My ASD Child

Reports that some of the recent school shootings may have been committed by young people with Asperger’s have led many to wonder whether the disorder plays a role in such acts of violence (e.g., the Adam Lanza case in which 20 children and six adults lost their lives at a Connecticut elementary school). While experts strongly believe that Asperger's does not make a young person more likely to commit a violent crime, some believe it may affect the way a crime is carried out. Also, while experts agree that individuals with Asperger’s are not more likely to commit violent crimes than members of the general population, they do say that, in very rare cases, it can happen. People who commit crimes usually do it for some kind of concrete reward (e.g., money, sex or drugs). That’s not the case in teens on the autism spectrum. In cases involving these teens, the motives are very different. The motive of the violent act is to communicate that the teen himself is very offended. Ot

Reports that some of the recent school shootings may have been committed by young people with Asperger's (high functioning autism) have led many to wonder whether the disorder plays a role in such acts of violence (e.g., the Adam Lanza case in which 20 children and six adults lost their lives at a Connecticut elementary school).  Best Comments:   Anonymous said... Thanks for sharing this! Every time more info comes out about the Sandy Hook killer, (like the recent interview with his father), the ignorance about Asperger's, ASD and mental illness come out too. Anonymous said... I was once told that my son would become one of the "columbine-type" of people. this was two years ago when he was 7. I was stunned and angry that this person would make that assumption.

Why is this disorder referred to as “high functioning”? High Functioning Autism (HFA), previously referred to as Asperger’s, is a term applied to children on the autism spectrum who are deemed to be functioning at a higher cognitive level (IQ>70) than other children on the spectrum. Is there a difference between High Functioning Autism and Asperger’s? The amount of overlap between HFA and Asperger’s is disputed. While some researchers agree that the two are distinct diagnoses, others argue that they are identical. On the other hand, the term HFA may be used by some researchers to refer to all autism spectrum disorders deemed to be cognitively higher functioning, including Asperger’s, especially in light of the removal of Asperger’s as a separate diagnostic from the DSM-5. HFA is characterized by traits very similar to those of Asperger’s. The defining characteristic most widely recognized by professionals is a significant delay in the development of early speech and la