Asperger's Syndrome Essay

Diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome can be a challenge. An interview with a clinician must be conducted, including the family of the person being diagnosed. Also, an observation is conducted in two different social settings (i.e.: school and home) (Stoddart, 2009). The criterion to be diagnosed is straight forward. First, there must be a severe impairment in social interaction. For example, no eye to eye contact, posture, does not develop peer relationships, and not bringing up interests to other people (Stoddart, 2009). Second, there must be stereotyped behaviors. For example, not being able to adhere to a random routine or change of plans, hand flapping, and playing with parts of objects, not the object itself. Thirdly, the impairments cause strain on social, and other areas of functioning. Fourth, the child had no delay in speech. This is the difference between a child with autism and Asperger’s. Children with Asperger’s have no delay in speech and usually are advanced in this area. Lastly, the child has no cognitive delay. For example, self-help abilities, and adapting behaviors. Usually these children have very high IQs (Stoddart, 2009). The major criterion is the social impairment. Asperger’s Syndrome is very focused around social behaviors. These children do not socially interact,

In the article, “How to Speak Asperger’s,” by Fran Goldfarb and Guthrie Devine, the authors contend that learning to communicate with people with Asperger’s Syndrome is an important skill. The authors introduce the article by providing a narrative about Goldfarb’s son. The point of her narrative is that communication is misunderstood with people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). The author, Fran Goldfarb, explains how her son misunderstands communication with his teachers, and how punishment is ineffective, because of his Asperger’s. The authors start by explaining why communication is very complex. To begin with, people with AS struggle with communication, because of their lack of social cues. They tend to miss irony, humor, and they take everything literally. That’s why people with AS don’t understand communication and everything is a struggle for them.

Approximately 947,570 Americans have Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), however, it is not an easy disorder to explain (Bashe 19). With multiple conditions and characteristics in each case, AS is not an easy disorder to diagnose. Asperger’s Syndrome was named after Hans Asperger, an Austrian physician, who first described the disorder in 1944 after studying a group of children with similar, unusual characteristics. However, AS was not made an official disease until 1994. Consequently, Asperger disease is just now becoming published and popular so there is still research and questions being answered. Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, is noted by above-average

Autism is a brain disorder that is characterized by slow and difficult comprehension of spoken and non-verbal communication and repetition of behaviors. Autism is normally noticed in the first two years of a child (Myers & Johnson, 2007). Asperger syndrome is an autistic disorder that has almost the same similarities with autism. People with Asperger syndrome have little comprehension of the world and its surroundings and poor communication with other people. People with Asperger syndrome are hard to recognize, as they do not show on their outward appearances. They are average or above average intellectually and have fewer problems in terms of speech and specific learning disabilities unlike in autism. These difficulties include dyslexia, epilepsy, and attention

The person who presents looks normal, normal intelligence capacity, often skilled in restricted areas, but has troubles relating to others and sometimes presents inappropriate behaviors. As well as other conditions recorded in the spectrum, it is believed that Asperger 's disorder is a developmental disorder with neurological basis, in most of the cases is unknown where comes from. There are deviations or abnormalities in three main aspects of development:

It is normal for a person with Asperger's to be limited by social fear. B. Support reason #1: These people are easily feared due to their high anxiety

Hans Asperger, a pediatrician from Austria, began to study a group of children at his clinic in 1944. He noticed that the young boys he was studying were clumsy, lacked social skills, and did not understand nonverbal communication. Asperger’s syndrome (AS), named after Doctor Hans Asperger, is a developmental disorder. Research by Woodbury-Smith and Volkmar (2009), claim that AS was originally thought of as a less severe form of Autism, in which the individual has higher linguistic ability but still lacks social skills. Many researches now consider AS an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, it is disputed amongst researchers as to whether it is explicit from High Functioning Autism (HFA). Many characteristics of AS and HFA are

Asperger Syndrome is an unfortunate condition to acquire. Asperger’s is considered to be a pervasive developmental disorder. Pervasive developmental disorders are most commonly involved with slower than average learning of everyday skills. Individuals with Asperger Syndrome will experience many difficulties. These individuals express little and bizarre social interaction. Next, their speech is monotone and short. Unfortunately, people with Asperger Syndrome will also experience difficulty with nonverbal communication. Examples of nonverbal communication are facial expressions, hand gestures, and waving. Overall, Asperger victims are socially awkward. These are all the struggles and symptoms that an Asperger victim will experience daily.

