AS vs. HFA di8agnosis. I'm confused can anyone help me out.

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I'm confused about how they determine what diagnosis to give.
I was diagnosed Aspergers. I spoke, and read early. I could read 12th grade level in early elementary school. I have a very high I.Q, but there where plenty of cognitive delays. I have always had to consentrate to speak, because it's not so natural to me. Everything is pictures, and some words in my mind. I go non verbal at times. I've never been able to spell past a elementary school level. On tests that just show severity of PDD I test severe. Yet I live a fairly normal life unless stress overcomes me. I know people who didn't talk till 3 get diagnosed Aspergers. I thought that Aspergers was the same as Kanners other than speaking before 3, and no cognitive delays. I don't understand this at all, and I've been perseverating over it for a while now. Is Aspergers a B.S. diagnosis to make people who have a preconcieved notion about Autism feel beter, or are the experts idiots?

I'm under the impression that PDD is the B.S. diagnosis -- it's just too big an umbrella term to really mean anything.

I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but I've always been under the impression that high IQ/early reading/no language delay pointed towards Aspergers (I have a 21 year old that falls into that diagnosis). But you know how they (experts, or not) talk about Einstein as possibly having Asperger's, and he didn't talk until he was five (or something like that).

Here's something I found on the internet:

"Although the condition is in some ways similar to autism, a child with Asperger's syndrome typically has normal to advanced language and intellectual development. Also, those with Asperger's syndrome typically make more of an effort than those with autism to make friends and engage in activities with others."

I didn't see a lot about language delays. Maybe that's not one of the qualifying aspects of Asperger's.

Kris

You might be HFA than AS. I'm diagnosed with AS but the psychologist I saw today (she is in her last year of school and will be a professional one next year) doesn’t think I am AS either and agreed with me PDD-NOS would be more appropriate category for me and she also said I might be HFA or PDD-NOS but she hasn’t talked to my mother yet.

Interesting points. I wasn't to interested in making many friends. I'm still not. The few friends I do have I value greatly. Thoughts, and objects are more interesting to me than friendships. Most of my interest in people is more on a fascination with behavior.
Likedcalico. You have a point that is where my confusion lies. I fit HFA, other than early speech, and reading. I like your Benny and Joon stuff. I love that movie it is one of the best in the world. It gives me hope.

The whole spectrum as of now.

myeyesseekreality, I didn't know about AS when I first saw Benny & Joon and I always wondered what her diagnosis could be. It always baffled me. But now that you mention it, and now that I know more about AS, it does seem that she has AS. As far as the movie goes, I own it and adore it! I think I've seen it 4 times now. Now that I think about it, I haven't watched it yet this year. Time to watch it again!! ! : )

In the late 80's when I was dx'ed and then again in 1991 when I moved to another state they all said HFA. However, since then I improved significantly. I always did better then many students as far as math, my social skills improved alot, i have more interest in knowlegde then others, but now I do enjoy social events on occasion (breifly anyways) and I like making new friends. If I was to be dx'ed after aspringers was added to the DSM I think my label would change to AS as although my speech was somewhat delayed, the fact that I do very well in social situations and often seek them means that my HFA label in childhood is greatly outdated. Im not sure if it works that way tho, to be honest, AS did not exist back then, so I may have the wrong label, ill never know.

I also think IQ had alot to do with it, HFA means average to below average IQ from my understanding, ive never taken a test, but have seen some questions on an IQ test and it does not look to rough.

"HFA" is those with autistic disorder who have a normal or above IQ, or it can equate to those with AS; it depends on who is talking. It's erroneous no matter which one it is applied to as it's not an "official" label however.

I don't really like the HFA label as no one defines what "functioning" equates to.

The whole HFA is stupid if you ask me. It's not even listed on the DSM that Danielismyname kindly posted for us. I hear HFA being thrown around as a separate diagnosis from Aspergers at autism meetings.

I'm confused by it because my diagnosing dr just said Aspergers is a form of high functioning autism meaning we are separate from the LFA who often cannot speak and have severe problems with motor control and bodily functions. Yet I hear HFA being used as a term for those who are on the spectrum and have the same socializing problems as Aspies, are of high intelligence, but do not have any coordination problems or environmental sensitivities. Or at least that is what one of the parents told me it meant. The funny thing is one of the mom's who said her son was dx with HFA I think was ill informed. The guy was almost 30 and flipped out if someone even brushed up against him, was not able to speak much above the vocabulary of a 5 yr old and had to be lead around by his mother's hand, so I don't see how you could call that higher functioning meaning he was considered more advanced than a Aspie. I think there's some BS going on with the diagnosing.

I don't think high functioning is anything different than Asperger's in many ways, but I do see a dividing line, unless I'm not noticing something in myself. I know I have autism, but I have doubts as to whether or not I actually fall into the Asperger's area.

My IQ is below average, but mainly because I take the questions and analyze the hell out of them leaving me with no sure fire way to answer them, so I get them wrong. I'm not very technical, and am pretty naive to everything really. I have "special" areas of interest, but none of them really equate with what I see most Aspies talking about. I'm not technical about anything at all, and barely grasp what would commonly be known as general knowledge about anything at all, lol. I learn exactly what I'm wanting to know, and everything else before or after that is amiss unless it registers as important. Instead, I see it all blended together into one step of doing something-one big ordered step, lol.

