What? We are now the same as autism or what?

Post Reply New Topic

That's what I was fearing.
Because even inside the Autism Spectrum, the different types do vary a lot.
There's no point putting us or Tourette's or Fragile X together with Classical Autism.

I mean Autism Spectrum is an ok for me, but if they are trying to make us all the same with CLASSICAL autism, I won't forgive them.

There had always been debates on what the difference in HFA and AS was, but I just can't imagine they could be so casual to merge them all together instead of recognizing that stuff in Autism Spectrum varies from disorder to disorder.
We aren't going to receive the correct therapies at all!

We might all go to the same therapy in social communications, but not speech lessons, or stuff like how to stop swearing.

Where do I sign up?

Asperger and Kanner did their studies around the same time. While Kanner studies showed more diversity, you are right that Asperger mostly wrote of the positives aspects of the persons.

I think it is essential to know, that Asperger was a german doctor who did his studies while Hitler and the Nazis, who believed in "a healthy "Volks"-body" that had to be designed by killing and sterilizing "unwanted "Volks"-beings... to "strenghten" the future "Volks"-body. (Yes, lots of racistic Nazi-shit nonsense.)

So Asperger had to do his study under the pressure, that if he had focused to much on the misadvantages, all affected people could become official "Volks"-vermins (Yes, they really used that term in german, so in the eye of the Nazis "useless" people were to be compared with rats, bugs, cockroaches that had to be cleansed out. -.-) which would have lead to massive killings like many other people with misadvantages had to endure.

So from a scientific view you can blame Asperger for too much focusing on the advantages he found. From a human and social view, he felt himself forced to show other people, that just because there are people with misadvantages, that must not mean that they are automatically useless parasites.

From a genetic aspect autism is "all of the above" and always was. However from a funding and services perspective I can see some advantage in maintaining the label if only to differentiate those kids with Aspergers from those with a speech delay. A speech delay is really quite a handicap and although the prognosis is good for those with a reasonable IQ it still means additional thousands of dollars of special needs in speech therapy, ABA and OT services.

Don't.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM[/youtube]

One of the expressed issues with the DSM-5 "decision" is that Aspies and/or PDD-NOS wer'nt getting services. The problem is that to make sure ASDs got services, the standard to get an ASD DX is supposed to be tougher, and many existing DXs might not qualify.

Hans Asperger was a doctor for the Nazis at one point. He worked in Nazi state hospitals heres the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AHan ... program.3F

"Hans Asperger worked in Nazi state hospitals during the 1930's, the time when the T-4 Euthanasia program to eliminate mental patients was in progress. Rumors based on biographies and personal notes of Hans Asperger spoke on his research on adults displayed "autistic" behaviors, was said related to the T-4 Euthanasia program"

One could assume he didn't want to work with the Nazis anymore and fled to Austria where he continued his medical work. Austria was neutral and many fled there.

Another thing was, his studies or work weren't picked up on by anyone until after his death. Post humously his work had to be translated from its original German and all that, this was around 1991.

The bold part is what I fear as well. My personal opinion on that is that it is much more practical to have several syndromes and disorders within the autism spectrum than throwing everything into the same pot assuming it could be the same thing while it all differs in so many ways.

I recall reading criticism of experts and people including Temple Grandin and Tony Attwood saying basically the same.

Leo Kanner seems to have a very detailed study of one individual, the first person ever diagnosed Autistic. Donald Tripplet, who also seems to be a savant with numbers and multiplication. Here's a link to an article on Donald Tripplet:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... ld/308227/

I found an article that mentions Kanner's 11 case studies of Autism. here is link:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiat ... anner.html

It would have been great if Kanner and Asperger could have collaborated together on things, yet being across the world and other things seem to prevent it from happening.

What is good is that past research can help with the new.

I think Aspies will mostly fall into the top tier of the 4 point ASD classification but there should not be any reduction in their current funding allocation for services. All that will happen is the DX of AS will be switched to Level 1 ASD. The label changes but not the financial assistance. I suppose from that perspective it makes no difference.

I wouldn't think too much of this if i were you. Its just like when they changed Pluto from being a planet to a dwarf planet, the titles different but the object is still the same. Personally I agree with this idea of removing aspergers, if someone had higher functioning cerebral palsy it would still be called cerebral palsy. having two different diagnoses makes it seem like they are two different conditions, when in reality it is not.

I agree, but I don't think separating out those without language delay is a good way of doing it.

DSM-5 is including severity levels, and probably there'll be different therapies for different severities. That'll be more useful than AS-specific stuff, because AS and HFA get the same severity classification and they have the same needs.

What I really wish they did was add criteria for cognitive profiles. NVLD will still be getting lumped in with visuospatial learners under the new classification, just like they were under the old. Both cognitive profiles will be present in DSM-5 mild autism, and in their social communication disorder category as well (autism minus the nonsocial symptoms). I wish both autism and SCD were divided up based on whether nonverbal skills are better, worse or the same as verbal skills. That would really help to identify groups with different needs, since those with nonverbal strengths often do well with picture-based teaching methods, while NVLD need everything to be verbalized. They pretty much have opposite needs.

I have a friend with Aspergers diagnosis from a doctor, and he has had learning/cognitive delays through out school. So i agree that they shouldn't classify by whether or not the individual had learning/cognitive delays. My friend had them and still got an Aspergers diagnosis, however according to the textbook criteria, no cognitive/learning delays would have allowed to be present. He really seems to fit the
Asperger diagnosis, the only confusing thing is the learning/cog delay was present. He wouldn't fit into HFA and has a lot of Aspie symptoms. Another thing is that his IQ is at the most normal or a little below normal. He is not the stereotypical genius of AS.
There are other cases of Aspies similar to my friend, they aren't genius, they don't fit all these rocket scientist stereotypes. They will talk to strangers even if they are uninterested, yet the Aspie continues talking on and on. Some might just be more quiet.

IMO, for diagnosing Aspergers i believe they should do away completely with the Cog/Learning delay being present (or not). Also with the IQ being normal or above normal. There are individuals that fit the bill for an Aspie that have a normal or below normal intelligence and have had learning disabilities. They don't fit the criteria for Autism.

With all the new changes to the DSM-V it will be irrelevant anyway i'd guess (regarding the Cog/learning disability or not and the normal or above intellence).
The normal/above intelligence seems to come from Aspergers research and other savants studied by various in the past. This is not always the case. Someone might get skipped a diagnosis they deserve depending on who is diagnosing if they don't fit the IQ and criteria of delays.