
#REDIRECT Asperger's_syndrome
'''Asperger's syndrome (AS'''), is a pervasive developmental disorder commonly referred to as a form of "high-functioning" autism. Individuals with Asperger's are considered to have a higher intellectual capacity while suffering from a lower social capacity. The term "Asperger's syndrome" was coined by Lorna Wing in a 1981 medical paper. She named it after Hans Asperger, an Austria psychiatrist and pediatrician whose work was not internationally recognized until the 1990s. == Characteristics == Like other conditions currently classified as an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome is strongly gender biased, with males currently comprising approximately 75 percent of diagnoses. However, this figure may not be completely accurate, as girls are arguably more exposed to social situations and thus have more of a chance to learn to imitate the non-autistics and behave "normally". Physically and genetics, aspergians are no different from non-autistics. The difference lies in the social life. Non-autistics — called neurotypicals, or NTs, by people on the autistic spectrum who reject the word "normal" — possess a comparatively sophisticated sense of other people's mental states. Most people are able to gather a whole host of information about other people's cognitive and emotional states based on clues gleaned from the environment and the other person's body language. Persons with autism are relatively deficient in this ability, and the individual with Asperger's can be every bit as "mind-blind" as the person with profound classical autism. For those who are severely affected by "mind-blindness", they may, at best, see a smile but not know what it means (is it an understanding, a condescending, or a malicious smile?) and at worst they will not even see the smile, frown, smirk, or any other nuance of interpersonal communication. They generally find it difficult or impossible to "read between the lines"; that is, figure out those things a person is implying but is not saying directly. It is worth noting, however, that since it is a spectrum disorder, a few with Asperger's are nearly normal in their ability to read facial expressions and intentions of others. Those with Asperger's often have difficulty with eye contact. Many make very little eye contact, finding it overwhelming, while others have unmodulated, staring eye contact that can be off-putting to others. Asperger's syndrome can involve an intense and obsessive level of focus on things of interest and is often characterized by special (and possibly peculiar) gifts; one person might be obsessed with 1950s professional wrestling, another with national anthems of African dictatorships, another with building models out of matchsticks. Particularly common interests are means of transport (for example trains), computers, and dinosaurs. These interests are often coupled with an unusually high capacity to retain and recall encyclopedic amounts of information about the favored subject. In general, orderly things have appeal to individuals with Asperger's. When these special interests coincide with a materially or socially useful task, the individual with Asperger's can often lead a profitable life. The child obsessed with naval architecture may grow up to be an accomplished shipwright, for instance. In pursuit of these interests, the individual with Asperger's often manifests extremely sophisticated reason, an almost obsessive focus, and eidetic memory. Hans Asperger called his young patients "little professors", based on the fact that his thirteen-year-old patients had as comprehensive and nuanced an understanding of their field of interest as university professors. Individuals with Asperger's have emotion as strong as, or perhaps stronger than, most people, though what generates an emotional response might not always be the same. What they lack (or are markedly slower to develop) is the inborn ability to perceive the emotional states of others or to express their own emotional state via body language, facial expression, and nuance in the way that most people do. Many people with Asperger's report a feeling of being unwillingly detached from the world around them; they lack the natural ability to see the subtexts of social interaction, and they equally lack the ability to broadcast their own emotional state to the world accurately. This leads to many troubles in childhood and adulthood. Asperger's children are often the target of bullying at school because of their idiosyncratic behaviour, language, and interests, and because of their lower or delayed ability to perceive and respond appropriately to non-verbal cues, particularly in situations of interpersonal conflict. When a teacher asks a child with Asperger's, "Did the dog eat ''your'' homework?", the child with Asperger's will remain silent if they don't understand the expression, trying to figure out if they need to explain to the teacher that they don't have a dog and also that dogs don't generally like paper. The child doesn't understand what the teacher is asking, cannot deduce the teacher's meaning, or the fact that there is a non-literal meaning, from the tone of voice, posture or facial expression, and is faced with a question which makes as much sense to him as "Did the glacier in the library bounce today?". The teacher may walk away from the experience frustrated and thinking the child is arrogance, spiteful, and insubordinate. The child sits there mutely, feeling frustrated and wronged. Those affected by Asperger's may also manifest a range of other sensory, developmental, and physiological anomalies. It is common for Asperger's children to evidence a marked delay in the development of fine motor skills. They may display a distinctive 'waddling' or 'mincing' gait when they walk and may walk with their arms held out in an unusual manner. Compulsive finger, hand, or arm movements, such as flapping, are also observed. Some Asperger's children suffer from varying degrees of sensory overload, and may be pathologically sensitive to loud noises or strong smells and may dislike being touched — for example, certain Asperger's children exhibit a strong dislike of having their head touched or their hair disturbed. The "sensory overload" factor may exacerbate problems faced by Asperger's children at school, where levels of noise in the classroom can become almost intolerable for them. Another noted behavioural characteristic that may be present is echolalia, which causes the subject to repeat words, or parts of words, when they speak, like an echo. Children with Asperger's often display advanced abilities for their age in language, reading, mathematics, spatial skills, or music, sometimes into the 'gifted' range, although as noted above, they may be counterbalanced by appreciable delays in other developmental areas. As with most gifted children, children with Aspergers are often misdiagnosed by teachers as being a "problem child" or a "poor performer," but the reality is that they simply have an extremely low tolerance and motivation for what they perceive to be mundane and mediocre tasks, and will often rather daydream within their own focused universe than work on the task at hand. There seems to be a strong correlation between those with Asperger's/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and the INTP type of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): [http://www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html description 1], [http://www.intp.org/intprofile.html description 2]. ==Social interaction and cognitive patterns== Asperger's can also lead to problems with normal social interaction between peers. In childhood and teenage years, this can cause severe problems as a child or teen with Asperger's can have difficulty interpreting subtle social cues, and as such be ostracized by their peers, leading to social cruelty. A child or teen with Asperger's is frequently puzzled as to the source of this cruelty, unaware of what has been done "wrong". Recent efforts in the field of special education have concentrated on teaching children with Asperger's how to interact with their peers, achieving only moderate success, while the alternative of teaching their peers to cope with Asperger's children does not seem to have been seriously considered by many professionals. The