Asperger’s disorder (AD) is a disruption in the formation of the child’s physical and or psychological development and recognizing these, the disorder was separated from Autism in 1944, to provide a basis for each child to get the proper care. All children with Asperger Disorder will show some traits in these three categories; impaired social skills, trouble communicating with others and a pattern of behavior, interest, and activities’ will be limited and recurring; they become obsessed with a single theme. Usually the child will have the normal communication skills in the beginning years. They will be using single words by age one. They just will not be using them in the normal way. When doctors are testing for this disorder, they are looking for specific behaviors or skills that are either present or absent. If the right services are available, Asperser’s children will show significant improvement in language

Asperger’s disorder is also known as Asperger’s syndrome has been at the end of the autism spectrum and its own category for many years. Now over the last few years in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-5 (DSM-V) it has combined two core deficit areas. They are impairments in social interaction and impairments in communication into a single domain of social/communication deficits. It subsumes Asperger’s disorder into a single diagnostic category of autism spectrum disorder. (TEXTBOOKp.237). It is estimated one percentage of the world’s population and over three million Americas are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. ( ).

Asperger’s syndrome is often thought of as an invisible disorder as you usually cannot tell just by one’s physical appearance if they have this syndrome. Asperger’s patients look like everyone else physically but their brains are wired much dissimilarly than someone whom is non-Asperger’s. Although there are no tell tale physical traits of Asperger’s syndrome some patients exhibit a youthful look or glow, blank facial expressions, and lax joints.

ASD can cause impairment in multiple areas of development, such a psychological, cognitive, language, and even behavior. By the age of two months, a normal developing infant begins to vocalize by babbling and often engage in social mannerisms such as pointing or verbal communication. Social attention is sought by infants through pointing at an object, imitative communication, and greeting others (Crane & Winsler, 2008, p. 246). Infants developing ASD are deficient in their ability to socialize, and oftentimes that is an initial indicator of the onset of ASD. Infants who are later diagnosed fail to respond to typical environmental cues such as hearing their name called, nonverbal and verbal communication, and sociocommunicative factors (Crane & Winsler, 2008, p. 247).

According to the extensive amount of information provided in this case study about 6 year-old Janie, I have come to the conclusion that Janie should be diagnosed as having a mild form of Autistic Spectrum Disorder formerly known as Asperger’s syndrome. Under the Autistic Spectrum Disorder Asperger’s syndrome is one of four pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) that all fall under the Autistic spectrum. (Dombeck, 2008).ASD is a neural development disorder that is rarely diagnosed before the age of three (Roddick, 2014).ASD causes impairments in social skills and communication in different levels (Roddick, 2014).Those with ASD that are able to function at a normal level usually fall towards the end of the autism spectrum near the disorder known as a milder form of autism, Asperger’s. Janie displays a number of symptoms that are specifically common to ASD. One of the main symptoms being that Janie shows delays in motor developments such as walking and toilet training, however she has shown no language deficits or cognitive problems so far. This is extremely common in children with ASD (Asperger’s syndrome). They often take longer to reach physical developmental milestones, but children with this syndrome usually are of average intelligence or in some cases, above intelligence. (Silberman, 2001).This discovery of cases with children having normal or above average IQ’s led to the phrase that Asperger’s is basically a “high-functioning“ form of autism, because

Although the current knowledge regarding the nature of Asperger syndrome and its interventions are still limited. There is an upsurge of research on the disorder that in prompted many to write books and do deeper research. Projects are underway to better improve assessment and diagnosis the condition of Asperser syndrome. As stated in so many articles awareness of Asperger syndrome is growing and so is the general interest regarding availability of service, appropriate educational placement and vocational training.

Throughout my research of Asperger Syndrome, I hope to learn what the disease actually is. I want to know how a person is both mentally and physically affected when they have the condition. I would also like to know what aspects specialists use to diagnose a person with Aspergers. I’d like to learn about coping mechanisms and treatment methods. I also hope to