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ASC or Aspergers - what to say??

Clemmie

Help!  My son has just been diagnosed with 'asc' but the Senco at school seems happy to use the term Aspergers, and says that this is more widely recognised in the community.  I'm worried to tell him he is Aspergers when the Dr has not used this term, but the general definition seems to fit.  I think I'm right in that they don't diagnose Aspergers any more, but so much of the helpful literature still uses this terminology.

Am I ok to use Aspergers when no-one has actually diagnosed this?

Will it confuse him to be both? (how do I explain both definitions??)

I want to be able to talk to him soon as aparently someone I told in confidence has told a child in his class and I don't want him to hear from them.

what do I say???

thanks

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    One of the points of getting rid of Asperger's as a label is that Asperger's says two things that are not really related.

    a) you have autism

    b) you do not have a problem with your intelligence

    the two things are not related and therefore it does not make total sense to join the two together in a single condition. You can be more or less affected by autism and you can be more or less intelligent but the two things are independent dimensions.

    That's the theory and that is why the DSM have got rid of it. The problem is that the man on the Clapham omnibus is not as scientifically minded and it makes more sense to him to think of autistic people as having learning difficulties whilst people with Asperger's don't. I think we should be inclusive and not set oursleves into different camps within the autistic community so I generally refer to Autism first but then use Asperger's as a back up if people do not comprehend how I can be autistic.

  • Methinks that America will soon see just how strange it is to apply one name to a spectrum condition.  It offers absolutely no information on the extent of a persons difficulties, nor does it offer parents or teachers an understanding of what they should expect of a child.

    I have yesterday been diagnosed by the Nottinghamshire NHS Asperger Team(their official title on their letterhead and building), that I have ASC and more specifically Asperger Syndrome.  Now at the age of 60, I can read up in their official "Living with Asperger Syndrome" that they gave me, just why the typical traits are.

    It is, however, upto the diagnosing team to specify where on the spectrum a persons condition lays.

    Seems stupid to dispense with labels... lets call paraplegiac and quadraplegic people "paralysed"... after all, they are simply on a spectrum of "paralysed" levels..sigh

  • Ah, but in the UK, not only is Asperger Syndrome a diagnosis, but the Health Service call their team the Asperger Team.  In the UK we don't slavishly follow the DSM guide.

    Asperger is an ASC condition with defined mental capabilities, it tells people the extent to which your ASC affects both your life and your intelligence whereas a simple ASC diagnosis tells you nothing about either.

    Ask the team that gave the diagnosis if they can be more objective in their definition, they may say that they need to see how your child progresses.. fine, but you still need a name for the level they are at... it helps explain how their life might be affected.

  • NAS18906 said:
    People are completely baffled if I tell them I am autistic

    This has happened to me too.

    In fact, I found out for myself when the doctor suggested I was on the autism spectrum. On the autism spectrum ? Me ? Then he explained about aspergers no longer being diagnosed, with everything now on the spectrum.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    People are completely baffled if I tell them I am autistic because they simply do not understand how I can be apparently functional and yet autistic. It does not make sense to people. Autism conjures up images in peoples minds that are unhelpful and ill informed. If I say I have Asperger's then there is more understanding. Asperger did a lot of the original research and was one of the people that identified that there is an issue. The prevailing view at that time was that sufferers are mad, bad or without hope. I am grateful to them for starting to separate it out as a syndrome even if there was no explanation of how or why it works.

    An autistic label is given nowadays because it makes more sense to medical people, the autism term describes the root condition without concern to someone's intelligence. The Aspergers diagnosis combined autism and intelligence and, in a sense, it confused the issue. I would use both terms and hope that one or other wuld make sense to the person I am talking to. My experience of adult life is that it makes almost no sense to anyone and nobody really gets it but they do understand that I am different and I get less criticism and get into fewer arguments than I used to.

  • I would tell him that Asperger's syndrome was named after a Doctor called Han's Asperger, who  diagnosed and supported children with autism who could speak well and had intense interests. Tell him that Asperger's syndrome is just another name for his condition, and that it does not matter whether he refers to himself as having Asperger's or autism. 

  • Without medical knowleadge, you are not allowed to make a diagnoses.

    It's more of a Health Professional role with extenstive medical knowleadge that can confirm diagnoses of a person.

    Good Luck