 6:17 pm

In the far past people with AS might have been diagnosed as borderline autistic, and if their AS is severe enough the doctors back in the day might have mistaken their social retardation as mild mental retardation. Although a lot of mild-moderate AS cases in the "olden days" might just have been seen as awkward or difficult people.


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TPE2
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09 Aug 2011, 6:26 pm

littlelily613 wrote:
This might have been stated already, but one of the criteria for AS is average or above average intelligence. A few might have slightly below average, and I don't know if there are any with mental retardation. People with classic autism can have mental retardation but many do not (and many are likely mistaken for having that because of no way to communicate). Retardation does not equal ASD or vice versa (and certainly not Aspergers specifically).


According to the DSM, the two diagnosis can coexist if mental retardation only becomes visible after the diagnosis of AS was made (you can be diagnosed with AS at 5 y.o. and with mental retardation at 11 y.o.).

I read somewhere a paper from Gilberg (who uses a different definition of AS) saying that both high intelligence and mild mental retardation are disproportionately common in people with AS.



lostonearth35
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09 Aug 2011, 6:42 pm

The shrink who diagnosed me with Asperger's thought at first I was mildly ret*d (I hate that evil label of a word). And this was in 2001. Before then I lived with a number of labels and misdiagnoses... schizophrenic form disorder, behaviorally dysfunctional, selfish, spoiled, immature, lazy, ignorant...



AllieKat
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09 Aug 2011, 6:45 pm

The so called professional shrink told my parents and my teachers that I was just acting out to get attention........they said that I was WAY to smart to "not know better"



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09 Aug 2011, 9:15 pm

All my shrinks as a kid told my parents that I was basicaly ret*d.


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09 Aug 2011, 10:59 pm

Well, MR relates to a composite of about 4 IQs. NONE of those is affected by AS. And AS relates to an IQ effectively that ISN'T tested, and other things that have nothing to do with IQ.



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19 Aug 2011, 6:54 pm

My elementary school counselor when I was in kindergarten tried to get me labeled as "ret*d" because of my autistic behaviors back then, but IQ tests and a chat with the district psychologist disproved the remote possibility of a below average IQ, in fact it showed I had at least an above average one especially in certain areas. They almost had a fist fight over it.

AS wasn't in the DRM until I was 15-16 and autism was only used for the classical stereotypical definition of it until around that point.