Autism and Asperger's Syndrome: Reaction on a Recent News Article
My Opinion on a Recent News Article
For those of you who read my article, "Asperger's Syndrome: A High Functioning Form of Autism" (click to read it), you read that my son has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. It took many years to discover this and it was hard, at first, to deal with. Now that I see him for who he is and why he acts the way he does, I understand him a lot more and much of the stress has been relieved. ( I learn more each day...)
After reading the article "Proposed autism diagnosis angers 'Aspies'", it angered me that they want to lump Aperger's with the other forms of Autism. According to the article, it is supposed to help children get diagnosed and also help them in school. I do not feel this way at all. I feel it is better to keep the diagnosis separate and learn the differences between the different levels and forms of autism. As this article states, "Both autism and Asperger's involve poor social skills, repetitive behavior or interests, and problems communicating. But unlike classic autism, Asperger's does not typically involve delays in mental development or speech." This is true with my son and many, many Apsies.
The article mentions that some parents agree that "Asperger's and other forms of autism would be lumped together in a single "autism spectrum disorders" category" would be good for their kids.
After spending the better part of 5 years and too many doctor visits to count, I totally disagree with this idea. My son was very hard to eventually diagnose. He has mild ADHD combined with being an Aspie, and if they lump all the Autism forms together, it would take even longer to diagnose.
He is on a special plan at his school. He is in regular classes and has a regular schedule. This is all because of the effort we put forth with the school to make it the best learning experience possible for him. (Kids need to be in classroom environments that will help them excel, not hold them back. If he had speech trouble, then we would have him in a speech class that would enable him to learn and grow, and so forth.) Because he is an Apsie, he does indeed have issues with his social skills, but not speech or motor skills. I feel if they lumped all the diagnoses together, it would actually hurt the children more than it would benefit.
One particular counselor (I won't say if it was school or private) insisted that my son was not 'hyper' and, as a result, he did not have ADHD. He refused to help us and considered both ADHD and ADD the same thing. (He also refused to believe there was any form of Autism in him, either.) This hindered not only my son's eventual diagnosis, but also damaged two years of his school development. Because ADHD and ADD are 'lumped' together now in the same category, it ended up hurting my son more that it helped. I do not want that happening to any children, or adults, who might have Apserger's Syndrome, or any other form of Autism, and then have it go either undiagnosed or totally misdiagnosed. Some people hear the word Autism and freeze up or deny anything to do with it. Autism is not bad; it is just a different way of life. For those of us who either have it or have loved ones with it, it can be a beautiful thing. It shows us that we all don't have to be cookie-cutter kids to be loved. The more knowledge we have on this, or any other diagnosis, the better it is for everyone.
I support Autism and all the different forms, and realize that every child is different and learns in different ways. Someday science will find a way of unlocking Autism. Until then, I will continue to love my son and any other child who has any form of Autism.
To summarize, I disagree with lumping them all together because, in my opinion, it will make it harder: for kids to get diagnosed properly and for people to accept that their child/loved one has Autism. The word "Autism" would just scare people from initially trying to get a diagnosis.
Again, this is only my opinion. It was a lot of hard work, with many people involved. My son has been diagnosed, for now, and we love him just as much as the day he was born. He doesn't have flaws, he has character!
Sources:
Personal Experience
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Asperger's Syndrome: A High Functioning Form of Autism
Published by k. ferguson
I am a working Mom with two small children. I have a passion for writing on almost any subject, but love crafts. I will focus my crafting articles on simple ways to make the best homemade gifts. I have been... View profile
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Asperger's Syndrome: A High Functioning Form of AutismAsperger's Syndrome is a form of Autism, in the High Functioning category and is not always easy to detect in young children.- Signs and Symptoms of Autism in Infants and ToddlersChildren as young as 2 months have developed noticeable signs of autism; these symptoms are most often noticed by the age of 4-5, but do occur as early as 2 months.
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10 Comments
Post a CommentVery well put. There are so many ways of denying a child his or her rights. The lumping together in autism is wrong on so many levels. All children have rights!
Thanks for this great insight! Hang in there and like me, never take no for an answer!
Excellent, thanks for this.... :o)
Thanks so much for this, I was unaware that there are different levels (will be checking out your other articles). I can see how lumping them together could really hurt a child's progress and treatments.
Kyla: You are well versed on this! I do agree with you that the docs need to be better/have better training on identifying the spectrum of Autism. Many people think it is hard on the parents... think about the poor child going through all the testing and not knowing why! I wish you luck with your children. They sound wonderful!!
(oops! my computer has a mind of its own today)
I was saying the problem is to educate professional to dx the conditions in general. It can be tough to get an autism dx too, even for a child who is very clearly delayed & has obvious autistic behaviours. An ASD (or PDD) category may well help some people access services, but that's not a good enough reason to lump the conditions together. Research is needed to determine whether Asperger's is really related to autism at all. There are some who believe these are two very different conditions, despite sharing some symptoms.
I love the way you ends this article! As the mom of a son with autism/ADHD & a daughter with ADHD/dyscalculia, I can definitely identify with your experience over the "your kid isn't 'hyper' so he can't have AD(H)D" experience. It took years before anyone would even recognize that our daughter had difficulties - and that was a private psychologist that we sought out on our own. I do agree about the difference between autism & Asperger's. But I'm not so sure the issue is categorizing the conditions in one group, as there are also other conditions like Rett's syndrome included under the umbrella of the spectrum & I don't generally hear of Rett's being misdiagnosed. It seems to me the real concern is training doctors & other professionals to diagnose the conditions in genera
Very interesting, Karen. I agree that Asp. does seem quite different in most ways from "regular" autism (as I have a relative with Asperger's and know others with autism). While the social difficulties may be similar, the range of functioning is usually very different. I've thought it odd that the 2 are connected to begin with. Good article!
It was a typo... it is actually Aspie. That is how many people with Asperger's refer to themselves. :)
Wow..what a struggle. Thanks for sharing this w/us. I'm a rookie at this stuff and as such never heard of the term 'Apsie.' I appreciate your opinion and story.