Hi, I have one daughter with autism and now suspect my other daughter has Aspergers. She has a Dr appointment coming up to address this but I would like to know a few things like is Aspergers similar to autism in the way that no one's characteristics are the same? What should I expect if she does have Aspergers? Thank you :-)

[cakeladie]

Aspergers is a form of autism. A very mild form. My son has Aspergers and he graduated from high school and has a job but he also has a case manager that keeps watch over him

[Helpmyson7]

@cakelsdie- my son is 19 and coming to realize he may hv aspergers - cld u tell me his symptoms and what type of job he is doing?

God is good

[phaset]

Originally Posted by cakeladie

Aspergers is a form of autism. A very mild form. My son has Aspergers and he graduated from high school and has a job but he also has a case manager that keeps watch over him

I find the phrase "a very mild form" insulting and not helpful at all. Many autistics graduate high school. Who are you to say that someone diagnosed with Asperger's has less severe problems than someone with autism? Have you considered the effects that being considered "mild" might bring?

https://theconversation.com/telling-...-aspergers-508

The Problem With Functioning Labels ? Snagglebox

Decoding the High Functioning Label | Musings of an Aspie

Oh dear, I was just curious what the signs might be for Aspergers and for parents what was the first things that were noticed? My daughter's appointment has been prolonged due to the receptionist's scheduling error.

[Snips2314]

Everyday Asperger's | Life through the eyes of a female with Aspergers
This lady here has Aspergers as well as her young son. I love her blog. I'm an Aspie myself and I love her blog. I don't know how old your daughter is, but this may help some

[StarGazingFish]

aspergers is less complex than classic autism but it isnt less severe,youll find quite a few aspies in residential and supported living situations as theyre unable to care for themselves and/or their behavior makes them unsafe.
the two differences between classic autism and aspergers is communication and inteligence-with classic autism you have a significant language delay and you can have an iq anywhere from the lowest point to the highest point,with aspergers you cant have a significant language delay and you have to have an IQ above the mildest point of intelectual disability-this is why aspergers is often called high functioning autism-many autists hate that term because it puts expectations on them in the same way those of us under the low functioning autism bracket have expectations placed on us.

in females it often presents differently,it may look less obvious as females are said to learn how to mimick NTs better than males,this doesnt mean females get it milder though,it just means they experience autism differently.

its highly possible your daughter has aspergers,especialy as youve already got autism in the family,its in my family to-my sister [older] is an aspie,my dad is aspie,one cousin is classic autistic,his sister is aspie...its on both sides of the family to.

Originally Posted by phaset

I find the phrase "a very mild form" insulting and not helpful at all. Many autistics graduate high school. Who are you to say that someone diagnosed with Asperger's has less severe problems than someone with autism? Have you considered the effects that being considered "mild" might bring?

https://theconversation.com/telling-...-aspergers-508

The Problem With Functioning Labels ? Snagglebox

Decoding the High Functioning Label | Musings of an Aspie

Yeah, sometimes being half-in half-out is the worst.

Autism is obvious and the people get the help they need.

Normal is obvious and the people get by on their own.

Asperger's is harder to spot, so the person is expected/forced to function normally, yet has all the problems an autistic person has, yet doesn't get helped most of the time because he/she isn't identified as autistic.

A testament to that is the number of people who are only diagnosed once they are adults, like me. It takes cumulative failures, depression, anxiety and rejection to finally make you realize there may be something with you that needs to be checked out or diagnosed. Often the diagnosis comes to late.

The best way to describe Asperger's I think - an autistic person that appears totally normal and is thus expected to be normal. You can only begin to imagine the confusion that ensues.

[StarGazingFish]

stbguy,
in residential homes ive lived with many diagnosed 'severe' aspies who were clearly visible as autistic,its not necessarily a less visible form of autism,its just less complex-there arent as many issues and behaviors to it as there is to classic autism but otherwise they are the same thing just on a spectrum.

i dont know about you but im able to spot a 'mild' aspie [male and female] a mile off,theyre so easy to spot,then you have the 'moderate' and the 'severe' aspie who are even easier to spot.
the more succesful aspies are able to emulate neurotyypicality,their autism is less visible to the untrained eye-these are the guys who seem to represent the stereotype of aspergers.

Originally Posted by StarGazingFish

stbguy,
in residential homes ive lived with many diagnosed 'severe' aspies who were clearly visible as autistic,its not necessarily a less visible form of autism,its just less complex-there arent as many issues and behaviors to it as there is to classic autism but otherwise they are the same thing just on a spectrum.

i dont know about you but im able to spot a 'mild' aspie [male and female] a mile off,theyre so easy to spot,then you have the 'moderate' and the 'severe' aspie who are even easier to spot.
the more succesful aspies are able to emulate neurotyypicality,their autism is less visible to the untrained eye-these are the guys who seem to represent the stereotype of aspergers.

Yes, you are right for sure. The higher up on the spectrum, the harder it is to spot. I mean with me, nobody saw it in me, not in school or anywhere, so I was thought of as normal but people were impatient with my weird behaviour.

It depends from which side you look. A neurotypical person would see an Aspie as normal because it's the "goggles" they look through, so when you have Aspie behaviour they think you are normal and just being rude or something, so they treat you like they would imagine treating a rude normal person.

An autistic person would see an Aspie as autistic because he/she will identify traits of themselves in him/her, and then determine where they fall on the spectrum by comparing the relative complexities as you put it. Remember, you are looking from an autistic individual's point of view.

