Autism & Asperger's: What's The Difference?

Autism affects 1 in 110 children. The majority are boys. Symptoms may show up before the age of two. The extent can vary greatly but the approach to treatment should be the same.

"The highest potential we think is going to be made by the kids that get the treatment early on," says Sherri Campbell nurse practitioner with The Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida.

Determining the type of social disorder is crucial, from a severe, classic autism to the milder Asperger's syndrome.

"Under the autism spectrum disorder one of the subcategories is Asperger's syndrome that's the one that I think is often missed early on," says Campbell.

A distinguishing feature between the two is speech.

"Asperger's syndrome there is no speech delay so those are the kids that really might look a little odd with their behaviors or social skills but they really move along nicely in school sometimes and are age appropriate with their development but they just have some socialization issues," says Campbell.

Classic autism is linked to late speech and less developed social skills.

"If I was really looking for some issues I would look for a lack of eye contact that's one of the classic hallmarks that associate with autism and that can be seen fairly early on," says Campbell.

Lee Memorial Health System offers free, monthly screenings for autism. It covers a standardized, developmental checklist, to help parents get a head start on therapy.

"The children with Asperger's, sometimes they're not diagnosed until middle school but the children with speech delay in classic autism are easy to identify as early as 18 months," says Campbell.

The bottom line: if you have any concerns about your child's development, acting early can make a difference.

[moonmissy]

I have Asperger but I didn’t lack eye contact, I was just interested in my own reflection in people’s iris and looked at it intently as a kid lol

[Silvertongue]

Having asperges is like being in a foreign country, in your own country,

[antoniocarniero]

Ive grown up hiding my Asperger's syndrome by being 'taught' how to act so I could try and fit in with different groups I now feel as I don't know who I am and who I become for others I just want anyone with Asperger's or who has a child with Asperger's to not become someone else.

[panowa]

I'm now 50 years old, and I was recently diagnosed for having Asperger's syndrome. Even as a child I had my difficulties and suspected something was not right about me, my family, teachers, and some of my peers never took me seriously and accused me for acting out or playing dumb. I would learn that the diagnosis for Asperger's hasn't been considered until about a few years ago. If I had the proper diagnosis, maybe my life would have been much more different today.

[THATASIAGIRL]

My boyfriend has aspergers. I did noticed that at some time. Its hard have him make some eye contact at me and he already told me its a hard thing to do. Look into peoples eyes when they wanna have ur attention by talking about something. 

He has those typical moves with his hands and so on that can make him simple to tell he has it too. 

Had a hard childhood by social with people and he gets misunderstood alot, included me as his girlfriend but we work out this relationship well somehow. Despite he has aspergers. It just all about to work things out together and try solve the problems. 

He been showing alot of good improvement these past months since the day we dated. He is anyway perhaps the most sweeties and well behaved guy i ever met that has a good respect from me as his girlfriend. <3

[antoniou.]

I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger until my late 30's. of course back then, we did not know about it. I have chosen a life of peace and quiet.

[DarkMagician]

I think I have autism but not sure. I'm introverted, talk to myself, think about past a lot, have trouble focusing.

[saarya]

i'm very socially awkward and i can't really look people in the eyes for too long, it just makes me feel weird

[mattmobile]

I once took a test that put me just a point below the threshold for Aspergers. Eye contact to me feels like staring directly at the sun. It physically burns in such an uncomfortable way I keep track mentally of how much eye contact I make. It’s like a constant ticker in my mind when someone is around.

[runningsrage]

Growing up was really rough for me as a kid. (I have aspergers) I still suffer with aspergers everyday. I feel like I'll never get help. My family never did much after finding out and before that. I found out in high school! I always thought i was different. Its sucks having no help and finding out late. Anyone else relates to this?

