Aspergers
Aspergers is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who published a paper in 1944 describing the autistic-like condition. Aspergers is a form of Autism, which affects the way a person communicates and relates to others. Aspergers is attached to the autism spectrum on the high functioning side. It is what is known as a pervasive developmental disorder and one that can hamper how a child studies, learns and perceives the environment around them.
For reasons that are yet unknown, Aspergers is more common in boys than in girls. This disorder is characterized by social interaction difficulties and impairments related to a restricted, repetitive, stereotype behaviour. Aspergers is a very high functioning form of autism and is often mistaken for ADHD (as is everything, it seems).
There is a difference between Autism and Aspergers, Aspergers is in the minor section of Autism meaning they may have some social and communication, However they usually, not always choose to be more into there specific areas of interest instead of making friends. What is noticeable though, in mild cases of Aspergers is rigidity and an uncompromising behaviour.
Social skills are particularly challenging for the child with Aspergers, and generally Aspies are loners, both by choice & by exclusion. Their main problem is dealing with people socially. In Aspergers Disorder, affected individuals are characterized by social isolation and eccentric behaviour in childhood.
Those with Aspergers Syndrome are generally uncaring and rude and unable to empathize with others. Often, because of their inability to perceive other’s intentions and perspectives and their impaired capacity to read the unspoken gestures and nuances in everyday social communication, and do not respond or do not respond appropriately.
Individuals with Asperger’sare considered to have a higher intellectual capacity while suffering from a lower social capacity. They seem to lack social and emotional reciprocity, and fail to respond to other peoples’ emotion, fail to respond to other peoples’ attempts at socializing, and appears to either ignore others or give them the cold shoulder, when they really don’t understand or may not be aware of what is topically socially appropriate and have difficulty choosing topics to talk about with others.
The strange thing is that while people with Aspergers have difficulty participating socially, often they are capable of correctly describing, in a cognitive way, emotional states, intentions and social conventions.
Some Aspergers sufferers get along in life with no real difficulty, others really struggle socially. Most children benefit from early-specialized interventions that focus on behaviour management and social skills training. Many children with Aspergers can learn the unwritten rules of socialization and communication when they are taught in an explicit and rote fashion.
Treatment for Aspergers > often involves a team of professionals that may include a speech and language pathologist, a psychologist, a social worker, a psychiatrist, or a developmental paediatrician, in addition to their child’s primary care physician. But treatments such as behaviour management, social skills training, speech and language therapy, and appropriate medical/alternative treatments can be very helpful indeed.
Aspergers is a relatively new diagnosis (1994) and there is no Asperger syndrome cause or cure at this time, as well as no known neurological tests exist. While children with Aspergers Syndrome have been spoken of as having a dash of autism, it is not entirely clear that Aspergers is truly a form of autism, or whether it is related only in the similarities of signs and symptoms.
Quite often the real problem with having something like Aspergers is having to continually deal with others who do not understand, which can lead to feeling frustrated and alone.
(submitted links deceased)
About the author:
Article Written By J. Foley