social alienation of some people with Asperger's syndrome is so intense in childhood that some create imaginary friends for companionship. Asperger's syndrome hardly guarantees a miserable life. Often the intense focus and tendency to work things out logically, characteristic of Asperger's, will grant them a high level of ability in their field of interest. Despite their difficulty with social interaction, many people with Asperger's possess a rare gift for humor (especially puns, wordplay, doggerel, satire), and writing. In fact, sometimes their fluency with language is such that a number of them also qualify as hyperlexia. While many people with Asperger's will probably not have lives that are considered a social success by common standards - and there are some who will remain alone their entire lives - it is possible for some to find understanding people with whom they can have close relationships. Many autistics have children, in which case their children may be neurotypical or may have an autism spectrum disorder. Many autistics are unaware of their autism, because milder forms of autism are widely misunderstood and often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed by professionals. === Social Stories and Comic Book Conversations === Carol Gray, a well-recognized researcher in the area of educational intervention for individuals on the autism spectrum, has developed a technique called the [http://www.thegraycenter.org/Social_Stories.htm Social Story] that has been found helpful in explaining social situations. A Social Story is a story written for a particular individual with Asperger's in order to provide a written framework for a social situation that they encounter regularly and have difficulty working through. The story is constructed of four types of sentences: * descriptive sentences describe the situation in terms of cues or characteristics that can be observed whenever the situation occurrs * perspective sentences that tell about a person's internal state such as their knowledge, feelings, beliefs, or motivations * directive sentences identify a suggested response or choice of responses ** note that these stories are a collaborative effort between the individual with Asperger's and his or her teacher, and in no way seek to "tell the person what to do" - the stories aim to provide a written, visual cue as to how a situation may be encountered and dealt with * affirmative sentences emphasize the other three types, often expressing a commonly shared opinion or value within a culture. E.g. the perspective sentence "Sometimes I get angry." may be followed by the affirmative sentence "This is okay. Many people get angry. " This type of structured, written and visual cue can often be helpful to individuals with AS. A similar type of written/visual cue called a Comic Strip Conversation can also be helpful. A social situation is illustrated similar to a comic strip. Highly salient cues to location are illustrated. Stick figures are used to represent the actors in the situation. Speech bubbles represent things that were actually said, and thought bubbles represent what the person with Asperger's was thinking and what the other individual may have been thinking. A color code is used to represent the underlying emotions or motivations. Often, adding the structure and visual cues to the situation assists the Aspergian to percieve otherwise-missed social cues. For further reading, see: == DSM definition == Asperger's is defined in section 299.80 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as: #Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following: ##Marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction ##Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level ##A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people) ##A lack of social or emotional reciprocity #Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following: ##Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus ##Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals ##Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements) ##Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects. #The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. #There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years) #There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills or adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood #Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia. Please read the DSM cautionary statement. The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals diagnostic criteria have been roundly criticized for being vague and subjective: what one psychologist calls a \"significant impairment\" another psychologist may call insignificant. == Relationship to autism == Experts today generally agree that there is no single mental condition called autism'''. Rather, there is a spectrum of autistic disorders, with different forms of autism taking different positions on this spectrum. But within certain circles of the autism/AS community, this concept of a "spectrum" is being severely questioned. If differences in development are purely a function of differential acquisition of skills, then attempting to distinguish between "degrees of severity" may be dangerously misleading. A person may be subjected to unrealistic expectations, or even denied life-saving services, solely on the basis of very superficial observations made by others in the community. In the 1940s, Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, working independently in the United States and Austria, identified essentially the same population, Asperger's group being perhaps more "socially functional" than Kanner's as a whole. Some of Kanner's originally identified autistic children, might today get an Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, and vice versa. It is a mistake to say that a "Kanner autistic" is a child who sits and rocks and does not communicate. Kanner's study subjects were all along the spectrum. Researchers are grappling with the problem of how to divide up the spectrum. There is no easy way to do this. It would appear that one can divide the population of autistics in any particular way and define the group accordingly. Autistics who speak, those who don't. Autistics with seizures, those without. Autistics with more "stereotypical behaviors", those with fewer, and so forth. Some are trying to identify genes associated with these traits as a way to make logical groupings. Eventually, one may hear about autistics with or without the HOXA 1 gene, with or without changes to chromosome 15, etc. Traditionally, Kannerian autism is characterized by significant cognitive and communicative deficiencies, including delays in or lack of language. Often it will be clear that these people do not function normally. An individual with Asperger's on the other hand will not show delays in language. It is a more subtle disorder and affected individuals will often only appear to be odd. Kanner's syndrome is described in the article autism. Some clinicians believe that communicative and/or cognitive deficiencies are so essential to the concept of autism that they prefer to consider Asperger's as a separate condition altogether from autism. This opinion is a minority one. Uta Frith (an early researcher of Kannerian autism) has written that people with Asperger's seem to have more than a touch of autism to them. Others, such as Lorna Wing and Tony Attwood, share in Frith's assessment. Dr. Sally Ozonoff, of the University of California at Davis's MIND institute, argues that there should be no dividing line between "high-functioning" autism and Asperger's, and that the fact that some don't start to produce speech until a later age is no reason to divide the two groups, as they are identical in the way they need to be treated. Asperger's syndrome and other forms of autism are often grouped together in a Pervasive Developmental Disorder family. ==Possible causes and origins== The causes and origins of autism and Asperger's syndrome are subjects of continuing conjecture and debate, and there is still considerable debate on these topics, alongside the broader debate about whether Asperger's and other conditions (such as Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) are part of the so-called autism spectrum or not. Amongst