I have recently done a diagnosis on a good friend, and happened to find that they were Autistic. But it wasn't normal, clear-cut Autism, it was borderline. The bare minimum for diagnosis was fit, but just hardly. What to make of all this? Does my friend count as an Aspie, an NT, or just some new catagory?
That's the nature of the Autsitic Spectrum, Subatai - a continuum all the way from being clearly NT to be being clearly autistic.
So there is no clear cut-off point to say precisely where ASD ends and neurotypicalism begins.
This is why we hear so much about the debate over whether some people with Asperger's do not have ASD at all, but are just eccentric geeks who don't fit in, or why someone who is basically NT might be found to have some autistic traits.
Stella
Perhaps that's why PDD-NOS was created as a diagnosis, all it means is a person has some traits but not enough to fit Aspergers or Autism themselves.
yes, Mish, NOS is a catch-all classification, so that anyone who doesn't meet the diagnostic criteria exactly, but nonethless seems to fit into the general pattern of a disorder, can still be accorded a diagnosis with a DSM code number, which is essential to qualify for payments from health insurance providers in the United States.
Stella
There is a diagnosis that some people get of having autistic traits, which would mean some of the criteria, but not all.
Subclinical Asperger's?
Broader Autistic Phenotype? (BAP always amuses me makes me think of a veggieburger in a bun hehehe)
Autistic 'cousin' (AC)
?
Consumer-lead diagnostic creep is an artefact of privatized medicine.
Stella
It's kinda like being pregnant, either you are or you aren't!! :lol: No - "just a little bit"!! :shock:
Surely, it's in the nature of a spectrum condition that there are no cut-off points. :smile:
There is an unbroken continuum of expressions all the way from profound autism to neurotypicalism.
This, together with the fact of learned compensatory strategies to get around the famous "triad of impairments" and the lack of biomedical tests of any kind, is what makes ASD so difficult to diagnose in adults.
Stella
Is there any definitive method to determine if I'm an aspie or not?
This is sort of more or less how it happens:
There is a comprehensive test used by psychologists/neuro psychologists called AAA. It consists of hectic questionaires about your childhood and your current behaviour, including all sorts of puzzles and cognitive tests like Sally-Anne type tests, spatial relations etc. They establish your central coherence and theory of mind strengths/weaknesses. They examine your childhood behaviour and language development, as well as physical development. This also includes testing for the famous triad of impairments.
You then get diagnosed to be either on the spectrum or not. Based on your language development in very early childhood, would determine whether you are classic autism, or towards the AS side. If you were mute as a child - it would be considered classic autism. If you had average to above average language development, you'd be AS.
Based on your language development in very early childhood, would determine whether you are classic autism, or towards the AS side. If you were mute as a child - it would be considered classic autism. If you had average to above average language development, you'd be AS.
My mother told me I started talking when I was very young but became less talkative as I grew older.
So, as adults we've learned to compensate for our "conditions" by using our superior intelligentence. I don't understand how that makes it so hard to dx us???? Or does it? Do they really want to dx adults?
The description and diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders is entirely behavioural. So if some process of internal compensation occurs, so that behaviour appears "normal" to an observer (the diagnostician) then no diagnosis can be made.
Some diagnosticians will not make a diagnosis of ASD unless they have access to primary sources of data about the patient's early childhood development - either medical reports made at the time, or the testimony of parents etc as self-reported descriptions of early childhood are not considered reliable.
I understand Simon Baron-Cohen's "AAA" test-battery questionaire set has been designed to overcome some of the difficulties of adult diagnosis where childhood data may be absent or inadequate, and that he claims that his assessment method gives a greater probability of accuracy than the DSM Criteria.
More than this I can not say, cos that's all i know :!: :roll:
Based on your language development in very early childhood, would determine whether you are classic autism, or towards the AS side. If you were mute as a child - it would be considered classic autism. If you had average to above average language development, you'd be AS.
My mother told me I started talking when I was very young but became less talkative as I grew older.
I was exactly the same! I could talk fluently by the age of 2. I spoke two languages and walked up to strangers and had long conversations with them! Grown ups loved me because I was "cute" and conversed on "interesting" topics. However, I didn't relate to kids at all. I couldn't even visit a kindergarten because I had heavy meltdowns and anxiety attacks. My mom kept me at home.
By the age of about 3-4 I became extremely shy and didn't talk much to anyone, including adults. :cry: I wonder what happened to me, because this is what I am today still.
Some diagnosticians will not make a diagnosis of ASD unless they have access to primary sources of data about the patient's early childhood development - either medical reports made at the time, or the testimony of parents etc as self-reported descriptions of early childhood are not considered reliable.
This is true.
I had to submit a detailed report on my childhood development in terms of: physical development, behavior and communication, and I had to do this in collaboration with my parents, for an accurate description.
Childhood
I had a difficult, silent childhood. I was the silent and passive one. I did not know what to do. People have friends, but I don't know friendship.
My mother thought it was a fall from the cradle that damaged my brain. I was bubbling and talkative before that. The doctor told her that there was nothing wrong with me after the fall. Well, physically that is.
Still I don't talk. I remained silent, carefully memorizing whatever material she passed to me. I got through the numbers and alphabets.
My mother still suspected something wrong, so she visited the doctor again. This time, the doctor told her it was something called autism.
This is from Eric Chen's website. He is a young aspie living in Singapore.
http://www.rainbowhuman.com/eric/myself/my_story.htm
Karms, that is such a coincidence. When I was a baby, my dad thought I had classical autism. My parents worried because I seemed to be a bit "slow" to develop physically and was very attached to particular routines such as breastfeeding and having a certain number of blankets in my cot.
They changed their mind about the autism when I started speaking fluently at about 21 months and demanding a lot of hugs and other affection. People thought I was "cute" and "cheeky" because I would have long conversations with adults. I wasn't very interested in other children in general.
However, when I was about 3 1/2, I changed to being a much more guarded child who was scared of strangers. This became worse when I developed a severe case of measles at 5. Mum says I was never the same after that and it is only very occasionally that signs of the old, more carefree personality, show up.