Asperger's Syndrome

zoobyshoe

What Is Asperger Syndrome?
By Barbara L. Kirby


"Asperger Syndrome or (Asperger's Disorder) is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who in 1944 published a paper which described a pattern of behaviors in several young boys who had normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills..."

"...Individuals with AS can exhibit a variety of characteristics and the disorder can range from mild to severe. Persons with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading nonverbal cues (body language) and very often the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space. Often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see...."

"Because of their high degree of functionality and their naiveté, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and some children sound like "little professors." However, persons with AS can be extremely literal and have difficulty using language in a social context..."


-by Lois Freisleben-Cook:
"...A few people with Asperger's syndrome are very successful and until recently were not diagnosed with anything but were seen as brilliant, eccentric, absent minded, socially inept, and a little awkward physically."

"Although the criteria state no significant delay in the development of language milestones, what you might see is a "different" way of using language. A child may have a wonderful vocabulary and even demonstrate hyperlexia but not truly understand the nuances of language and have difficulty with language pragmatics. Social pragmatics also tend be weak, leading the person to appear to be walking to the beat of a "different drum". Motor dyspraxia can be reflected in a tendency to be clumsy."

"In social interaction, many people with Asperger's syndrome demonstrate gaze avoidance and may actually turn away at the same moment as greeting another..."

Asperger Syndrome
Address:http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

mathwonk

this will not garner any comments apparently because we all think we have it and would rather not discuss it. i floated this topic in my mathd epartm,ent as a joke and did not get a single comment of any kind. i guess there are some things, like being socially clueless, that math/science types are sensitive about.

pattylou

Well, it may not garner any comments but I guarantee you will enjoy reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night" if you haven't yet.

Besides, social skills are over-rated. And I seriously doubt that nerdism (of which I am a proud card carrying member; I can quote HHGttG with the best of 'em) is really physiologically the same as Asperger's.

brewnog

Yes, definintely! If not medically accurate (anyone?), it's a fantastic way of telling a story, and such a fascinating condition too.

Ivan Seeking

No kidding, I find the most people too boring to make it worth the effort. This of course is one reason why I landed here at PF.

zoobyshoe

What is this? I haven't heard of it.

Ivan Seeking

Zooby, I was curious why you posted this in GD instead of Biology or Social Sciences?

zoobyshoe

Indeed, the first principle of social skills seems to be the unwritten rule: Never, under any circumstances, say anything interesting!

Ivan Seeking

You can imagine how well my interests go over in a crowd - physics, engineering, and serious discussion of fringe topics. Just shoot me now.

zoobyshoe

Yes, I debated about that, and am aware it would probably be more appropriate in Social Sciences. In the end I posted it here just because I feel more people check out GD than the smaller, dedicated forums. It's fine if you want to move it, though.

fourier jr

disagree here. last school year i did the courses on verbal & nonverbal communication & have been teaching myself about relationships also since then. i've learned a ton of stuff that i didn't know before. it has helped me at work also.

also one doesn't have to have all the symptoms of asperger's to have it, so nerdism in one form or another could be asperger's.

Ivan Seeking

You were wanting to get personal feedback and not so much technical responses? I was just curious.

zoobyshoe

Asperger's warrants an FYI in any case because the book I read that prompted this thread pointed out that, since it's only a very recent addition to the literature, there are huge numbers of mental health professionals who are pretty much ignorant about it, having recieved their training prior to the dissemination of info about AS. Likewise, it closely mimics other diagnoses:

"Say What?
When considering the dozens of descriptions various specialists have been know to apply to persons with AS, we could not help but recall the parable about the blind men and the elephant, in which each man identified the elephant as a different animal depending on which part of it he felt. Often specialists see and identify only the facet of AS that pertains to their area of expertise. Having been identified as having any of these does not exclude your child from having AS.

One Doctor's Asperger Syndrome
is another doctor's PDD-NOS
is yet another doctor's high-functioning autism is a speech pathologists's semantic-pragmatic disorder is a education consultant's nonverbal learning disability is a psychologist's personality disorder"

-The Oasis Guide to Asperger Syndrome
2001
p.85

The champion of Asperger's is probably Dr. Tony Atwood, who has gone farther than anyone else in trying to disseminate info about it, and more importantly to disseminate coping strategies for people with AS.

zoobyshoe

I had no idea what the response might be, but was thinking it might possibly lead to "Did Einstein have Asperger's?" since people have thrown that question out in the past without seeming to have researched Asperger's.

pattylou

It's a good read, follows a boy in Britain who has Asperger's, and he witnesses his neighbor's dog murdered. Since he had an easier relationship with the dog than he had with most people, he was really affected by the dog's death. So he sets out to find out what happened.

Told through his perspective, lots of mathematical puzzles sprinkled throughout (like when he got lost and used a logical methodolgy to find the train station instead of asking a stranger), etc.

Most (well, some anyway) technically minded people relate to the main character at a basic level.

Review:

http://mostlyfiction.com/contemp/haddon.htm

Chapter excerpt:

http://mostlyfiction.com/excerpts/curiousincident.htm

-patty

zoobyshoe

Thanks, Pattylou. I think I'm going to read it.

Happeh

All of that stuff sounds to me like the people have low energy. They are not healthy. Some proper exercise and exposure to the right people would fill them up. Looking away from someone is common when a low energy person meets a high energy person. It is self protection from possession.

Does it say anything about sexual preferences or activities of people with Asperger's?

I noticed the comment "No one likes to talk about Asperger's because we all wonder if we have it". If you had to make a choice, be as smart as you are now, or be social and normal and all that other stuff that Asperger's people are not, what would you choose?

Did you know that labeling something is a form of dominance? A person who can successfully label you, owns you. Back in the day, people were eccentric or odd. No big deal. Aspergers is like a power word. Some wizards over in the Psychology department waved their magic wand and Aspergers bubbled out of the pot. Now instead of feeling inferior to hard scientists, the Psychologists can point at you and say the magic word "Aspergers" and POOF! You are nothing. A little kid embarrassed and ashamed of himself. Hiding so no one sees that he has no social skills and thinks differently from others. That will teach you to say psychologists are not real scientists.