Autism or Aspergers

[cysterls]

Hi

A little backgroud. I have a six year old son who was diagnosed with High functioning Autism about a year ago and I have heard from other people that the difference between High functioning Autism and Aspergers was the language but what confuses me is my son has great language and can have a converstation that is pretty appropriate for his age(although it has gotten way better since the diagnoses) he has not had a language delay and started saying words at the appropriate times. We thought for sure he would be diagnosed with Aspergers but we were happy with the diagnoses of Autism as we knew he would get the help he needs. I am not looking to change his diagnosis I am just confused as the only reason we were given that he had Autism and not Aspergers is because he had very low adaptability but the more I think about it that doesn't make sense because my brother who has Aspergers has very low adaptability.

Any Ideas or pointers as to the key diffences?

Thanks cysterls

[CarerQuie]

Probably best to ask the clinicians who diagnosed him why they chose that label.I've heard the language thing as being the distinguishing factor and my son did have a language delay and therefore has HFA.xx

[mlwear]

You will get so many different answers. I don't think there is truly a universally accepted defining answer.

My oldest son has some Asperger-like traits, but the dev. ped. (a good doc with superb credentials) who reviewed his case said my son definitely could not be labeled as having Aspergers because he DID have a speech delay. He concluded that my son has non-verbal learning disability. I am not sure if that really fits. This doctor said providing other criteria are met speech delay goes with autism diagnois and no speech delay goes with Aspergers diagnosis.

This doesn't really make sense to me, though, My younger son dx with classic autism did not have a speech delay. He did have some communication oddities (and still does). So many times I have read about children who seemed to regress around age 2.

I have read this same defining criteria from other sources, too.

I have pretty much given up on exact labels because they are subjective. The only time I worry with it is when services are provided only to those with a label.