Asperger syndrome with children

We have all heard of autism. But Asperger’s syndrome sounds less familiar, while this disorder also belongs to the autism spectrum. What does Asperger’s syndrome mean and what are its characteristics?

 Asperger syndrome is a pervasive development disorder. Pervasive means that this disorder applies to several development areas of a child. The brains function differently in this case, especially in processing information from the environment and in social interactions. Children with Asperger syndrome are often more emotional than others, but they find it difficult to express these emotions. It looks, therefore, as if they are less emotional.

Asperger syndrome was called after the Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger, who was the first to describe the disorder in 1944. Children with this syndrome show similarities with classic autism, such as problems with communication, socialism and locomotion. However, there are also some clear differences between Asperger syndrome and autism. Firstly, children suffering from Asperger syndrome have average to above average intelligence, while seventy percent of the children with classic autism are mentally disabled. Secondly, children with Asperger syndrome usually have good or in any case better language skills than children with classic autism. Finally, children with Asperger syndrome suffer more than average from aggression, depression and anxiety. 

Characteristics of children with Asperger syndrome

Children suffering from Asperger syndrome can be recognised by:

• A good eye for detail
• A good memory
• A high to very high intelligence
• Good grammatical knowledge and extended vocabulary
• A lack of empathy
• Hardly able to commence relationships or keep them
• Poor social skills
• Showing eccentric behaviour
• Poor or absent non verbal communication
• Being able to be completely absorbed by certain subjects
• Having a bad locomotion or deviant posture
• A deviant way of talking: little variation in rhythm and pitch, often a deviant and formal choice of words
• Not knowing the difference between literal and figural sense
• Avoiding eye contact
• An uneven development of cognitive and social skills
• High sensorial oversensitivity
• No or hardly any expression of emotions
• Appearing authoritarian by peculiar use of language, often assertively and monotonous

Sources: www.todio.nl