I only say this because I don't see many who say they don't have a special area of interest, or who don't know a lot about anatomy or science, etc. I know about colors. I'm very big on colors, but they don't register as anything for me to talk about with anyone, as they are after all, only colors. Mainly I just sit around in my own little world, thinking about and analyzing myself constantly trying to figure out exactly where I fit into any group at all verses where I do not. I don't think I'm very elaborate with my speech, but I do tend to be very wordy even though I don't use big words.

Overall, I'm pretty oblivious to everything that happens. I remember things, but that's it-no need to really talk about it or figure it out even sometimes, because they are just facts of what happened at that point.

I'm probably overlooking something in myself, but it really does feel there is a divide of some sort. I just have no clue where it is besides speech delay-which I think is kind of a b.s. way of determining to begin with. There are plenty of NT kiddos that don't speak until late because they just don't want to or don't find a need to, and there are plenty who start everything early as well. It's too broad of a specification for it to really make sense to me, because if that really was a determining factor in any way shape or form, lots more people would be diagnosed.

Nobodyzdream- Look I'm no expert. I just know what my doctor has explained to me about Aspergers and also what I had researched myself. But if you think you may be LFA and low IQ, please reconsider. You write very, very well. You have great composition skills. Most LFA cannot write like that unless they are idiot savants with a passion for writing. Most NT's with lower than normal IQ cannot compose as well as you did.

Did you get your IQ tested online? If so, please understand those tests are for entertainment purposes and not very accurate. If you were professionally tested, perhaps you had a bad day and scored low or felt too overwhelmed by the environment to concentrate. Don't think you have to be a science freak to be an Aspie. You can be fascinated in colors and still be Aspie. Actually you may have Synathesia if you see the world with colors which is very common among female Aspies. I believe you are female right? Also the whole AS criteria is based on males so I think its probable female Aspies could have a fascination other than science or math. The fact that some AS women have a fascination with mechanics and engineering may point more to having a father who had AS whom they spent more time with due to feeling a Aspie connnection with him. You sound Aspie and of above average intelligence to me if that is any consolation.

I'm begining to think that NT's like to make simple things more complex instead of enjoying the fact that it's simple. That is the thing with HFA, and AS. It seems like there is no real difference. It's all Autism without mental retardation. I don't know what do you think?

"It's all Autism without mental retardation"

Ouch... you'll get flamed for that. HFA/Aspergers vs the rest of the Autistic spectrum, and intelligence are not linear in any way. There are a lot of autistic people that you are insulting quite badly with that statement. Please read some blogs or posts by autistic people (not aspies/hfa's) to correct this perception (e.g. http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/). And I think an apology is in order.

Really? The few autistics I met in real life, like me, always used their own names, and I am always gwynfryn.

I agree. Completely aside from the fact that a "low-functioning" autie is perfectly capable of having a high IQ, there also remains the fact that when a low-functioning autie's IQ is measured (which is how mental retardation is determined), it's likely not an accurate measurement, as probably sensory and other issues are getting in the way of the examination. In addition, many LFAs are considered low-functioning simply because the optimal way for them to communicate (and therefore be tested) hasn't been found yet. There are a number of LFAs for example, who are able to write, even though they are unable to speak, so that alternative communication devices are necessary. Unfortunately, people who can't communicate primarily through verbal means are an incredibly under-served group (in the US at least). So I wouldn't trust autie IQ scores at all, at least not when they're low. One girl I know who has worked with autistic kids quite a bit always says, "The thing with autism is that you never really know what these kids are capable of, and how much they understand."

Oh, I do understand that there does seem to be the common themes with both, but I tend to feel that since it IS a spectrum disorder, there must be a lot between low functioning classic autism and Asperger's. So left in that gap in the center, where it's kind of in between the 2, I would assume it would be a higher functioning classic autism. Where that line crosses into LFA, or into Asperger's, I am unsure. Or maybe I'm just confused by the idea of a spectrum and not having a clearcut line as to where EXACTLY everything falls, lol. Pretty much regardless of LFA or HFA, we all have the same symptoms to one degree or another, and mine overlap in both areas. I had the speech delay, but when I started speaking, I also started reading around the same time. I was reading pharmaceutical bottles when I was 4. I didn't bother crawling ever, but went straight from just kind of laying there to walking one day, lol. I still have no clue how I did this, neither does my mother.

So if talking on time or beforehand is part of the Aspie criteria, where does it leave those of us on the same level that didn't talk until late? This is partially where I get confused, but part of me also tends to think this is a b.s. chunk of any diagnosis anyway because, well, kids do things at different times regardless whether there is more going on with them or not. Yet, at the same time, it still does exist in the criteria for some reason, so I kind of float between classic autism and Asperger's. ...and since classic autism is just generally looked into as LFA, I assume there must be a high end as well if there is a low.

The IQ tests I have taken, while I do not remember my scores (they were a long time ago), I do remember they were administered in school. I always scored really low, lol, but because I was overanalyzing or could not figure out exactly what they were after as the answer. I actually find it rather amusing But because of this, I also assume that IQ scores have very little to do with actual diagnosis as well-to some degree, they rely heavily on the comprehension of what is being asked as well as getting the actual answers. It is amazing how clear cut a question can sound to one person and become misconstrued into meaning 10 things unless very well specified when in my hands