Autism and ADD? | Autism PDD

My son has been most recently diagnosed as Aspergers (not sure I agree but that is another story..)when he was younger it was HFA. Anyways I am noticing as he gets older that his difficulty with focusing on any tasks etc... is still very problematic. Now if he is building something, drawing etc he can do that for hours and be totally engrossed but if you try to have a conversation with him you have to keep asking him over and over and try to keep his attention. Also His teachers have to work one to one with him to keep him on task. In PE he is very distracted and cannot seem to follow instruction like the other kids.

I am so confused as to what to make of this. Is it a processing problem or ADD? Or is this just typical of ASD? I am wondering if ADD and ASD go hand in hand? Is there any testing for this?

Have any of your children gone on ADD meds?

I think some kids have hyperfocus and have a very hard time shifting
attention and some kids have a very hard time not getting distracted and
'understanding' what one needs to pay attention too. My ds is in that
group as well. He gets very distracted and it is very hard for him to attend
to something that he does not care about. My son's doc calls it adhd and
says it does not matter if it is part of or seperate from the asd - it should
be treated seperatly. I actually disagree (and my ds did very poorly on
stimulants as well).

My son is HFA and ADHD. But he mainly has the impulsive part and is on strattera for it. His attention is great----on what HE is doing. If it is something he doesn't want to do---he may even meltdown. But he doesn't flip from one thing to another. He is obsessed about his interests.

Even though my 11yo dd is not ASD, she does have ADD. Her attention flips from one thing to another, ONLY because she isn't understanding what is being said or the teacher is going too fast, etc. It's not because is gets distracted by other things--she just doesn't understand what's going on.

My daughter has a diagnosis of HFA, ADD, and SID. She is not currently medicated. The doc didn't feel comfortable medicating a five year old child unless it was severely affecting her at school, not at home but at school. He said most likely by time she is 7 she will need medication. Get a separate evaluation for ADD. It is nearly universal with an autism disorder, although it's not an official part of the diagnostic criteria (yet). I have a friend whose very, very bright Asperger's son, who wants to become an electrical engineer, could not multiply at middle school. He was never hyperactive, but the doctor recommended a trial of Ritalin for focus issues. Within a year, the boy caught up in math and is now doing gangbusters in HS.

Thank you all, Tzoya who would evaluate that and or what testing is usually used for that?