ASD - mild, moderate, severe, Classic, HFA, AS...

[lougle]

Can someone clarify something for me?

I saw on other threads that HFA is ASD without language impairment.
AS is ASD without language impairment at age 3?

Is that so?

Say DD2, who is being seen in January, is dx'd with ASD, but it's taken until she's 5 for us to be sure there is something not quite right and she most likely has some disordering of language...what would that be?

Would she be likely to be classed as HFA because in many areas she can pass for NT to the untrained eye? Or would she be classed as ASD but mild, because she has language disordering? I'm all

Not read the thread but I would always suggest a straightforward dx of ASD.

ASD can then be quanitified by the owner of the dx as and when needed, and dependeing on the context I believe the 'severity' changes anyway.

For people without a dx, ASD can seem like something concrete, but it really isn't. Dx often depends on clinician preference, so I decided that for us, it may as well be parental preference.

Will all the people already DX have their DX changed when the changes come in to effect?

I doubt it. Can you imagine the resources needed?

What you will have instead is 'education professionals' making a judgement about where your child would be if they had been dx under the new criteria.

Trouble with severity, is that it fluctuates so much according to demands and support and whether that sodding butterfly in the Amazon has been flapping its wings again

Yesterday (mainly at home on computer, with some errands by car) I was worrying that a fly on the wall would phone the DWP and say I'd lied on ds1's dla renewal cos he was largely cured now. Today, I was thinking about refusing to try any more apparently simple family outings without first seeking a blue badge and direct payments for a carer.

On my dd's diagnosis report (by a dvelopmental paediatrician who specialises in ASD) it says 70% of children with autism have a learning difficulty. I'm not sure if that's the whole spectrum though or those specifically with autism rather than 'on the spectrum'

My understanding zzzzz is that "learning disability" or "learning difficulties" ("intellectual disability" in the US) are technical terms for what we used to call mental retardation, ie IQ below 80, or whatever the cut-off is nor "normal" IQ.

Ah yes I just googled. It is all as clear as mud as some people do use the generic term learning difficulties to include dyslexia. Maybe "learning disability" is the more precise term to govern IQ type issues, below 70 for severe.. I'm sure someone else can come on with more precise definitions!

Sorry if I am repeating anything that's been mentioned already; it's been a long Christmas Day with an AS meltdown from my son.............

My own input is: My son has AS rather than HFA as he was waffling happily on well by 18 months. Lots of echolalia, e.g. repeating entire episodes of children's TV programmes by then; also hyperlexia - knew alphabet upper-case and lower-case by 18 months; knew all key-words for end of Year One by the time he went to Nursery at three.

Not showing off my parenting skills as by contrast 5 year old DD (neurotypical) is struggling to attempt in Y1 what he could do before Nursery.

DS totally self-taught.

Criteria met for AS as part of ASD are social communication problems, anxiety levels, impairment of imagination, rigidity of thought, and especially for his AS, fascination and intense memory for certain topics to the exclusion of others.

HTH.

Sometyimes I wonder what the definition of 'severe' is. Ds1(8) has AS, is very mild, and by most accounts, compared to some posts on MN, I have a total breeze.
But , by god, sometimes he is impossible.
But on Christmas Eve, he entertained us, with his minute detail knowlegde of every James Bond film, which actor was in which of the 24 films.

This is something that we're having a big problem with ATM and I'm trying to challenge it.

My dd 13 is classed as high functioning because academically she is bright when given the right support and environment.

Functionally she has no self care skills, awareness of danger, independence skills, refuses to walk, no functional road safety etc etc. She has a statement of SEN and has recently moved to special school. There was only 1 lea school we could try due to her academic ability and the head of SEN at the LEA said it would be so much easier to place her if she had learning disabilities.

CAMHS said the learning disability team would be best placed to support her but she doesn't have a low IQ so doesn't meet criteria. When I read the description of learning disabilities it describes my dd apart from the academic iq. So the fact that she can tell me the phases of the moon governs what services are available regardless of her functioning ability. Academically she's scored at being 15 at age 13 but functionally she's more like a 4/5 year old. Yet she's described as having mild to moderate ASD.