several competing theories are the ''underconnectivity theory'' developed by cognitive scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, the ''extreme male brain theory'' by Simon Baron-Cohen, the lack of ''theory of mind'', and the ''Pre-operational autism theory'', which states that autistic people are those who get neurologically stuck at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development, where much of information processing is at a holistic-visual level and is largely musical and non-verbal. This also addresses the issue of the theory of mind where children at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development have not attained decentralisation from egocentrism. The Monotropism hypothesis argues that the central feature of Autism is attention-tunnelling, monotropism. The hypothesis is founded on the model [http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/mind.htm Mind as a Dynamical System: Implications for Autism]. In this model of mind, the fundamental and limited resource is mental attention. Mental events compete for and consume attention. In a polytropic mind, many interests are aroused to a moderate degree. In a monotropic mind, few interests are very highly aroused. When many interests are aroused, multiple, complex, behaviours emerge. When few interests are aroused then a few, intensely motivated, behaviours are engendered. From monotropism hypothesis, autism results from different strategies of distributing attention in the brain. The ''Underconnectivity theory'' indicates a deficiency in the coordination among brain areas. With the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was seen that white matter, which connects various areas of the brain like cables, has abnormalities in people with autism. (For those interested in brain studies, see Neuropsychology.) The underconnectivity theory holds that autism is a system-wide brain disorder that limits the coordination and integration among brain areas. This theory is Ockham's Razor, in that it explains why autistic people are matured on certain dimensions, such as visual information processing and logical analysis, and yet are socially — and sometimes neuro-physiologically — significantly younger than their chronological age. The underconnectivity theory can be regarded as monotropism in the brain. Other theories address the rise of autism in recent times. They suggest that the rise of visual media and the increasingly central role of visual information processing in the breakdown of language contributes to the increase of autism. Other theories involve the effect of toxins and poisons on neural development. It has been suggested that high levels of heavy metals such as lead may be a causal factor, and lead poisoning has been strongly linked to some cases of severe autism. One of the most controversial claims, along these lines, is that conditions such as autism and Asperger's are caused by adverse side-effects of immunization—particularly the so-called MMR Vaccine vaccine—and from the heavy-metal preservatives that in the past were used in their manufacture. This theory has a degree of popular currency and has been discussed in a number of documentaries on the subject. It has also been supported by some recent research that indicates that glutathione, a natural antioxidant, [http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/04/03/hscout524907.html may be unusually low in autistic people]; this may explain why the tiny amounts of mercury found in vaccines might be detoxified in the bodies of some children, but cause damage that leads to autism in a few. If this theory has merit, a blood test for autism, measuring glutathione levels, might be in the offing in the near future. However, critics argue that this theory fails to address the basic empirical observation that Asperger's and related disorders are overwhelmingly predominant in males, yet children of the two sexes are immunized in roughly equal numbers. A lesser known theory is that Asperger's and related syndromes may, in part, perpetuate genetic traits which were once highly advantageous to survival. One of the most notable characteristics of many people with Asperger's is that even very young children display a prodigious and often Eidetic memory (photographic) memory, with the ability to precisely recall very large amounts of music, dialogue and speech after even a single hearing. Although being able to precisely memorize and recall vast amounts of detail, such as cricket scores, dinosaur facts or television-show dialogue, may seem little more than an unusual trait in some societies, it is important to realize that such a skill would have had a high value in pre-literate society. The ability to accurately memorize and re-tell stories, myths, histories and other important oral traditions — such as directions to a remote food or water source — could have meant the difference between life and death before the invention of writing. == Effect on relationships == The significant others of people with Asperger's are more prone to major depression than the general population because people with Asperger's often have trouble showing affection or have little desire to show affection, and can be very literal and hard to communicate with in an emotional way. It is helpful for those involved with someone with Asperger's to read as much as they can about Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hyperlexia and other Comorbidity disorders. It also helps to visit support groups' websites on the Web and talk with others who are involved with people with Asperger's. A significant other will often be much less angry or depressed if he or she understands that the Asperger's symptoms are not intentionally directed, but are part of a Neurology disorder. That when someone does not spontaneously show affection, it does not necessarily mean that he or she does not feel it. Thus, the significant other will come to feel less rejected and be more understanding. Light will be shed on the nature of the misunderstandings. They may figure out ways to work around the problems; for example, by being more explicit about their needs. For instance, when describing emotions, it can be helpful to be direct and to avoid vague terms like "upset" when the emotion being described is "anger". Another suggestion could be to lay out in clear language what the problem is and to ask the partner with Asperger's to describe what emotions are being felt or ask why a certain emotion was being felt. == A gift and a curse == Recently, some researchers have speculated that many well-known people including Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, Craig Nicholls, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Glenn Gould, Gary Numan, Erik Satie, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodore Kaczynski, William James Sidis, Bobby Fischer, Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates have or had AS, as they showed some Asperger's related tendencies, such as intense interest in one subject and social problems. Such diagnoses remain controversial, however (cf. BBC News, ''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2988647.stm Einstein and Newton "had autism"]'', 30 April 2003), and some more so than others, as most scholars seem to agree that Satie suffered at least from some form of autism. The obvious social contributions of such individuals has led to a shift in the perception of Asperger's and autism away from the simple view of a disease needing to be cured towards a more complex view of a syndrome with advantages and disadvantages. There is a semi-jocular theory within science fiction fandom, for example, which argues that many of the distinctive traits of that subculture may be explained by the speculation that a significant portion thereof is composed of people with Asperger's. A Wired Magazine article called ''[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html The Geek Syndrome]'' suggested that Asperger's syndrome is more common in the Silicon Valley, a haven for computer scientists and mathematicians. It created an enduring myth popularized in the media and self-help books that "Geek Syndrome" equals Asperger's syndrome, and precipitated a rash of self-diagnoses. Though these conditions do share traits, there is a consensus that most geeks are arguably "variant normal" and do not exhibit autistic-spectrum behaviors. "Geeks" may exhibit an extreme professional or casual interest in computers, science, engineering and related fields, and may be introverted; however, they do not suffer from impairments per se. This does not imply that there is no overlap between "geeks" and Asperger's patients, but it should be noted that self-diagnosis is a dangerous practice, and one prone to error. == Criticisms == Some people, including some people diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, argue that Asperger's syndrome is a social construct. