What Is The Theory Of Mind In Asperger's Theory Of Mind?

Asperger’s syndrome is becoming more and more common as time goes by. Each year, more children are being diagnosed. This paper focuses on Asperger’s Syndrome and developing social skills in various social settings. By looking at the etiology, diagnostic procedures, how the condition effects development, daily challenges, current social/cultural views, and relevant social interventions, a better understanding on how to develop social skills for children with Asperger’s Syndrome can ensue. The world revolves around social situations. This is how people are hired for jobs, ask for things, make new friends, meet their future spouse, etc. At the moment, social skills training and social support is minimal compared to where it potentially

Aside from routines and rituals, another essential symptom in Asperger’s is poor or nonexistent social skills. People with Asperger’s syndrome have difficulty during conversation and are awkward when starting conversation ("What is Asperger's Syndrome?

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.

Problems with social skills include difficulty interacting with others, are often awkward in social situations, and have difficulty starting and maintaining a conversation. Individuals with Asperger’s syndrome may develop odd, repetitive movements, such as hand twitching or finger twisting. They might also develop unusual rituals, such as getting dressed in a specific order, and are resistant to change the ritual. Some communication difficulties people with Asperger's syndrome may exhibit are, not being able to make eye contact when speaking with someone, trouble using facial expressions and gestures, and understanding body language. They also have a tendency to misunderstand language in context and are very literal in their use of language. Individuals could express limited range of interests; they could develop an almost obsessive interest in a few areas, such as weather, topics in school, or sports. Many individuals with Asperger's syndrome are exceedingly gifted or skilled in a particular area, such as history or science. The coordination of individuals with Asperger's syndrome may seem clumsy or awkward.

What makes you different? Is it your clothes, your personality or your hobbies? Do these things set you apart from everybody else or do they help you fit in? Would you change these things if you could. What if you couldn't change it because it was part of your DNA? Its something you can never change and it will be with you the rest of your life. One of these things is Aspergers. The symptoms, causes,diagnosis and their daily lives set them apart from everybody else.

People with this disorder are affected in different ways. The strengths of Asperger’s, according to James, include “the ability to think in unusual and enriching ways, concentration for long periods of time on a single activity, sole attention to a task and persistence with it far beyond the point at which other people would have given up” (2006, p. 11).

Amazingly, one percent of new births will have some type of autism (Autism Society of America, 2010). Asperger’s disorder is one type of Autism, and is at the high end of these disorders. This “disorder, which is also called Asperger's syndrome (AS) or autistic psychopathy, belongs to a group of childhood disorders known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) or autistic spectrum disorders”(Exkorn, 2006). A characteristic of this disorder is harsh and strict disruption of a certain type of brain development. The most affected areas of Asperger's disorder is difficulty in social understanding and in behavior or activities that are limited or recurring (Frey, 2003). Students with Asperser’s have different levels of seriousness,

Asperger’s syndrome is one of the most common forms of autism and most children with this form are high functioning in specific areas as well as lack social skills and Theory of Mind.

Asperger’s Syndrome (ASD) is defined as a developmental disorder related to Autism and characterized by higher than average intellectual ability coupled with impaired social skills. People suffering from ASD can overcome this disease and live a normal, productive life by learning basic life skills, communication techniques, and developing meaningful relationships. These essential life skills are important to everyday life and need to be learned in order for these individuals to maintain a self-sustaining life. Without these skills, it is highly possible these individuals will be unable to leave home or even hold down meaningful employment. John Robison writes

These individuals may speak in a monotone voice, have unusual mannerisms, or choose unusual topics of conversation. Individuals with Asperger syndrome tend to develop an intense interest in a particular subject. The interest may be a traditional hobby or on an academic level. Often they are able to remember a large amount of details on their subject of interest. People with Asperger’s may have difficulty tolerating sensory stimuli such as noise or lights. Other features may include mild impairment of motor skills. Basic skills such as crawling or walking may be somewhat delayed. This physical clumsiness may lead to further social isolations.

Asperger’s Syndrome is described as an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), once known as Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), and is characterized as a milder version of autism. Children with Asperger’s seem to adapt easier to social interactions as they get older, contrary to autism. Autism is a syndrome of extreme withdrawal and obsessive behavior. Asperger’s syndrome is similar to autism in a way that children experience difficulties with social interaction and communication. Also, children will have issues with concentration or coordination. Asperger’s and autism do have a lot of differences as well. One difference being the onset for autism is in infancy whereas in Asperger’s it is, at least, recognized later. Children with Asperger’s tend to have average or above average intelligence and seem

Asperger’s Syndrome is a milder diagnosis on the autism spectrum. The main difference between autism and Asperger’s is that many individuals with Asperger’s show little to no delay in speech. They are often extremely intelligent, usually in one particular field. Despite this, individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome typically struggle socially and have other sensory issues liken to autism. To the untrained eye Asperger’s is less obvious than autism, but a professional can easily decipher the symptoms. Because it is less obvious, many children with Asperger’s syndrome are not diagnosed until age eight or nine as opposed to children with autism who are usually diagnosed by age three or four. Like autism, the label placed on an individual may change over the years because of improvements, but, like autism, it is also a life-long, biomedical condition (Grandin, 2011, p. 8).

Problems with social interaction are mainly connected to difficulty establishing close relationships with others (Rutter, 1978). Those with ASD may exhibit disinterest in reciprocating communication or in interacting with others at all, for example not responding to another person’s greeting (Fernell, Eriksson, & Gillberg, 2013). They may also act apathetically, not caring if another person such as a parent is feeling sad or angry (Amaral, Geschwind, & Dawson, 2011).

Asperger’s can have an impact on a child physically, cognitively, socially and psychologically. Although, there are minor physiological impacts on the person with Asperger’s they are still present. They include lack of eye contact, facial expressions, body posture and a physical awkwardness or clumsiness (Calero 2015). They also may have difficulty with fine and or gross motor skills. In regards to the cognitive impact, there hasn’t been much research done, but according to Marcus L. Thomeer’s research study, he found “there is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood” (Thomeer, 2012). Most children with AS have average or above average intelligence.

Wood et al. (2014) argues that adolescents are more likely to become self-aware of their own conscious behavior, therefore those coping with ASD are more likely to turn towards social isolation and other depressive actions (as cited in Kuussikko et al., 2008). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a very reputable intervention for ASD. Butler, Chapman, Forman, and Beck (2006) describes the purpose of CBT as “… the proposition that symptoms and dysfunctional behaviors are often cognitively mediated and…improvement [is] produced by modifying dysfunctional thinking and beliefs” (as cited in Dobson & Dozois, 2001). Hutchins et al. (2015) explains Theory of Mind (ToM) is “a body of conceptual knowledge that underlies access to both one’s