Differences Between Autism And Asperger’s: How To Distinguish Them?
Are Autism and Asperger’s the same? What is ASD? How are both diagnoses different? Discover how autism spectrum disorders differ and how to differentiate them.
Currently there is confusion between Asperger’s and autism due to the similarities that these two psychological disorders present with each other. In this way, Asperger’s and its characteristics are very common to some aspects of autism, since they are within the same disease. Despite this, there are some differences between asperger’s and autism quite clear.
The diagnoses related to autism have recently been modified in the latest diagnostic manual of psychiatry (DSM-V). Although previously we talked about autism and Asperger’s Syndrome separately, currently we refer to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the Asperger syndrome within the spectrum along with other syndromes.
Currently, both Autism and Asperger’s syndrome are considered ASD, so the diagnosis would be exactly the same, although they are actually disorders that differ quite a bit. When we talk about ASD, we are referring to neurodevelopmental disorders, that is, they are difficulties in child development that have genetic and/or biological but not sociological origins.
The DSM-V considers ASD to be alterations in two areas of development:
Communication and social interaction.
The repetitive and restricted patterns of behavior, interests and activities.
Differences between autism and asperger’s
Mainly Asperger’s disorder has some different characteristics with other types of autism. Some keys to identify this difference between autism and Asperger’s are the following.
Parents who have children with Autism realize that something is wrong in the first months of the baby’s life. They do not respond to certain stimuli and take longer to develop, so the alarm is raised earlier. However, in the Asperger syndrome The diagnosis is made from 7 years of age or even later. This happens since Asperger’s symptoms are more difficult to detect at an early age since they are more imperceptible than those of other types of ASD.
2. IQ
When diagnostic tests are performed and intelligence tests are administered, children with Autism may obtain normal scores or slightly below average, while children with Asperger syndrome tend to obtain normal or above average scores (hence this syndrome is called “high functioning autism”) since they tend to stand out very positively in some of the tests.
3. Language acquisition and richness
Children with Autism They take much longer than the average to start speaking and their vocabulary is poor, while children with Asperger’s usually have a large vocabulary, leading them to be considered from the outside as cultured people or as being above average at a verbal level. In this way, these types of mild autism can stand out in their richness of language.
4. Social relationships
While children with Autism reject social contact, prefer to play alone and do not understand the rules of play, children with Asperger’s want to play and socialize, what happens is that they have a hard time understanding and accepting social codes and have a hard time empathizing, for example. which tend to remain isolated. One of the Asperger traits The most identifiable is this tendency towards isolation due to their poor social skills.
Children with Autism do not present any motor problems while children with Asperger’s are usually considered clumsy due to the psychomotor problems they suffer from. One of the characteristics of Asperger’s is that these motor disabilities can go unnoticed.
6. Academic evolution
The evolution of learning is difficult for children with Autism, since they tend to have a delay in development and therefore, they usually have serious academic problems if a good diagnosis is not made and the pertinent curricular adaptations are not carried out. However, the children with Asperger’s They tend to be children who excel in a specific area. They tend to have an interest, for example, in the sciences, reaching an obsessive point since they can memorize very specific aspects and develop an expert level of specialization, while in areas that do not attract their attention they can pass without standing out or even have difficulties, but As a general rule, they can have a positive evolution in their studies without requiring psycho-pedagogical help.
7. Stereotypes
Meanwhile in Autism It is quite common for children to present some type of stereotyped movement such as hand flapping; in Asperger’s Syndrome this does not usually happen.
It can be said that in Autism The main difficulty is in the development of language while in Asperger’s Syndrome the main difficulty is in socialization, where they have serious problems to be adequate since in many cases children with Asperger’s suffer from Alexithymia (difficulty or inability to recognize their own emotions and those of others as well as reading the emotions in the features or behaviors of others).
Some parents are afraid when their children have been diagnosed with some type of ASD. The diagnosis of Asperger’s and autism is something that is very scary at first, but you really have to take into account that the range is so wide and the diagnostic criteria are so few, that it is actually very easy to end up labeling a child as having ASD. when in reality it could simply be a learning deficit or delay. Even if your child is diagnosed with ASD, keep in mind that there are many types and degrees. Therefore, we must be patient before autism and Asperger’s Only through it can we make our children develop their maximum potential.
