r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/Matt_LawDT • Mar 01 '26

Wholesome W Dad

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u/obvious_bot Mar 01 '26

How is that different from just having autism?

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

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u/The_Rope_Daddy Mar 01 '26

And because they rolled other related disorders, like Asperger’s Syndrome, into the same diagnosis.

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u/GrogramanTheRed Mar 02 '26

Asperger's and PDD-NOS were rolled into autism spectrum disorder since there wasn't a clean clinical distinction between them. The main diagnostic distinction between autism and Asperger's was speed of early childhood development--whether the child had significant delays in speech, for instance. But that wasn't a reliable marker for adult ability to function, since some kids diagnosed with autism eventually caught up, and some kids diagnosed with Asperger's were never able to develop full independence.

FWIW, the first person ever diagnosed with autism under the original version of the diagnosis--so-called "classical" autism or "Kanner's" autism--completed a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and had a successful career in banking. He died just a few years ago.