Let me put it like this. Imagine you are driving on a road from west to east. On your side of the road, you see a sign that says "rail crossing 500 ft". A few seconds later you see a sign that says "rail crossing 250 ft" and then one that says "rail crossing 100 ft". Then you slow down and feel your tires going over the tracks as you cross it. Let's imagine this is going "up" the autism spectrum, from low to high functioning. Also, let's just imagine for a moment you've never ever seen rail tracks before. You only know from the sign that these are rail tracks, because they told you so. Now, imagine you turn your car around just after the tracks and look back now in an east to west direction back down the road. Now let's say you swop the driver and he also has no idea what rail tracks are, also the first driver doesn't tell him. From his vantage point he begins driving east to west and the first thing he hits are these metal things going across the road which scares the daylights out of him because he doesn't know what they are and all he sees are the blank backs of the signs you saw, all he knows is there were metal things in the road, and there are signs coming up (but they are all facing the other way), so to him all the signs mean the same thing - they are meaningless because he is seeing their backs. This is the viewpoint of the neurotypical person. The only way he will know is if someone told him beforehand to be aware of rail crossings or if he himself traveled "up the spectrum" (saw the right side of the signs so that they each mean something).

From experience, normal people have to be informed that someone has Asperger's, usually by the person himself/herself. I don't think I've seen before where a neurotypical would identify someone as an Aspie. Maybe an autistic person yes, but not an Aspie, just because of how closely we resemble normal people most of the time.

And I think you need to just bear in mind too that not everyone is as skilled as you have become in identifying these different individuals. I think for most people, you have to be pretty autistic for them to notice it. If you don't regularly find yourself in a situation where you see autistic people a lot and have to "allocate" them on the spectrum, it can be extremely difficult. Even professional therapists find it hard!

I know nothing of aspergers yet I spotted her. I think it's unfair to say someone neurotypical couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary since that insinuates I myself am out of the ordinary. I suppose the basis of my question wasn't communicated well. Thanks for your answers everyone.

Originally Posted by KaraD

I know nothing of aspergers yet I spotted her. I think it's unfair to say someone neurotypical couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary since that insinuates I myself am out of the ordinary. I suppose the basis of my question wasn't communicated well. Thanks for your answers everyone.

That's not true to what I said. And what you say is impossible. You know nothing of Asperger's, yet you spotted her. That's impossible the way you've phrased it. Surely you must know how to spot Asperger's to spot Asperger's. And being able to spot Asperger's means you know something of Asperger's, so what you say cannot be true.

That's like you went into the shop and claimed that you know the fruit you've just bought is an apple, without ever knowing in your whole life what an apple looks like, without there being any kind of label on the rack, and without you even knowing what the word "apple" even means. Unless you've been informed, how will you know?

Never once either did I say someone neurotypical could not spot anything out of the ordinary. I said clearly in my road-train track analogy that the person coming from the other side (i.e. the neurotypical person) was NOT informed that the things he drove over were tracks. If the driver was indeed informed, then he knew it was tracks, and if he was informed, he knows what the signs said.

You are the informed driver in this example thus.

Fully informed, partially informed, marginally informed, you remain informed and cannot claim you know nothing about the condition.

[Miktis25]

Originally Posted by KaraD

I know nothing of aspergers yet I spotted her. I think it's unfair to say someone neurotypical couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary since that insinuates I myself am out of the ordinary. I suppose the basis of my question wasn't communicated well. Thanks for your answers everyone.

I think what was meant was more that you can spot that something's 'different', and that can be really clear; eg. You can feel the tracks when you go over them. However, unless you know specifically what Aspergers is, then you would not think of applying that word to the differences specifically; eg if you don't know what tracks are, then you wouldn't recognise as such until someone tells you that that's what they are.

Originally Posted by Miktis25

I think what was meant was more that you can spot that something's 'different', and that can be really clear; eg. You can feel the tracks when you go over them. However, unless you know specifically what Aspergers is, then you would not think of applying that word to the differences specifically; eg if you don't know what tracks are, then you wouldn't recognise as such until someone tells you that that's what they are.

Yes, exactly. That applies to even you, the individual yourself. Until you get your diagnosis and they tell you, or you read it in the DSM, etc. you yourself don't know you have "Asperger's". You might realize something's different, but you still don't know what to call it yet. Same thing happened with me.

[Anonymous37919]

I was not diagnosed with PDD-NOS until 2007. PDD-NOS is the category they shoved me in because they didn't think I had "classic" autism. Whatever the hell they meant by that.

Well, I was not popular in high school at all and to be honest, my childhood was probably way more relaxed than my adulthood has been. And because I got bullied and nobody in any of my classes was interested in me, I was glad when the summer of 2002 finally arrived, so I could just do my exams and leave that place forever.

Over the years, I think people have took the piss out of me for liking 80's music, but I don't give a rat's tail about it any more because I am glad I discovered the music I know and love today. Why be a sheep and like all the new crap on the airwaves that has zero quality to it?

Yeah. My childhood was fun. I had pals. We used to take action figures atop Calton Hill in Edinburgh and there is a big Greek style monument, which was actually never built properly as the government ran out of money so it was never finished. If you Google Calton Hill, Edinburgh, you will see what I refer to.

My grandmothers were still alive. Grandpa John died in 1997 I think, and I don't think I met my mother's father. Mary was my mother's mother's name and I used to take my GameCube across to hers on Fridays in 2002 and play my survival horror games. We would talk about random things and then she had to go into care. It wasn't the same visiting her in the care home as she just spent the entire visit talking to my mother and we used to sit near the entrance between two doors. Everyone just filled that small space with smoke. I don't even think you were allowed to open the door as one of the residents there would try to run off.