mild/severe Asperger’s ??? | Autism PDD

Hi, earlier I was going through the asperger's tests' links posted by norwaymom and did one test. (I always score a very high NT result everytime I do one of these). Anyway, they stated on one site that a mild asperger's does not interfere with day to day functioning. I have also heard people say , or I may have read this somehere that some people have full blown asperger's as opposed to a mild one? I am a bit confused here, if AS is same as/similar to HFA so then what does a severe AS dx equal to? Does it mean that the child has language but more effected in social/behavioural areas. By this logic is a HFA / PDD NOS kid 'better off' (lack of a better word) than kid with 'full blown asperger's? What makes a person mild or severe AS anyway? Just curious

Mary

A person can be mildly, moderately, or severely affected by any of the
different ASDs. Does that make sense?

It's not exactly accurate that PDD-NOS and Asperger's Syndrome are
milder forms of autism. It just means that someone would be affected in
less areas. The areas they are affected in can still present in varying
degrees.
Hope that helps.

Yes I thought that, until someone said AS is similar to HFA and not autism, (meaning if the history of the child is not available then there is no way to distinguish between adolescents of AS and HFA). By your logic (and mine too), shouldn't AS be like ASD then, severe AS= severe ASD and so on?

Doesnt really matter though, just trying to come to an understanding here.

Mary

Here's the DSM-IV criteria for autism vs. Aspergers. The criteria are identical under social and restricted/repetetive behaviors and interests. The difference is that Aspergers means no language or cognitive delay.

http://www.childbrain.com/pddq3.shtml

If you saw two high-functioning adults on the spectrum without knowing if there was ever a language delay or not, you probably couldn't say which had Aspergers and which had autism or PDD-NOS.

How high-functioning a child on the spectrum turns out, will depend on his/her innate intelligence and how severe the impairment started out, at least according to this experienced diagnostician:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/105/5 /e65

An adult with "full-blown" Aspergers probably had a more severe impairment to start out with (ie more severe in quantity and/or quality for symptoms in the two DSM-IV criteria areas).

Or, alternately, an adult with "full-blown" Aspergers may not have gotten sufficient help and support from school and family while growing up, since Aspergers didn't exist as a diagnosis until 1994, and not every school and family would know what to do with these children, sad as it is.

I don't know if this has helped or not. "Clear as mud" as my mom would say...