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Learning disability and autism diagnosis question

mumtoone

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone can help clarify something for me.

My son is 4 and was diagnosed with autism in September. I’ve noticed people often mention co-occurring learning disabilities alongside autism, and I’m trying to understand what that actually means in practice.

His diagnostic report focused on autism only and didn’t mention a learning disability at all, so I’m wondering:

  • How and when are general learning disabilities usually identified?

  • Is it something that would normally be assessed at the time of an autism diagnosis?

  • Or is it something that only becomes clearer later as children get older and learning demands increase?

I’d really appreciate hearing how this unfolded for others and when (or if) it was formally diagnosed for your child.

Thank you so much.

  • Hi and welcome to the community!

    Around one third of autistic people also have a learning disability.

    If your son's assessors had any concerns about him having learning disabilities, they would have flagged them in the diagnostic report, as this is one of the key potentially co-occurring issues that they are required to consider when diagnosing autism.

    As the NAS explains in the first resource linked below:

    "The assessment should seek to identify signs of potential co-occurring conditions that may require further assessment and tailored support. Co-occurring conditions may include (but are not limited to) ... learning differences and/or disabilities."

    NAS - What happens during an autism assessment

    NAS - Related conditions - including learning disabilities

    NAS - Varying support needs

  • Autism can affect people across the entire range of human intelligence. The two major diagnostic manuals in use for autism do not include parameters for assessing intelligence/learning disability. The learning disabilities most commonly associated with autism are things like dyslexia and dyscalculia. Obviously, such disabilities are only evident in early school age children, when they are first being taught basic maths and to read and write. I am autistic and have a very specific form of dyscalculia, I cannot do mental arithmetic, but given a pencil and paper I am fine. It did not prevent me from gaining a science PhD, for example. Many autistic people do not have any form of learning disability. Autism is not a cause of learning disability, some autistic people have co-occurring learning disabilities in the same way that some allistic (non-autistic) people have learning disabilities. My autistic daughter got 3 A* A-levels, in chemistry, maths and history, and a first class degree in chemistry.