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre has written a book arguing that Asperger's syndrome is an extreme version of the way in which men's brains differ from women's. He says that, in general, men are better at systematizing than women, and that women are better at empathizing than men. Hans Asperger himself is quoted as saying that his patients have 'an extreme version of the male form of intelligence'. One objection which has been put forward to this view is that, although AS is more common among males than females, females with AS do not necessarily come across as particularly masculine personalities, and some of them can show an exceptional interest in activities such as dancing. Yet again, what is perceived as a "masculine personality" may not be what Baron-Cohen had in mind by male intelligence, and dancing may be considered feminine only by certain social conventions. That dancing is considered a feminine pursuit clearly does not mean that a patient's interest in it must be motivated or directed by a non-systematic (presumably "female" in Baron-Cohen's work) brain structure. == Affectionate terms == "Aspie" is an affectionate term used by some with Asperger's syndrome to describe themselves. Others prefer "Aspergian,", "Asperger's Autistic" or no name at all. == References == *[1] Mayes SD, Calhoun SL, Crites DL: ''Does DSM-IV Asperger's disorder exist?'', Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 2001 June; 29(3), pages 263–271, [http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0902/3_29/76558499/p1/article.jhtml online version] * ''The ADHD-Autism Connection: A Step toward more accurate diagnosis and effective treatment'', by Diane M. Kennedy, ISBN 1578564980 (The aim of this book is to explore the similarities that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shares with a spectrum of disorders currently known as pervasive developmental disorders.) * ''Asperger's Syndrome — A Guide for Parents and Professionals'' by Tony Atwood. This book is considered to be the Bible as far as general AS books go. * ''Martian in the Playground'' by Claire Sainsbury. This book is all about the schoolchild with Asperger's Syndrome. * ''Freaks, Geeks and Asperger's Syndrome'' (ISBN 1843100983) by Luke Jackson. This book won the National Association of Special Educational Needs Children's book award. Luke Jackson and his family starred in the British TV program, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/tvradio/autism/ My Family and Autism]. Luke is about 14 and has Asperger's syndrome. He has a brother with dyslexia, a brother with ADHD and a brother with profound autism. He also has three neurotypical sisters. * ''Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain'' by Simon Baron-Cohen. The author proposes the theory that autism and Asperger Syndrome can be explained as extreme examples of the male type of mind. == See also == *Autism rights movement *Conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders * Autism ** List of persons with autism spectrum disorders ** List of fictional characters on the autistic spectrum * Picture thinking * High-Functioning Autism (HFA) == External links == ===Diagnosis and self-diagnosis tools=== *[http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/tests/aq_test.asp Autism Research Center: The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)] — A self-administered test for High-Functioning Autism (HFA): S. Baron-Cohen, S. Wheelwright, R. Skinner, J. Martin and E. Clubley, (2001), ''The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) : Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians.'' Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 31:5-17. *[http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/tests/default.asp Autism Research Center: Other Tests] ===In the media=== *[http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=5-May-04 ''Fresh Air with Terry Gross''] Program on Aspergers, May 5, 2004. *[http://www.lcmedia.com/mind374.htm ''The Infinite Mind''] Aspergers Syndrome: A Special Report (Part One), May 11, 2005. *[http://www.lcmedia.com/mind375.htm ''The Infinite Mind''] Aspergers Syndrome: A Special Report (Part Two), May 18, 2005. *[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html Geeks and Autism] Wired ===Community forum sites=== *[http://www.aspergia.com/ Aspergia] Promoting the development of an Aspergian cultural identity. *[http://www.wrongplanet.net/ WrongPlanet.net Asperger's Syndrome Support] online resource and community for those with AS *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMSecretSociety/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Secret Society] A place for Aspies and HFAs that would like to participate in deep discussions within the framework of respect, friendship, and mutual support. *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMFamilyForum/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Family Forum] A place where parents and relatives of Aspies and HFAs can discuss Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism with Aspies and HFAs. *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMSecretShield/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Secret Shield] For those Aspies and HFAs who have been bullied. *[http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com Aspies for Freedom] Site that has a positive approach to autism and focuses on autistic advocacy. *[http://www.autismforum.net/ AutismForum.net] offers a discussion forum, articles, and a chat room for the Autism community. *[http://www.xmission.com/~winter/ubb/ultimatebb.php Aspergers Community Board] offers a discussion forum for parents of AS children and teenagers, as well as for adults with Asperger's. Also offers pre-set searches for common queries. *[http://www.aspergianpride.com/ Aspergian Pride]Contains articles, web links, and forums that present positive views of autistic identity as a unique, meaningful culture and as a way of being. *[http://www.spectrumhaven.com SpectrumHaven.com] Site for kids and teens with Asperger's Syndrome *[http://www.aspietalk.co.uk/ AspieTALK (United Kingdom & Ireland)] Discussion Forums & Chat Room for Adults & Teens in the UK & Republic of Ireland with Asperger Syndrome - includes regional forums (e.g Central England, Scotland etc.) ===Support groups=== *[http://www.aspennj.org ASPEN Asperger Syndrome Education Network] *[http://www.autism-society.org Autism Society of America] *[http://www.nas.org.uk National Autistic Society, UK] *[http://autistics.org/ Autistics.org], resources by and for persons on the autistic spectrum *[http://www.autismnsw.com.au ASPECT Australia] Autism Spectrum Australia, for people on the autism spectrum and their families ===Informational=== *[http://www.autism-assembly.com Autism Assembly] Coalition of people on the autism spectrum, websites and groups, part of the global autism rights movement. *[http://www.geocities.com/environmental1st2003/FAM_Secret_Society.html Fellowship of the Aspergian Mircale] An informational site that has links the Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle family of forums. *[http://www.autisticprideday.com Autistic Pride Day] Official information site for Autistic Pride Day, June 18th each year. *[http://www.ukautism.com Autism Awareness Campaign UK] *[http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/ Oops wrong planet syndrome] *[http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/ Online Asperger Syndrome Information and Support] *[http://aspergerinfo.org Dallas Asperger Network for Information, Support and Help] *[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html Online (informal) test for signs of Asperger's] *[http://www.autism-in-mind.org