My Childs Not Perfect

The wide range of different manifestations of autism/asperger's syndrome make me wonder to what extent individual responses to the basic condition determine the greater variety.

Facial expression including fixed expression may be people's responses to criticism for not having the right facial expression for a given moment in social exchange. They don't have reference points to determine the right look, and after frequently getting into difficulties opt for the least criticised or safest or most neutral facial expression. If I cannot get it right lets give them one size (facial expression) fits all.

Similarly speech patterns. To what externt is this conditioned by the way people react towards communication difficulties, increased loss of self confiidence, low self esteem, rather than an actual AS symptom?

The way people sometimes attempt to adapt by simulating eye contact, or learning to smile at the right time by trying to read the situation gets them into trouble for smiling at the wrong time, so a solemn or neutral expression is safer?

I have AS but have no speech difficulties. My speech is very fluent and I am articulate and speak clearly and expressively. But I know other people with AS - mainly males - who speak in  a mumbling manner, so that it it is hard to hear what they are saying. Or they take forever to respond, and when they do respond they speak in a flat monotone and stutter and stammer. One of the guys who does this has told me that he was diagnosed with autism, not asperger's. Can speech problems co-exist with asperger's, as a co-morbid diagnosis, or do these adults actually have autism as opposed to AS? .Maybe psychiatrists diagnose people differently. Incidentally, the guy with obvious speech and communication difficulties holds down a job, runs in marathons and has a wider social life than I do, even though I am less obvious on a superficial level.  So maybe he should have been diagnosed as having AS?  I am confused.

yeh it was a good program to watch. I was interested in the whole program because people who watched it learnt stuff about other disabilities other than Autism. 

I believe HFA and AS can be quite comparable really?? i believe they are both the same thing. If you twist things, have an obsession, struggle with speech and social interaction then the person has AS (thats from my experience since i have it) and as we know AS can be a big thing too, as it means more help for people with AS is out there than there is for people without a disability of any kind

I watched it, and was particularly interested in the child who was diagnosed on the TV with autism - at the Priory hospital. He had mild language problems, behavioural difficulties (hurting other children), and he made baby noises in order to avoid dealing with growing up. His mum thought he had autistic traits but was not certain because he had no need for routine. She was at her wits end after visiting various doctors since he was two, but they had not given her a diagnosis because he showed no behavioural difficulties at school.

The psychiatrist who diagnosed him drew a distinction between the various types of autism and said that this child has autism as opposed to asperger's, although he had speech and appeared to be relatively bright. This got me thinking: how do you distinguish between asperger's and autism?. Some people who have aspergers have obvious speech/language difficulties (mumbling, stammers, extremely monotone voice etc); do they in reality have autism (HFA) instead of asperger's, and should the diagnosis of aspergers be reserved for people with social difficulties but who have fluent and clearly expressed speech?.