Re: Asperger's diagnosis change in DSM-V

April 4, 2010

For me I really like this idea, reason being that my dd is right there. There are small quirks that many aspies have that even a hfa doesnt necesarily have so those quirks of hers make the knowledgable immediately think aspie but she is dx hfa. she is dx hfa b/c of a speech delay. however her speech delay was only in articulation, it was apparante as soon as she started talking and never got better on its own as she omitted sounds not substituted so she had it from 18 mo until she graduated from speech at nearly 6. yet some specialists would consider an articulation delay a speech delay and catagorize her hfa others though wouldnt, especially b/c she was advanced in receptive and expressive language so would catagorize her aspie. She is " officially " dx hfa b/c her dev ped believes any speech delay is a speech delay. However she was referred there by a psychiatrist and the school b/c both thought she might have aspergers. Her advocate can see how that is so easy to do b/c she no longer has a speech delay so you dont see or even talk abuot it but has so many aspie quirks. yet she may have a pragmatic language delay, we are waiting on that evaluation, they will start speech evaluations next week. Also I think no really knowledgable professional would dx her aspergers instead of hfa b/c of her other delays as a preschooler would exclude her (she had social and adapative behavioral delays dx at the age of 3½ by the school district). yet all those quirks that can be very subtly different between the dx are not even part of the dsm

So for me it would be nice if they were catagorized more closely

On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 10:45 AM, yadayada65 <donpark@...> wrote:

There seems to be a lot of different mind sets on this issue I was wondering what everyone thought of the fact that soon the term: Asperger's will no longer exist and Aspies will be known to have Autism Spectrum Disorder. It has been suggested that it is to help those people who actually have Asperger's and to stop the trend of Asperger's being the latest designer diagnosis - it's amazing to me how many parents seem to want to have their child diagnosed even when they don't meet the criteria. Apparently the glamourous or 'romantic' views of Asperger's on TV, saying that famous people through history had it, etc. has made it popular. I love my son desperately, but wanting your child to have a disorder is weird. Any imput into the name change? Just curious.

-- -mommy to Emma, Becca, , and Girl Scout cookies are coming!

April 4, 2010

My issue is that by merging the categories and modifying the criteria, it

becomes very hard to compare the new statistical data to the old data. Instead

of some people arguing that the increase in the number of diagnoses are the

result of more people being aware of Autism/Aspergers, they will argue that the

increases are the result of the radial change in the diagnostic criteria. It

will also become hard for researchers to find patterns comparing previous years'

data to that created with DSM-V.

I would guess it would be close to 10 years before you can claim there is any

trend with the new criteria. There will be a transition period of a few years

while doctors switch to the new criteria and get comfortable with it.

-

April 4, 2010

I feel that it's much easier and helpful to say Asperger's Syndrome and then

explain that it's in the Autism Spectrum Disorders, than it is to say Autism

Spectrum Disorder and try to narrow it down to Asperger's. People look at my dd

and hear the word autism and immediately think of something that doesn't match

what my dd actually is. This can cause a variety of misunderstandings--whether

she seems fine at the time (they want to disregard the fact that she really has

heartwrenching issues she's dealing with) or whether they automatically

stereotype her, etc. I'm concerned about this.

>

> There seems to be a lot of different mind sets on this issue I was wondering

what everyone thought of the fact that soon the term: Asperger's will no longer

exist and Aspies will be known to have Autism Spectrum Disorder. It has been

suggested that it is to help those people who actually have Asperger's and to

stop the trend of Asperger's being the latest designer diagnosis - it's amazing

to me how many parents seem to want to have their child diagnosed even when they

don't meet the criteria. Apparently the glamourous or 'romantic' views of

Asperger's on TV, saying that famous people through history had it, etc. has

made it popular. I love my son desperately, but wanting your child to have a

disorder is weird. Any imput into the name change? Just curious.

>

April 5, 2010

IMO the merge will cause more confusion in schools. most teachers in our school see autism ONLY as the severe type. the HFA/aspergers children they don't see on the spectrum at all even with the HFA or aspergers label. when they hear autism they still see that as classic autism and say your child of HFA/aspergers is not autistic! changing their classification to OHI.

merging it all together will be great for the school - they'll be changing everyones classification to OHI because they don't fit their (school's) classification of autism. (but they can't change a medical dx). However- for most states the merge will be helpful for medical insurance reasons.

Also, when the schools change the child's classification to OHI, then the CSE doesn't need to train their teachers in autism.(this also depends on which state/school district your in)

From: bucaroobonzai2003 <ssernaker@...> Sent: Sun, April 4, 2010 8:33:36 PMSubject: Re: ( ) Asperger's diagnosis change in DSM-V

My issue is that by merging the categories and modifying the criteria, it becomes very hard to compare the new statistical data to the old data. Instead of some people arguing that the increase in the number of diagnoses are the result of more people being aware of Autism/Aspergers, they will argue that the increases are the result of the radial change in the diagnostic criteria. It will also become hard for researchers to find patterns comparing previous years' data to that created with DSM-V. I would guess it would be close to 10 years before you can claim there is any trend with the new criteria. There will be a transition period of a few years while doctors switch to the new criteria and get comfortable with it.-

April 5, 2010

Because I have a child with Asperger's and a younger child with classic austism,

I am not in favor of the change. They are both SO different ... and I hope no

one takes any offense at this but when my 10 year old was diagnosed with

Asperger's, I have not explained to him that it was a form of autism, because

honestly I thought it would freak him out for him to think he had the same

diagnosis as his brother.