Autism In Mind], autism support website. *[http://www.neurodiversity.com/ Neurodiversity.com], Autistic spectrum resources *[http://www.aspergerinformation.net AS-IF (aspergerinformation.net)] Great resources about Asperger *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk Autism and Computing], Autistic spectrum resources *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/marc2.htm A survival guide for people with Asperger syndrome], by Marc Segar *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/mind.htm Mind as a Dynamical System: Implications for Autism], They argue that the central feature of Autism is attention-tunnelling, monotropism. *[http://www.aspies.co.uk Aspies.co.uk], Personal site detailing interventions taken to help a child with Asperger's Syndrome. *[http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm The Neanderthal theory of autism], A non-dysfunction theory of autism and many other related conditions. *[http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php An aspie quiz], A test aimed at the behavioral differences between non autistics and those with aspergers. *[http://www.mental-health-matters.com/disorders/dis_details.php?disID=10 Mental Health Matters: Asperger's Syndrome] *[http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/immu/autism.html Quackwatch.org: Misconceptions about autism: Vaccines cause autism] *[http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/ Autistic Advocacy] *[http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/ Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support] *[http://www.askanaspie.com/ AskAnAspie.com] Offers information (written by a group of students at the University of Chicago who have Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism) that is specifically designed for parents. ===Medical community=== *[http://www.cureautismnow.org/index.jsp Cure Autism Now Foundation] ===Humor=== *[http://isnt.autistics.org/ Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical] (a parody by autistic and Asperger's people) ==Literature== *''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: A Novel'' by Mark Haddon ISBN 0385509456 *''The Adhd-Autism Connection : A Step Toward More Accurate Diagnoses and Effective Treatments'' by Diane Kennedy, Rebecca Banks, Temple Grandin; ISBN 1578564980 *''Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us'' by John J. MD Ratey; ISBN 0553379593 *''Understanding and Working With the Spectrum of Autism: An Insider's View'' by Wendy Lawson; ISBN 1853029718 ===Cinema=== *Mozart and the Whale Autism Childhood psychiatric disorders Eponymous diseases
== Introduction == I'm deleting a large chunk of text - however, since I wrote the text originally, no one should be concerned. :) I asked a friend knowelegeable about such matters to contribute some text, which I consider far superior to my initial entry and am thus putting in wholesale. user:-- April AS is the common shorthand for it. Or ASP Quick question about the following sentence from near the end of the article: ''The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's diagnostic criteria have been roundly criticized for being far too vague and subjective. '' Is it the DSM's Asperger's diagnostic criteria that have been criticized, or *all* of the DSM's diagnostic criteria for all the disorders it tries to cover? I don't know, but I think the sentence or paragraph could be reworded a little to remove that confusion; as it is, I could read it either way. User:Wesley 17:07 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC) : Both. Some people think that all or the vast majority of the DSM-IV is nonsense. A slightly larger number of people think that the specific entry for asperger's is nonsense. The former is arguably off-topic, though. -User:MyRedDice : ''What is Acapedia -> see talk:Acapedia'' :Besides that question, this article needs a lot of work -- too many long chunks of text. -- User:Zoe Changed abbreviation to ASD, which is what's used by most professionals User:GregNorc ---- ---- This is an outstanding article that I found to be highly evolved and a really great read. The only personal link I have to Autism was with a woman I dated with three autistic children. She was phenomenal to endure the perpetual frustration of teaching them and attending to their needs. From then on, I have been keenly aware of autism clinical trials and am looking forward to potential diagnostic, clinical, and therapeutic breakthroughs in this often confounding disease. --User:Piewalker 05:23, 10 May 2005 (UTC) ---- I just restored the page after an anonymous user blanked it, and probably missed some small piece of formatting somewhere. Please fix anything you spot. -- User:Jredmond 15:49, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I think it would be neat to list some of the historical figures that are suspected of having Aspergers, such as Newton Einstein and Bill Gates... :I don't, because that would be idle speculation and a bit too gossip-like. -- User:Olathe November 22, 2003 :Got 1 at youth club :) Einstien, Gates, Newton, Keanu Reves.... All on there. Plenty of people whom it is suspected they had Aspergers... One day I'll be on that list ;) :: The list is interesting but some justification might be in order. User:Phil Boswell 15:21, Dec 4, 2003 (UTC) :::"Due to their success via unconventional means, fitting into the symptoms of Asperger's?" Before I put that up, does that all work for you as justification?User:Leumi ::Sorry, what I meant was that we need to quote a reasonably reliable source rather than just posting WAGs and hoping nobody gets cross. Just saying "We think this guy has/had Asperger's because he's a geek" won't cut the mustard. Remember we're writing an encyclopædia here, not a gossip column. User:Phil Boswell 09:15, Dec 5, 2003 (UTC) :::I suppose you're right. I'll work on a more comprehensive version. Sorry about that, I certainly didn't mean for it to be offensive or gossipy, considering my intimate knowledge of the condition. I do see your point though and will work on a more comprehensive justification. User:Leumi 16:25, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) ::Oh I'm not offended, I usually sound like that (did you like my hastily improvised smiley? :-) If you have some sort of qualification, or (as you say) intimate knowledge, and it wouldn't be embarrassing, maybe you could note such on your User page. Unfortunately my personal knowledge is not in a context which I am able to make public right now, which is kind of frustrating. User:Phil Boswell 17:15, Dec 5, 2003 (UTC) :::I have it, as well as unipolar depression, and have some of the good effects (like intelligence, absolute pitch), if you have any questions feel free to ask me. I had a special-ed monitor until tenth grade, and was in special classes until third. I'm watching this article. --User:Pakaran 17:18, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) :: I have it as well, including some of the good effects mentioned (don't have absolute pitch. To my knowledge at least. I haven't done music in a while). I am currently in the special education system, which I think needs some revisiong but that's not here or there, as I am a high school student and only a teenager. Don't worry, it doesn't really embarrass me, and I'd love to answer any questions you might have. I have founded what you might call a club with various "eccentric" teenagers with similar conditions, so I have some knowledge of it's symptoms and effects. User:Leumi 17:20, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) ---- "Asperger's Disorder" is a non-neutral term, a point made humourously at the [http://isnt.autistics.org/ "Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical"] [parody]. "Asperger's Reorder" would be more accurate, but that term is not in popular use. If "Asperger's Syndrome" were used, and "Asperger's Disorder" was a redirect, that would surely be better IMO. --User:Morosoph 14:48, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC) It really should be named "Asperger's Syndrome". I tried to rename it, but I wasn't successful. I can't tell if the software was really stopping me, or if it was the "helpful" people riding on "Recent Changes" that were stomping on me in the middle of trying to rename it according to the instructions on how to move a page. -- User:Amillar 18:53, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) :It seems to me that this page *should* be at Asperger's Syndrome, simply based on standard usage. (e.g. 74,000 Google hits for Syndrome, 8,500 for Disorder) It also seems to be the preferred term in the artcile text. - User:Seth Ilys 18:57, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) ---- Is anyone partially against the list of people at the end of the article? It's not even a list of formally diagnosed people, and seems like it's just an attempt at justifying a statement "oh look it's not all that bad" - User:Richard cocks 18:53, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :The section should probably be re-worded. I think that it can help people to realise that AS is a fundamentally different mindset, and not merely another mental illness.