No, I've read up on Asperger for a while, I was just a little surprised at the results of the test in Wired (which was referred to by wikipedia as one of the better screening methods available).

Interestingly, I know I'm excluded because I had difficulty learning to speak when I was growing up.

But I think that would bump me up to autistic, which certainly doesn't sound right.  I can see some personality traits that correspond roughly with autism, but others seem perfectly fine.  Exceptional, in fact.  :)

I think what concerns me about the Asp/Aut stuff is the ambiguity of the screening criteria, so I started this thread to fish for ideas; what specific action(s) or trait(s) confirmed for you that you or someone else was autistic or had asperger?

Some of the posts have helped clarify that.

Others, well, it's GD, no hard feelings.

I suppose I could've explained all this initially, but I figured you'd understand my intent.

Wow, just wow. Gosh, Dr. Freud, where'd you get your psychiatry degree? In a Cracker-Jack box?



You really shouldn't offer your opinion of things of which you have no knowledge. It makes you look like you're deranged.




 

Very real.

You have absolutely no idea how special education works. None at all. Zip. Nada. I would go so far as to say that you have a vacuum of knowledge.



Schools HATE coding children unless they have to. A special education student costs the district far more money than non-special education student costs. The state and fed only kick in a portion of the costs of special education. Throw in some demanding parents who won't get pushed around by the school district and you are talking some serious money. Plus, the vast majority of special education children are mainstreamed. They stay in the regular class room all or virtually all of the day. They get assistants, special education teachers, and specialists who come into the classroom. That stuff is expensive. Schools are required by federal law to provide whatever it takes to get the child to benefit from the educational opportunity provided by the school system. Schools are not required to provide art, music, or athletics. Guess what gets cut when the special education budget goes up. Stuff that makes the parents of all children unhappy.



The teacher gets more work, not less, because now she is required to provide accommodations to the special education child, do more paperwork, and attend more meetings about the child.



There are a couple of legitimate arguments about the increase in the diagnosis (actually, the increase in all forms of autism diagnoses), but schools pushing it to make some teacher's life easier is not one of them. Personally, I think that it is a combination of educators/doctors/parents being more aware of the condition, and an actual increase in the proportion of the population that has an autism spectrum disorder. However, that is just my opinion.