Confused by today's assessment and diagnosis

Hi, like you, our son has a diagnosis of Atpical Autism and was also nine when diagnosed. I was really confused as I'd never heard of this before and the doctor then gave us literature about Aspergers Syndrome. From what I can gather some doctors are trying to move away from Aspergers as it will be replaced on the DSM in 2013 with Austic Spectrum Disorder. What I found hard was when we told people about Atypical Autism they didn't know what it meant but when I said Aspergers they knew immediately. On reading Aspergers literature a lot of it does explain my son's behaviour patterns though like any diagnosis not all of it. I really do sympathise as its a real mind field out there. My son is in a 'special' school as he could not cope with Mainstream. The school advertises itself as a school for emotional and behavioural disorders but most of the children have a Autistic diagnosis. The school use the term being on the Autistic Spectrum and personally this is the one explanation that I feel most comfortable using. Though not all professionals understand this and will deem a child with AS to have a severe cognitive disorder. I then need to explain the term to them. My advice is not to get too overloaded with the actual wording of the diagnosis. After 2013 all children will be diagnosed with ASD; which will help, I think (I hope). I would again advise to read about Aspergers (there's a lot of research on Aspergers, Atypical is a newer term and not so much) and see if you think these patterns explain your son's behaviour. Personally I found a diagnosis a relief as it as helped me learn and understand about my son. There's also a huge wealth of support out there and that's what we and our children need. My son will be moving to secondary school next year and I am adamant that he is taught by teachers trained to work with children on the spectrum, but I can already feel a battle coming on with the authority who want him to go to the most cost effective school. Good luck with it all.

Aspergers/autism are such vast categories, and everyone is so unique, that it can be difficult to include everyone intoone water-tight label, but we do so because we need simplicity in order to get by in life, and, in any case, what is most important is that you get sufficient support to meet your needs. An individual strengths/weaknesses assessment should take place, but this does not always happen.

I was diagnosed incidentally with both aspergers and atypical autism; both labels were noted on the same sheet of paper as if they are interchangeable.

I have a history of very narrow and intense interests, but I am far more flexible in my interests now, although I still have an obsessive tendency. I am very articulate and verbally I am quite intelligent. I do not lack imagination and I did  play with dolls and teddys when I was little, but during diagnosis the quality of this play was questioned, and it turned out that my play was rule-bound and repetitive.  I always had to be in control. I had just one school friend at primary school, but I often fell out with her and I refused to share her company with other people. I do remember playing 'schools' and 'home' with her.

I can camouflage my difficulties very well in public, so my AS is not immediately obvious. But I have general anxiety and OCDs which are currently my main source of difficulty. I do not have many sensory issues, although loud noises have been a source of acute anxiety and I am hopeless at multi-tasking. Interestingly, I have very poor visual-spatial skills, which are often considered to be a strength for people with ASD, but I am hopeless at jig-saw  puzzles and my numerical understanding is miniscule. Generally speaking, I am classed as 'high-functioning asperger.

I hope this allows you to see, through my own experience, how AS/autism is simply a label that describes a person who broadly speaking fits into a particular description of behaviour, but  very few individuals are 'text-book' cases!

Girls are meant to have a different presentation than boys, and I can certainly relate to this. My interests were to do with the actress Kate Winslet, a celebrity, and I was obsessed with babies and child development, as opposed to objects. My difficulties became more noticeable during my teenage years as my behaviour remained at the level of a child for some time. I have finally become more mature, but it has  taken a long time to catch-up. And I am still socially behind my peers, but then I always will be !.

I am an adult who was diagnosed (after experiencing mental health problems and self diagnosing) with A spergers in my 50's. I have since read up a lot and also gone to conferences and met lots of people on the autism spectrum.  My take is that although some do regard Aspergers as signisifying higher intelligence, and will even change an autism diagnosis to Aspergers in adulthood, from what I have observed there are different trajectories irrespective of intelligence.  It seems to me that there are a set of autistic people (generally diagnosed with Aspergers) who tend to speak at normal time/early, can be precocious and whose social difficulties can become more marked at later ages ( 7 ish, teenage, or 20's are eg's). Whereas those people diagnosed with Autism tend to have more marked differences in infancy/early childhood, and sometimes appear intellectually handicapped when they later prove to be very bright.

Having said that from what you say your son is not in this category, the diagnositic criterea are vaugue (for instance Imagination is not generally considered in way the term is used in daily life) and individual diagnositians seem to have idiocyncarcities. You might want to look at the different diagnostic shedules (not sure if all/any of these are freely available) and consider getting a second opinion from someone you have heard good report of and also what the purpose of the diagnosis is from your point of view (does the different diagnosis affect what you want for your son)