--User:Morosoph 15:42, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) ---- Although this comment has nothing to do with the improvement of Wikipedia I would like to thank all of you for making Asperger's Syndrome a "Featured article". I have Asperger's Syndrome and regularly meet people who have prejudices towards autism. When they think of autism, they think of a child that plays with the wheel of his toy-car for hours in a row. They don't seem to comprehend that there are people with a type of autism but still seem to function relatively well in a society. Sometimes they don't believe I have Asperger's because I function so well and they think of the social problems I mention as nonsense. Making Asperger's Syndrome a featured article on the Wikipedia main page may well improve the understanding people have when they think of Asperger, autism and me. Thank you. From the Netherlands --User:Maarten van Vliet 11:20, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) ---- I've heard that Asperger's is much more common among males than females. And that females show very different symptoms than males. I.e. is not as hindered in social relations and not so obsessed with a strange hobby. I also think that Asperger's is a genetic disorder. User:BL 12:09, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC) :: Bahhhhhhahahahahaha - I know 3 girls w AS (shorthand for aspergers) and they are all obsessed with something, be it Pigeons, Anime or Star Trek..... ::: (wo)Man, quit this! I know at least five boys with it (when I take myself in the count) and only one girl. In game therapy, when I was a child, I was in a group where there were as many as five boys and only one girl. So in my personal experience the share of boys in the total group of aspergerists is even bigger than 3 out of 4.--User:Caesarion 13:03, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Asperger's and autistic disorder are more common among males (by 4:1, IIRC) but the symptoms present in pretty much the same way. I personally believe that AS/Autism has a genetic component in many if not most cases, but there is a great deal of dispute about that. Remember also that a "syndrome" is defined by its common features; virtually by definition we don't know what causes it at the time it is designated a "syndrome" ''cf.'' "AIDS" User:Cecropia 17:01, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Nominal female Aspie here, who feels extremely hindered in social relations. (I suppose most would say I have a major strange hobby bordering on obsession, too, though I hadn't thought of it that way.) I am at the more high-functioning end, and am not widely read on the condition, but am willing to answer questions relating to my individual experiences. User:132.185.144.122 15:13, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) Hey, whats ur hobby? Mine is designing war games for the PC and space based stories. Plus board games.... --Chris same here, im still a teen but i think i've done a satisfactory job of attempting to overcome those difficulties in regards to social relations. great to see a page so well written. And in response to BL's comment above, I'd like to see if anyone can find evidence as to how asperger's might be genetic. my father displays symptoms characteristic of aspergers (the dsm-iv-tr guidelines are way too vague), and it would be logical, from a wired article on the 'geek syndrome' ([http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html]) that it is somewhat genetic. *shrug*, just my two cents. - User:Applegoddess 08:44, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) Same here --Chris again :P This is a serious question, raised in the "Criticism" section of the main article. I have met a number of women with AS, and most of them would not come across as particularly masculine personality types. AS is a complex phenomenom which can affect people differently, and there is a lot more to it than unusual or obsessive interests, but going by something one woman with AS said to me once, it is possible that some girls with AS can show an exceptional interests in traditionally "feminine" activities e.g. dancing. Even a lot of men with AS are about the last people you would expect to find getting into a fight in a bar. User:PatGallacher 01:29, 2005 Feb 1 (UTC) Someone has tried to reply to this on the actual article, but the article is now getting confused. When Baron-Cohen, rightly or wrongly, advanced his theories about AS being an extreme form of "male intelligence", he really did mean by that mental traits you tend to get in men, not just a socially constructed phenomenom. Therefore this does raise some important issues about females with AS. The person who attempted to reply to this is entitled to their opinion, which may merit discussion, but it is not the same as Baron-Cohen's opinion. User:PatGallacher ==Genetic Traits== Are autism, ADD, dyslexia, or Asperger's genetic traits? Are there any good links to sources with an opinion? I am very high-functioning to the point that I am usually Passing. I strongly feel that Asperger's is a social construct, or at the least it is a learned trait, and thus not intrinsic to an individual. The entire thing is a vicious cycle; higher intelligence and mildly poor social skills create a "snowball" effect as a child grows up: I was teasted and ostracized by other children for my Asperger's symptoms, thus I developed emotional problems due to stress. My proof is that I used to have obsessive compulsive disorder-symptoms as a child to the point that I was a prisoner in my own home, but after moving to a new town and starting my life over in my teens, this stopped utterly; my social skills also drastically improved. I feel that I became emotionally withdrawn not for lack of trying but because I was excluded from growing up with the same emotional support as other children. I strongly agree with the statement that Asperger's is just an extreme case of the way the "male-brain" works (although it applies to both genders). But the snowball effect is that once a child is teased, excluded, etc., the emotional detachment and anguish this causes leads to psychological problems that really wouldn't have developed to such an extent in a caring environment (I am not a psychologist, and I am not hubristic enough to think that these broad claims I am making should be taken as fact, but I feel they should be researched). Why must a person's self-worth be based on their level of social-interaction? If I speak to someone and dont' necessarily look them in the eye, does this mean I have less value as a person? What are we, wolves? A person's intelligence, integrity, and creativity are what make us most true to ourselves, not how well we interact socially. Under Adam Smith's social model (Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations and I feel his work led to the rise of consumerism, people have become consumers who gratify their immediate needs and those who believe in truth and expression; artists, scientists, etc. are ignored. Rousseau was disgusted by this and developed the concept of a bohemianism, someone who lives on the fringe of society and refuses to be tyrannized by public opinion. Rousseau (in The Social Contract) defined freedom as setting your own rules and then obeying them (under Smith, society sets the rules, so no one is harmed, and thus all members become well-suited to social interaction). Do I feel that, under rules