What's the differnce between Aspergers and autism?

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I get asked in my other forums what's the difference between autism and aspergers, since I have classic autism. And other than speech delay with autism and no speech delay with Aspergers, I don't know of any difference. I thought at first Aspergers was just very mild autism, just a little dash of autism. But have read too many aspies posts here with really bad autism problems like I have to think that any longer.

Overall someone with Asperger's will be better socially and verbally then someone with classic autism. Someone with AS will be less visibly "off" then someone with classic autism. There is some overlap and there are a lot of similarities between the two, but AS tends to be the more higher functioning one of the two sub-groups. Of course AS is also a part of the same autistic spectrum, so at the end of the day whether someone is high or low functioning, autism is still autism.

That's what I say. In the schools for kids with autism I go to, it's not like we have different sections for classic and aspergers and PDD etc....except for the kids with severe autism to a degree. My new friend I met at special needs day camp....his dad told my dad he was diagnosed PDD. So I ask what's that? and am told that it's just autism. So I'm like that is just plain confusing.

Lots of people with so called Classic autism end up married living independently and get a good job.

Lots of people with the Aspergers diagnosis can not do relationships or live independently or get employment.

So as you can see the overlap is huge.

I got an ASD diagnosis but I was told in the past this would have been Aspergers.

Some people with the Aspergers diagnosis think they do not have Autism.

I have never lived independently or been in a relationship so I am under no illustration I know I am Autistic.

Some people might think Aspergers does not sound as bad as Autism but after a number of Aspie gun rampages I will stick with my Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis that you very much.

It does not matter what we call our condition we are all people first.

One more thing I love this saying because it true.


It something walks like a duck swims like a duck quacks like a duck and looks like a duck well guess what? ITS A DUCK.

I have heard of aspies acting more autistic than AS and people who have the autistic diagnoses coming off as normal and not acting all autistic. That is a spectrum there. I wonder if doctors may be diagnosing AS because it sounds so much better than being autistic.

By the DSMIV the doctors had to DX aspergers if there was no verbal delay at age 2, no matter what the other symptoms are.

My daughter is quite autistic but could monologue about her interests just fine at age 2. Technically... she should have been dxed with aspergers. However the psychiatrist performing the diagnosis bent the rules (she also knew the DSMV was set to roll out) and used the DSMV criteria to diagnose instead, which gave my daughter the appropriate and very very helpful diagnosis of moderate-severe autism. We needed it for school. You see since so many seem to think that aspergers = not as severe, it trickled over into the school system where she would not have been eligible for certain services (that she ended up needing) had she had a dx of aspergers.

My autism severity is somewhat unknown. At age 2, I only had about 10 word vocabulary...As a young adult now my social skills/behavior seem as possible intellectual disability. With a bit of intensive supports, everyone who knows about me agrees it is not enough. Because of my intelligence, age and previous diagnosis -the programs I need to gain some independence is unavailable.

This is a old and long thread but it's very interesting and goes into a lot of depth about some opinions of fundamental differences between HFA and AS.
One thing that was brought up is a deeper underlying difference in the language centers of the brain and also differences in social needs between HFA an AS.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt2370.html

I grew up with the definitions that Asperger's is the subset of people on the Autistic spectrum who have there basic cognitive function and are verbal and autism(I use the prefix severe) is the term to describe the people who had next to no verbal communication and may although not always as we have many have recently learned also have issues with basic cognitive function, to put it in really simple terms. It still works for me fine.

I was not surprised to find differences in the brain structures, there has to be some major differences between the most severe and the higher functioning of us.

Interesting discussion this - I was born into an extended family that was mainly all under house arrest for being conscientious objectors in wartime for religious reasons and for that reason was raised mainly by a widowed, retired, deaf and dumb, great grandfather as my parents worked long hours six days a week.

I therefore didn't bond with any of the members of the extended family or meet any children outside our closed circle, so I didn't learn to speak until much later, and was diagnosed with childhood autism at age five and a half.

This was changed to autistic psychopathy (now more commonly called asperger's syndrome) at fifteen and a half.

The switch from being called a childhood ret*d at school to a psychopathic ret*d was transformational. It enabled me to beat the living daylights out of my former bullies while their cronies all stood around with the hands in their pockets terrified that I would pick on them next - mwhahahaha

Unfortunately that phase only lasted six months but I managed to dish out a lot of bloody noses and black eyes in that time as even teachers who had bullied me were afraid I would turn on them and belittle them by beating the daylights out of them also. It was quite an experience being master of the universe that I had once known.

Aspergers and Autism

We are presented with information about this condition from a variety of different sources. The scientists who research this subject and are seeking truth are only a small minority.

The most powerful special interest block are the psychologists and psychiatrists who get paid by insurance companies and the government to treat" problems. One cannot overlook the lucrative aspects of calling Aspergers a type of autism.

Another but related group of people are academicians who support the therapy industry.

Teachers who often are able to shunt undesirable children into special programs are a major source of raw material to be processed by the therapeutic industry.

Autism was first identified by severe behaviors and subsequent autopsies showed major brain damage or malformation.

Since world war two educators have been trying to find ways of dealing with children who are not easily processed in modern education facilities. Teachers in particular are motivated to find ways to medicate, treat, or remove non-compliant children or children who are disruptive or even just inconvenient. Disruptive children starting in the 1960s were labeled as having "minimal brain dysfunction". The assumption being that there must be some unobservable brain damage that causes children to be non-compliant.

Real science may eventually be able to tell us about neural sensing and processing differences. However, the declaration that AS is a subset of Autism (on a spectrum) is not science. If it were science, we would understand the biology and chemistry of it. Instead, behavior observers have declared that they are the same for the purposes of their industrial processing and billing.

I would not take as gospel the proclamations of social processors. I suspect that even what is called classic autism may actually be several different things. When dealing with the minions of the social processing realm, you may have to use their language. However, you don't want to make the mistake of thinking they know what their talking about.

There is no meaningful difference.

Usually, psychs look for language development differences when distinguishing between AS and classic autism.
AS children have earlier language development than classic autistic children, and the differences in language and communication may be most obvious around age four, when AS child may speak a lot about special interests, and classic autistic child speaks no to few words.
Some classic autistic children grow up to speak fluently, so in adulthood, they may be indistinguishable behaviorally from AS adults, but I bet that there are still neural correlates of late language development and differences in language processing and systems that subserve such that can still be found in brain studies.

It used to be the case that the only diagnostic criterion that was different between Asperger's and autism was that someone with Asperger's would not have a language delay in the development stages. Now with DSM V, Asperger's and autism is considered as one disorder, only that Asperger's is on the mild end of it.

I'm not really sure what the difference is. I'm actually diagnosed with a high functioning form of classic autism, but I always find that Aspies tend to be less social and don't quite understand social skills much either. However, this could also be the same for people who have autism as well. Honestly, I don't think there is much of a difference how you look at both AS and autism itself. For me, I had speech delays when I was child too. I did grow up in speech therapy, which has improved my language skills more as well. I do have a harder time expressing myself verbally and emotionally. With stuff like that, I revert to the use of my iPad to explain things better for me.