WHAT IS ASPERGER'S SYNROME?

Asperger's along with Autism is often referred to as a diagnostic puzzle (hence the puzzle logo you often see).  Below are a several descriptions used by professionals.  Free free to visit our links page to gain further information.  This is merely a glimpse of what is out there to discover.

A mild form of autism?  AS is a serious, lifelong disability that requires individualized expert intervention and should be treated as such.  There is nothing “mild” about the challenge people with AS face. A person with AS has no more control over how he or she views the world and interprets what is seen, heard, felt or understood than a person who has suffered a stroke or developed Alzheimer’s disease.  AS is the result of anomalies in the physical brain, not emotional or behavioral problems.

What is Asperger Syndrome?  Technically, you can identify AS by the symptoms, behaviors, and deficits that constitute the diagnostic criteria, but it’s almost impossible to extrapolate from that information what it means to have AS.   In the most basic terms, AS is a neurological disorder characterized by what psychiatrist Dr. Lorna Wing terms a “triad of impairments affecting:  social interaction, communication, and imagination, accompanied by a narrow, rigid, repetitive pattern of activities.”  AS shares these qualities with several disorders that are, like AS, classified as pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs).  Although we have yet to learn the cause of AS or other pervasive developmental disorders, several of them, including AS are often grouped together und the now common but unofficial term autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) A few years ago hardly anyone had heard of the term, yet today almost every school seems to have a child with this new syndrome.  Yet the first definition of such children was published over 50 years ago by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician.  He identified a consistent pattern of abilities and behavior that predominately occurred in boys.  His pioneering work did not achieve international recognition until the 1990's.  Until recently parents and teachers may have realized the child was unusal but had no idea why, nor knew where to go for help. In the 1990's the prevailing view is that Asperger's Syndrome is a variant of autism and a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD).   That is, the condition affects the development of a wide range of abilities.  It is now considered as a subgroup within the autistic spectrum and has its own diagnostic criteria.  There is also evidence to suggest it is far more common than classic autism and may be diagnosed in children who have never previously been considered autistic.              ~ Tony Attwood  Tony Attwood is a practicing clinical psychologist who specializes in the field of AS.   To learn more, view his website. In this site you will find resources, information on his presentation schedule, messages and issues related to Asperger's Syndrome, as well as papers he has written on related topics.

People with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) perceive the world differently from everyone else. They find the rest of us strange and baffling.  Why don't we say what we mean?  Why do we say so many things we don't mean?  Why do we so often make trivial remarks that mean nothing at all?  Why do we get bored and impatient when someone with Asperger's Syndrome tells us hundreds of fascinating facts about time-tables, the individual numbers carved on lamp posts in the United Kingdom, the different varieties of carrots or the movements of the planets?   Why do we tolerate such a confusion of sensations of light, sound, smell, touch and taste without getting to screaming pitch?  Why do we care about social hierarchies -- why not treat everyone in the same way?  Why do we have such complicated emotional relationships?  Why do we send and receive so many social signals to each other and how do we make sense of them?  Above all, why are we so illogical compared to people with Asperger's syndrome? The truth is, of course, that those with the syndrome are a  minority.  The way they perceive the world makes sense to them and has some aspects that are admirable, but it often brings them into conflict with conventional (that is, majority) ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.  They cannot change and many do not want to.  However, they do need help in finding ways of adapting to the world as it is in order to use their special skills constructively, to engage in their special interests without coming into conflict with others and to achieve, as far as possible, some degree of independence in adult life and some positive social relationships Parents, other famiy members and professionals have to understand the point of view of people with Asperger's in order to work with them effectively. The main clinical features of Asperger's Syndrome are: * lack of empathy * naive, inappropriate, one-sided interaction * little or no ability to form friendships * pedantic, repetitive speech * poor non-verbal communication * intense absorption in certain subjects * clumsy and ill-coordinated movements and odd postures    ~ Lorna Wing~ Lorna Wing is a psychiatrist medically trained and then went into adult psychiatry. She became very interested in autistic disorders because she had an autistic daughter and always been interested in the long-term chronic conditions that you find in psychiatry.  Then she retired, together with Judith Gould, and set up the Centre for Social and Communication Disorders, a diagnostic and assessment centre under the auspices of the National Autistic Society (NAS). Click here to visit the website.ng

The Six Characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome 1.  Difficulty with Receiprocal Social Interactions - some have no desire to interact, while others simply do not know how.  They do not comprehend the give-and-take nature of social interactions nor the verbal and nonverbal cues used to further our understanding in typical social interactions. 2.  Impairments in Language Skills - they see language as a way to share facts and information not as a way to share thoughts, feelings and emotions. 3.  Narrow Range of Interests and Insistence on Set Routines - due to an AS child's anxiety, his interactions will be ruled by rigidity, obsessions and perseverations (repetitious behaviors) transitions and changes can cause.  Generally, he willk have a few interests, but those interest will often dominate.  The need for structure and routine will be most important. 4.  Motor Clumsiness - The difficulty is often not just the task itself, but the motor planning involved in completing the task.  Typical difficulties include handwriting, riding a bike and ball skills. 5.  Cognitive Issues - Mindblindness, or the inability to make inferences about what another person is thinking is a core disability for those with AS.  The child will often asume that everyone is thinking the same thing he is ... the world exists not in shades of gray, but only in black and white. 6.  Sensory Sensitivities - Many AS children have sensory issues that can occur in one or all of the senses and the degree to difficulty varies from one to another.  Most frequently, the child will perceive ordinary sensations as quite intense.     ~ "Parenting Your Asperger Child" (by Alan Sohn, and Cathy Grayson)