Is Asperger Syndrome a separate disability to Autism?

Some people who were diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome are probably not Autistic at all.

They probably just have a few Autistic traits but really have another disability such as Dyspraxia.

A Psychologist who tested me in Jerusalem in 1983 who was working for the late Professor Reuven Feuerstine and has now moved back to Toronto Canada and Emailed from there says I have a Non-Verbal Learning Difficulty on the Right Side of my Brain and did not know I had Asperger Syndrome.  I have bad perception and get lost easily in new places.  Find it hard to recognize people. 

An Autism researcher said it was a waste of time continuing to test me as I obviously have perception problems nothing to do with  Autism.  I think taking part in the emotions tests for Professor Baron-Cohen was a waste of time as I cannot even recognize people.  When I worked at Waitrose and was too slow taking the shopping out the Job Center said it had nothing to do with my disability.   I think it had as I probably have Dyspraxia.   Last night I attended a Zoom meeting tribute to Mary Colley.  It is not only sad she died ten years ago it is a shame that there is no organization that represents Neuro Diverse people as Mary rightly said that few people with Asperger Syndrome just have Asperger Syndrome and most have Co-Existing conditions.  I am not suggesting that the label Asperger Syndrome should be brought back for two reasons firstly Hans Asperger did not discover the Autistic Spectrum, it was discovered by a Russian Child Psychiatrist Grunya Sukhareva in 1924 about twenty years before Hans Asperger did his work in Austria during World War 2 also Hans Asperger is supposed to have sent some disabled children to be murdered by the *** so obviously we should not use his name.  I do think that there should be a label Autistic Traits which means that you might not really be Autistic but something else.  I could be brain damaged because I had a difficult birth and fell out of a pram when I was a baby.  The brain scans it is true did not find anything wrong with me.  My GP told me in 2009 that I am considered by the NHS to have Asperger Syndrome because a Psychiatrist who visited me in my home in 1976 when I was nineteen said I was mildly Autistic.   When I was nine in1966 a Psychiatrist wanted to send me to an Autistic School which would have been completely inappropriate although I was very unhappy at the private secondary schools although the State Primary was not too bad.

Parents Reply Children
  • Yes giving people a label brings people together.  Before my parents were told in family therapy that I have Asperger Syndrome I felt my difficulties did not have a category.  I was in my early thirties when my parents were told that my difficulties have nothing to do with upbringing but Asperger Syndrome.  The therapist must have read that a consultant Psychiatrist said I had mild Autism.