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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]I don't think ASD is quite like other disorders or a medical diagnosis, in the sense that the range of kids included is so broad and we haven't seen kids dx'd under the current criteria grow up, so we don't really know what adulthood looks like for them as ASD-identified people.[/quote]

Are you talking about the criteria that has now grouped Aspergers/HFA with the other ASD?  ASD has been around for a very long time and there are a very large number of adults that have acknowledged they have ASD (Temple Grandin, Dan Akyroyd, James Durbin,  Darryl Hannah, Tim Burton, etc.)  And, ASD is not the only 'spectrum' disorder.  There are a large number of other disorders, including CP and ADHD, that you can't really predict what a child with them will 'look like' in adulthood.  We do know they explain, but not excuse, may of the challenges our kids have. [/quote]

Sure, classical autism has been around for a long time in a particular, narrow form. ASD, as currently diagnosed, really hasn't been around that long. For example, I have a sibling, born in the early 80s, who would clearly be dx'd with ASD if he were a child today (stims, social-pragmatic issues, repetitive behaviors, echolalia, intense and narrow interests, etc). At the time, though, his developmental pediatrician and multiple specialists regarded him as a "mystery" and he was diagnosed with a rare syndrome (which in time it became clear he did not have) and later, when that was ruled out, with mild mental retardation. ASD was never even in contention, because he was "too verbal" - i.e., he could speak. His friends/classmates were mostly children with borderline MR diagnoses (bordering on "normal" IQs)  obvious social-pragmatic issues, poor eye contact, etc. They are grown up now, and they have a range of outcomes (living independently, living in supported environments, college-educated, etc), but none of them self-identify as ASD or have been diagnosed with ASD. And yet I think they are very much like what my own son and his cohort will be like when they are grown because they have what by today's lights would be ASD.

The kids I know who, like my son, were diagnosed with ASD as 3 yos are now about age 10-12. They could not be more wildly divergent in abilities and profiles. Some have outgrown any diagnoses, many have ADHD diagnoses instead of ASD diagnoses, or in addition, some have NVLDs or other LDs, a few fit the Asperger's profile or a classical autism profile. There is a huge range. It's not just that it's a spectrum, it's that it's so much of a spectrum that it's really hard to see what, if anything, was meaningful about the diagnosis, except that they, at 3, had some issues. Even in this very thread, a poster implies that her child with ASD will probably to to an Ivy League school and become a successful professional. If that is true, does that child really merit a full blown ASD diagnosis, just like  child who will always need life skills help and supported living, and if so, what does ASD mean?
 
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