UNDERSTANDING ASPERGER SYNDROME
By Paul Schwartz
Courtesy of Hudson Valley Parent
Asperger syndrome has recently been the source of much controversy and confusion among both parents and professionals.
Is Asperger’s a milder form of Autism? Is it a separate and distinct disorder that should be considered a social communication disorder, or social disability?
There is no uniform agreement among experts, and children and adults who are “different”- somewhat socially awkward with quirky interests in mundane statistics – are often labeled as having Asperger’s.
Asperger syndrome is one of a group of disorders, along with Autism, called pervasive developmental disorders, with Aspterger’s being the mild end of the spectrum.
It was named for Hans Asperger, who in 1944 identified a pattern of behavior found in a group of boys who had normal intelligence and language development, but showed significant deficiencies in social and communication skills, as well as other patterns of disordered behavior.
However, Asperger’s wasn’t recognized by the medical and psychology communities until 1994. Since then, the number of children diagnosed with this disorder has increased significantly.
Although each child with Asperger’s is different, the following are the most commonly seen characteristics exhibited by school-aged children:
Social difficulties
- Difficulty making and keeping friends
- Lacking social perceptive ability to read nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, which are crucial to the development of effective social interaction
- Displaying a lack of empathy or insensitivity to others’ feelings, making them seem egocentric or self-absorbed
- Communication with others may lack eye contact, making them appear socially inadequate or aloof
- Although language skills and vocabulary are often good or even extremely well-developed, they have difficulty understanding the nuanced of language, often taking things literally
Obsessive interests
Children with Asperger’s may develop obsessive interests in one or more narrow subject areas, such as train timetables, weather fluctuations or other specific statistics.
While all children seem to enjoy the predictability of routines, children with Asperger’s may inflexibly adhere to routines, and become extremely upset with changes. A substitute teacher or change in school routine may cause extreme discomfort or a violent outburst from this child.
Overly literal
Over-literal use of language impedes their imagination and their development of abstract reasoning can cause learning difficulties, despite often above average intelligence.
Sensory sensitivity
Often children with Asperger’s are overly sensitive to lights, sounds, smells or tasted and may develop sensitivities and preferences for certain clothing and foods.
Their odd or unusual behavior is due to these neurological differences and the child shouldn’t be seen as purposefully rude or exhibiting “bad” behavior or that there is a lack of discipline at home.
Because these “little professors,” as they are sometimes called, are odd or different in their behaviors, they may also become victims of bullying and teasing by other children in school or on the playground.
Types of treatment
While Aserger’s is classified along the Autistic spectrum of disorders and can’t be cured, children with Asperger’s have demonstrated significant improvement with the following types of treatment:
- Teaching social skills, although not as natural to them as others, may result in great benefits.
- Behavior modification techniques have also been shown to decrease many of the behavior problems children with Asperger’s exhibit.