Aspergers and hyper or Aspergers and ADHD?

Post Reply New Topic

My 5.5 year old has Aspergers. He is a very active 5 year old. He can be driven by a motor sometimes but then can have brilliant concentration like when he is drawing. I am just wandering could he have ADHD too. He can be very impulsive and is very confident. He is a sensory seeker and has a great eye for detail (e.g. can remember road plans or recognise the singer of a song within the first few seconds). I am just wandering if his hyperness is just due to Aspergers or is it adhd too? He is full of life and I have to say life is never boring! He is a very affectionate child too. We were at a Santa Claus thing recently with a group of kids on the spectrum (my guy was the youngest) and he was definitely the most active. Thanks in advance!

My son was diagnosed AS and ADHD, from what I have read though, they really do go hand in hand.

Your little guy sounds great! I have a 6 year old and he is an awesome little guy too!

My daughter's dx stated the hyperactivity and impulsivity was due to the pervasive developmental disorder (asperger's) and a comorbid dx was not necessary.

My aspie 6 year old son appears to be ADHD but he's actually had a brain mapping test done that ruled out ADHD by the measure of alpha and theta brain waves and other things that I can't recall in detail anymore.

But he does have anxiety disorder and he uses motion to distill the anxiety that he feels, so looks like ADHD but is really anxiety for my son.

My 6yr old daughter is exactly the same. She doesn't have a diagnosis yet. Until just over a year ago, we thought she had a mild form of ADHD, then the AS traits started to show themselves. She's somewhere on the cusp of the two, I think, but I doubt she's outwardly severe enough in the hyperactivity/lack of concentration to get an ADHD diagnosis. And I'm not sure if she ticks enough of the Aspergers boxes to get a definitive diagnosis of that, either. She seldom does as she's told and appears to have little sense of danger. But, she's amazing too and very bright, happy and enthusiastic.

I feel like my son's hyperactivity is usually related to sensory stuff. Could that be it?

^exactly. There are many reasons a child that age can act hyper, anxiety, sensory overload, so may reasons. I think there is often too quick a jump to ADHD and it should be looked at in depth to make sure before letting a doc talk you into med's for ADHD.

I had clinical depression at one time and the doc put me on Ritalyn (sp?) because thought I was slowed down with ADD. Not the case and the med was like cocaine for me. Bad idea.

Just make sure you educate yourself on what else can cause a child to act hyper, at that age the maturity level can't handle a lot of other things and hyper is the result.

I've made it clear to my son's school that when he looks ADHD then it means his anxiety is up and that's when they must help him with his calming excercises. They've listened and it works, if it was ADHD it wouldn't work.

My AS son is pretty energetic, and there are times he can't focus, but he is NOT ADD or ADHD. All young boys run on a very fast motor, and all people can have trouble concentrating at times. I also agree with the others who have pointed out that over stimulation will make an AS child hyper, and that is actually one of the things I learned to use as a warning sign that my son was experiencing sensory issues. The more overloaded from sensory input, the more hyper he appears. But since it is an external trigger, and not an internal thing, it is not ADD or ADHD, to my understanding.

My daughter, we believe, is ADD (no H, which lets her stay under the radar with it), and the story I tell is about her brushing her teeth. It is impossible for her to walk the 10 feet from the sofa to the bathroom without being distracted by her own thoughts and ideas. It is also impossible for her to actually brush her teeth for 3 minutes and be done, because every few brush strokes there is something else she just "must" say or "must" take care of. It takes her half an hour to brush her teeth because of what we call jumpy brain. She has no sensory issues with the process, and doesn't mind brushing her teeth at all; she just can't stay on task because of all the internal things going on with her. For staying on track at school we had to get creative, and she was made aware of the likely ADD early on, but she's developed her own systems for getting through a day sufficiently focused, so she does just fine - with no medication of any sort.

One of my son's friends I am sure is ADHD and that kid could never sit still or stay focused no matter what they were doing or how much he loved it. It actually drove my son nuts how often he would want to play something new.