[ZafiroRiverSpirit]

My parents might deny it, but I know I have Asperger's. I'm a young woman with Asperger's, though, so it manifests a little differently for me as it would for the guys. All my counselors over the years said I had it and that it was I was so quirky and offbeat and why I had trouble fitting it and understanding social cues. Sometimes people who barely knew me would judge me for having odd speech patterns and mannerisms and being so intense, overly verbose and unfiltered and they said I creeped them out or I was 'sketchy', but I have honestly never, ever wanted to hurt someone or do anything sexual against their will. I was left alone and ignored a lot as a kid and my parents didn't teach me much about social skills because they figured I would pick it up from my friends, but I didn't. I've faced rejection and alienation constantly, and the people who seem to accept me at first tend to just want to take advantage of me to get what they want, whether it's money, sex, food, weed or anything else... And the people who seem nice without taking advantage of me seem to think I'm more disabled than I actually am and they just treat me with fake, sympathy kindness like I have Down's Syndrome or something because I'm awkward and they don't know what to do me, so they act nice, but they don't ever try to hang out with me. It's rare to find someone who genuinely wants to spend time with me, and when they do, it's usually someone with more severe mental dysfunctions going on and I'm the one who pities THEM, but I don't ever try to act like it because I know how bad it feels to have someone looking down on you. I'm academically very intelligent, but because I lack social skills and I'm less capable of experiencing the full range of empathy for others, they treat me like I'm stupid or mentally challenged, which I'm not. I wish more people could see what I'm good at and understand that I'm probably a lot smarter than they give me credit for.

[cartler]

I have high functioning autism and aspergers. I think that I was lucky not to recieve treatment at a young age.
Going through regular public school has really helped me to overcome the effects of my autism and aspergers. In four years I went from being one of the annoying kids, to being a respectable person.
I'm coming up on my sophomore year and I'm currently ranked 13th in my class.
If I had gone down another path, I would have never done so good.

[bseymour]

Yes we don't like eye contact during conversations but we are also socially scared 2 look because apparently we give creepy looks when we are just observing a room we get accused of starring etc. So we feel uncomfortable as we feel we are gonna be told off

[HSRTDZayV]

Same here. My wife thought it was 'cute' when we were courting. But then she wanted me to 'grow up'. My bosses wanted me to pull that empathy trick, although they liked my ability to focus. Thirty years later, I found out I had Aspergers.

[kianhoover]

growing up in my situation was funny because i have aspergers, adhd, and i grew up with apraxia, so 1. i talked WAY to fast 2. it was gibberish (so i’ve been told) 3. i would mix up words. 4. i would think to fast and i couldn’t process words from my brain to my mouth quick enough, not to mention i was selectively mute for a while after sexual abuse, so i had 3 therapists not knowing how to diagnose me and because i suffered from trauma and social anxiety i’d never open up about real things that bothered me.

[aleisterlavey]

I have so much trouble focusing on things that don't interest me, I have trouble following verbal instructions, I like doing things in a certain way, I need a strict schedule to get things done, I have insomnia, I am sensitive to light and noise, I struggle with socializing, I am very excellent drawer, I talk to myself, my mind won't shut off, I have trouble adulting. Some might see aspergers and adhd as a debilitating weakness, but I would not change it for the world. It is a part of who I am.

[GroovySquiddo]

I really feel like I have Aspergers because I always struggled socially. I still do. I was always shy and scared to make eye contact, and had and still have difficulty acting the right way in social situations. I used to get really angry because I’d become frustrated either with myself because I didn’t understand or because people didn’t understand I was struggling. I did well in school so they thought nothing was wrong with me. Maybe it’s something else because speech for me isn’t difficult but trying to say what I’m thinking is. I feel like my speech pattern is atypical sometimes. Then again I’m not sure because in my mind, for the most part, I understand myself. I feel like a genius but when I try to explain what’s going on, I feel like an idiot.

[maxgunn]

why aren't bullies labelled as having a 'social disorder'?

[audriusa]

Year 2011: Autism affects 1 in 110 children
Year 2018: Autism affects approximately 1 in 59 children (google search)
Year 2100: Normal behavior affects 1 in 50 autistic children

[bisbeejim]

In April 2014 at the age of 57 I was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. For the last 5 years I've spent and intense study on mathematics, psychology and computer science believing that mathematical psychology spoken in computer science language would indisputably make clear and concrete the inherent abstractions found in mathematics and psychology. Nothing in my life has ever been so difficult. At the same time I've found nothing so beneficial either. You want my advise? Well here it is: Love. The autistic child needs to be shown explicitly what is love and what it is not. The autistic child needs to get it and give it and explicitly shown what results come from it. Now comes the hard part. You have to repeat these steps over and over, often repeating it for every item within visual range. The autistic mind seldom grasps the universal concept that what is learned about one thing applies to other things. Nope. To teach the autistic it is not uncommon to have to introduce universal concepts like love to every item they can see, taste, touch, smell and feel.