I have set for myself, social interaction comes first? No. "Staying true to myself" does. I am eccentric. This is not a problem; John Stuart Mill in "On Liberty" called for a return of "the eccentric" to society. Mill said that as a society we live in an age where there is a "tyranny of the majority"; public opinion (proper social interaction helps this) determines what is right and wrong, not objective truth. Public opinion "raises the low and lowers the high", and consumerism and conformity have won out over self-expression. I am receiving a mixed message; on the one hand, I am supposed to "be myself" and revel in this; "everyone is special" is a cornerstone of teaching in schools. However, it would appear that "some people are more special than others" (To paraphrase Animal Farm). Nietzsche would call this "herd-mentality". Ultimately, Mill says that eccentricity in society must take precendence over public opinion, because it will broaden our sense of freedom and lead to a search for the best life. I am deficient at both verbal social skills and non-verbal signals. This in no way makes me less of a person. Social interaction does not define such things as creativity, ambition, love; things that make us truely human. But I look around today at a consumerist, conformist culture that excludes all eccentricity. Was society always like this? I don't think so. I think we just assumed that society was always like this, that this was the way things are supposed to be because we cannot remember it being another way (post hoc ergo propter hoc). Again, it is a vicious cycle; eccentric, above-average intelligence "Asperger's" children are ostracized by others growing up; this is what leads to our loss of social coordination and the ability to function with social signals; I believe that this is a Pavlovian trait. Case in point, the trademark "bland, unexpressive face" (noted in the entry in this article on Georgie from Dead Like Me) is not an intrinsic flaw in our character; it is a Pavlovian trait. We have been taught to fear social interaction because it usually ends in rejection, and thus we have developed a passive-aggressive defensive mechanism, a "turtle" response if you will. We should consider this strange reaction to awkward social events not a deficieny of ourselves, but something forced on us. We live in a culture where youth, beauty, and consumerism are king (read Brave New World, I find it precient). Of thousands of scientists or great thinkers today, who can name even a handful? But pop culture icons and movie-stars are worshipped. Do bubblegum-pop bands have anything meaningful to say? About knowledge, the soul, how I should live my life, etc? The tyranny of public opinion has set in an I fear what is to come. Many intelligent, though eccentric, "Apserger's Syndrome" patients have been excluded from contributing to society, and under false pretexts and broad social label have been almost completely marginalized. For those like myself that have symptoms that fall under the umbrella-term of "asperger's syndrome", I feel that the tyranny of the majority is pushing us Towards A "Lurker Caste"; in effect we will "lurker" on the margins of a social order which they have created tailored to their specifications (this all happens unconsciously mind you) but only watch from the fringe, a disenfranchise group subjected to great misery, in a world not of our own making. ---Name Withheld, 17:04 EST, Sep 13 2004(UTC) :On the question of whether it is a genetic trait, much evidence definitely points to it being a real, neurological difference, and not just a matter of social training. In one family I know, one child is clearly Aspie while the other three are not. All the children were raised the same way. That's just one data point, but if you do any reading, you'll find it is a clear trend. I'd recommend the book "Pretending to be Normal" as a good starting place. --User:Amillar 22:26, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC) :truely -> truly; precient -> prescient :Hmm, I remember writing tirades of this length about morality and ethics on a MUD I was wronged on, but I didn't ramble or rely on irrelevant name-dropping or flawed arguments. To refute you shortly, a human is a social animal; it's also many other things. Therefore, the less of any trait out of all seen and known human traits one has, the less human one is. Moreover, I might have had the article's symptoms some time in my life, though I could well understand social clues; the problem was I was un-coordinated, astigmatic, neurotic, and withdrawn. But those problems solved themselves with all the suffering I went through. User:Lysdexia 20:15, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC) :Is ADD genetic? I read a book about ADD called "Scattered Minds" I forget the writer. He was asking where it come from as well. ADD tends to be more prevalent if a parent has ADD as well. He also found that ADD tends to be more prevalent in people with emotional problems relating to parents, specifically feelings of love and acceptance. His theory is that there is a genetic portion of it that makes us more sensitive to developing it and that emotional relationships as a child are the source. It is hard to say though, many people with ADD may actually have Aspergers syndrome, it can have similar symptoms, including obsessive behaviour. I do show obsessive behaviour, but the obsession seems to drift and refocus on other things all the time. The writer of the book also showed obsession, he spent more than 1000 dollars in a week (I think that was the figure) on cds... specifically classical music. "Civilization is the progress toward a society of ''privacy''. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."--Ayn Rand. (Comment) I have aspergers and attend a youth club for people with aspergers. We have 5/6 female members. So far, 1 is obsessed with pigions, 1 with Anime, 1 with star trek and the other 2/3 we arnt sure about. Out of the remaining 2 or 3, 1 shows obsession with people like michal jackson, but im not sure if that counts. The male members do suffer obsessions also. I myself am a computer and war game fanatic. My freind alan is a star wars fanatic, my freind danny a guitar nut etc.... While it may be genetic, females and males act very similar in most respects. Also, my youth club attendances have helped, as have other strange freinds in other places (Epilepsy, dislexia and at 1 point a strange goth creature named shaun....) :P However, I'm probably 1 of the more nomal people with aspergers... ---Chris Barrett, Dec 31, 2004 ==Possible Copyright Violation== The entire 'characteristics' section seems to be lifted (and partially modified) from http://www.informationheadquarters.com/Autism/Aspergers_Syndrome.shtml. User:Crackshoe 16:50, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) : That site probably sources from Wikipedia rather than the other way around. Check similarities in other fields such as history of computing. User:Richard cocks ::See the bottom of that page, where it says "This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License." -- User:The Anome 18:22, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==Protected because of persistent vandalism ==
I've temporarily protected this page because of persistent vandalism, now going to the point of moving the page. Can we discuss how to approach this issue? For now, please suggest changes on this page. User:Cecropia 22:22, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
:This seems to be the "Rishartha" vandal (Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress). One of the logged out vandalism edits they've made is from 67.1.38.104 (0-1pool38-104.nas2.eugene1.or.us.da.qwest.net Qwest dial-up in the Eugene, Oregon region). If this continues blocking the IP range is an option, although it may block legitimate contributors from the ISP so I'd prefer not doing that. User:Maximus Rex 22:50, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Removed protection. If vandalism resurfaces, will reprotect. User:Cecropia 11:34, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Just a note about the name. I have Asperger Syndrome and have had help from the National Autistic Society in the UK. According to them, the correct term is Asperger Syndrome, with no possessive case (apostraphe-s).
