Expert: Trey McGowan - 8/8/2007

Question
Hi trey,
My 3 year old son was given an eval. of mild ASD.Hes been rocking incessantly since 6 months old. He hand flaps, loves to jump up and down, ALOT. He loves to line up his toys. When hes into something, hes really into it.Such as letters, numbers, dinosaurs and animals.And books! He surrounds himself with them. He also makes repetative sounds with his mouth. He loves to be held tightly. And loves to surround himself with all his stuffed animals and pillows and squeeze into them. He likes to put pillows and blankets on top of himself. And hes very smart. Hes had early intervention and goes to a school for his delays.I give him the omega 3-6-9 and hes become MUCH more engaged. His eye contact is great now. But hes has alot of sensory issues, ESPECIALLY his mouth. If he doesnt have a pacifier in his mouth, he just makes the wierdest faces, like opening and closing it funny.The thing is with him, all these things arent 100% of the time.Sometimes i almost forget, you know? He does get speech, not because he cant talk, but he has some trouble with his speech. Now after all that, LOL... My question to you is, do you think he more likely has aspergers or just a mild asd, with sensory problems. I get very confused, even with all the reading and research. It does get me confused at times. I'm curious to see what you think. Thank you for your time!!!!!!! Kim

Answer
Hello there, Kim!

This one is, unfortunately, a question best answered by actual doctors. I can only make some assumptions from what I'm hearing. And as high-functioning autism and Asperger's have a lot of things in common, it really could go either way.

A major identifier (often) of Asperger's and Autism is the speech capability. Autistic children show much more in the way of delayed speech than Asperger's. Communication difficulties are there for both, but the major linguistic ones tend to show in the 'classic' ASD. Therefore, while I am not a doctor, you say there's some speech trouble and so I'd assume that the Autism Disorder fits better than a classic Asperger's.

However, one major thing to point out is that while they are two different disorders, the 'treatment' of them is often very similar, if not identical. So either way it goes, you will hopefully be getting the assistance needed for your child's problem, either way the name goes. So in other words, a big congratulations for you on the work with early intervention!

Trey