AS is Autism ,My son is Autistic, He has sensory ,stimming and communication problems ,he was DX'd with AS because his speech was( just barley )up to the norm for his age at the time of Dx,and has a normal IQ.
Linda
my son was dx by a behvioral ped. last month with asd... well the therapist he has been seeing for almost two months has said she is leaning towards aspergers. I am so confused as to what to think .. and what is the difference?? also, if they have aspergers is that autism?? its all so confusing to meAsperger's syndrome is on the autism spectrum. It's different from autistic disorder in that there is no clincally significant delay in language or cognative functioning.
I think someday we will find out it is not so much a line from severe on one end to high functioning on the other, but more of a big area chart, and that kids can not easily be fit into "Autism" or "Aspergers" or whatever else. I have found that different Drs. use the labels differently. One Dr (a specialist in LD and ASD) said my son did not have Aspergers, but would call it PDDNOS, another (psychiatrist) uses the terms interchangeably.
My son did have severe, pervasive developmental delays, which is not typical of Aspergers, yet at the same time posseses many/most Aspergers/Autistic behaviors and characteristics, but mildly. He continues to have difficulty educationally and easily qualifies for Spec ed - his IQ is pretty high, his performance not so good. He is less severe than Autism, but more delayed than Aspergers.
I honestly believe that they are only beginning to find out everything about this disorder and that someday the current categories will be gone and replaced with more appropriate ones. Right now there is not one for my son, he is somewhere across categories. And PDDNOS is not widely known about by the public or teachers, our school does not even recognize it as legit. My son is qualified not due to autism, but as LD. Someday they will better define what my son "has", in the meantime, I realize it is more important to treat his symptoms than to worry about exactly what the real label should be.
Truth be told, I think what my husband and son both have would more appropriately be called High Functioning Autism, if such a label exists, as opposed to one of the others, but I just say whatever I think the person I am speaking with will "get".