What is Aspergers Syndrome?
What distinguishes Asperger’s Syndrome from autism is the severity of the symptoms and the absence of language delays. Children with Asperger’s may be only mildly affected and frequently have good language and cognitive skills. To the untrained observer, a child with Asperger’s may seem just like a normal child behaving differently. They may be socially awkward, not understanding of conventional social rules, or show a lack of empathy. They may make limited eye contact, seem to be unengaged in a conversation, and not understand the use of gestures. One of the major differences between Asperger’s Syndrome and autism is that, by definition, there is no speech delay in Asperger’s. In fact, children with Asperger’s frequently have good language skills; they simply use language in different ways. Speech patterns may be unusual, lack inflection, or have a rhythmic nature or it may be formal, but too loud or high pitched. Children with Asperger’s may not understand the subtleties of language,
Asperger’s Disorder is one of five Pervasive Development Disorders (PDDs), which also includes Autism, Rett’s Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and PDD-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). PDDs are a category of neurologically-based disorders that have a range of delays in different developmental stages. What distinguishes Asperger’s Disorder from autism is the severity of the symptoms and the absence of language delays. Children with Asperger’s Disorder may be only mildly affected and frequently have good language and cognitive skills. To the untrained observer, a child with Asperger’s Disorder may just seem different.
What distinguishes Asperger’s Syndrome from autism is the severity of the symptoms and the absence of language delays. Children with Asperger’s may be only mildly affected and frequently have good language and cognitive skills. To the untrained observer, a child with Asperger’s may seem just like a normal child behaving differently. They may be socially awkward, not understanding of conventional social rules, or show a lack of empathy. They may make limited eye contact, seem to be unengaged in a conversation, and not understand the use of gestures.
Hans Asperger first described what is now called Asperger syndrome. It is a form of autism and is used to describe people at the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum. It is a life-long condition and is more commonly diagnosed in males than females. See the attached PDF for more information: Asperger Syndrome[1].