----
Asperger's syndrome shouldn't be in the category of eponymous diseases because it isn't a disease. You can't be cured from it. It doesn't kill you. It doesn't hurt you or give you illusions. Its only fault is rareness: if 25% of people would be aspies, the rest would pay attention to their special needs. -User:Hapsiainen 16:15, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
:In this context, "disease" is used more as a general term than as a specific description of the condition. Additionally, given that there are other syndromes and non-disease medical conditions in the category, like Philadelphia chromosome and Down syndrome, it's entirely appropriate for that specific category. - User:Jredmond 16:30, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
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==Important==
Ive been working lots on the autism page with some friends, not long ago we branched a topic reguarding its controversies to its own page, a Controversies in autism I personally am quite proud off.
Well werve done it again, and this time werve included the aspergers page, all werve done is branch the stuff on comorbidity conditions into a seperate shared page, conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders
Thank you all, and have a great day. User:memzy
:Any actual reason for that? -- User:Schneelocke 23:52, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)
The autism page '''needs'' the cleanup, where as sharing the section with the Asperger's page just makes sense since it only ever had a single paragraph on the subject anyhow.
I'd rather the section was restored to the AS page; the comorbid disorders are actually often different from other forms of autism, and the previous section included some not listed on the new page. User:Kundor 23:43, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
== Wikipedians and Asperger's ==
'''Asperger's Syndrome involves an intense level of focus on things of interest and is often characterized by special (and possibly peculiar) gifts; one person might be obsessed with 1950s professional wrestling, another with national anthems of African dictatorships...
:Sounds like a lot of Wikipedians I know. :-) User:Seabhcan 15:25, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)
::Well, the exact line between Aspies and general Nerds could be quite fine... ^^
:::Hence the idea of a spectrum disorder'''. User:Guettarda 21:14, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Heh, Agreed.
BlackLiger/Chris
== Minor changes ==
This is a good article. I have made minor corrections to spelling, punctuation, and the like. In particular, I have gone with ''Asperger's syndrome'' throughout; two or three other forms had been used, and the effect was rather sloppy.
It might be nice to regularise the use of ''autist'' and ''autistic'' as nouns. The reader may find the use of two terms confusing. User:Shorne 03:28, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
== Deleted material ==
That new paragraph on incorrect diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome should not have been deleted. Perhaps its POV could have been toned down, but it was certainly not "nonsense". User:Shorne 02:44, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
:It was overexaggerated and not NPOV. A disclaimer that historical diagnoses are speculation is enough. User:Gerritholl 07:23, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
== Portrayals of Asperger's in the media ==
Does this section serve any purpose? I would just as soon delete the whole thing.
The paragraph about Luke Jackson is worth keeping, but that's all, and it can either be folded into "A gift and a curse" or the References section.
User:Kundor 23:43, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
:If there are no objections by this weekend I'll remove it. User:Kundor 07:24, Oct 7, 2004 (UTC)
::What about Martin in Grange Hill? User:PMelvilleAustin 14:42, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
== neurotypicals ==
I think this word should be used as little as possible (like once) in this article. For one thing, I find it offensive. For another, its unbelievably uncommon. For a third, its POV. Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_December_2004_Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_December_2004/Candidate_statements#Sam_Spade">User:Sam Spade|Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2004 Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee_Elections_December_2004/Candidate_statements#Sam_Spade 00:03, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
How is it offensive or POV? How else do you intend to describe those that are neurologically typical? "Normal" has much stronger connotations; neurotypical is accurate and generally devoid of those connotations. User:134.53.96.154 01:04, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)
:I personally find the term less offensive however would also have to aggree that it is POV, after all neurotypical is similar to the term normal which is defined by ones relative definition of normality to a large degree, excessive usage of the term is also I feel not really required to make the point User:MttJocy 11:49, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
::''Neurotypical'' is a neat term but I think it has all the problems that ''normal'' has. For our purposes here, though, it's a useful word to have when dealing with the struggle to fit in, for a person with AS or something similar. Normalcy is essentially just a contract between people who don't want to (and don't have to) stand out, and it is helpful to have a term to describe the beneficiaries of that contract, for those of us who do stand out. User:Forteanajones — User:Forteanajones | User talk:Forteanajones
As a neurotypical person who is the parent of an autistic person, I don't find the term offensive whatsoever, but merely descriptive. --User:DaveSeidel 02:18, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== popular sites?==
I feel it is incorrect for a user to write about their own site as being the most popular when this is impossible to determine, no-one knows the number of hits that each site relating to asperger's has, so to describe ones site as the most popular is erroneous.
Also as the site wrongplanet.net was listed as having a wiki, which it does not, there is no information at all in any software that the site may have, it is incorrect to give that information. User:AmyNelson
== over emphasis of "disorder" ==
I have shortened the intro, which for some reason made many repetitive references to the word disorder, which could give people the wtong impression from the start. The info is still mentioned later in the article. --User:Rebroad 20:46, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
== Asperger's Syndrome or Asperger Syndrome? ==
Isn't the correct term Asperger, and not Asperger's? User:Guettarda 21:16, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)
-Yes, I think several of us agree that it is technically Asperger. I myself may have it, after reading about this article, and have done more research, and believe it to probably be Asperger instead of Asperger's. There are also some grammatical connotations and comparisons with naming conventions of other mental disorders that we should look at. Sorry if I don't make sense, but hey, I'm trying to be intelligent.
User:ChaosJoe 18:58 Arizona MST, December 13, 2004
:There's a re-direct at Asperger syndrome (with an existing history) - does that mean an administrator needs to move it? As far as I know (not having a copy of the DSM IV) it's the "official" name, so I think the page should sit there and this should be the re-direct. If anyone disagrees, please say so. User:Guettarda 19:49, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)
No disagreement. Both are acceptable usages and neither is "official". In the early 1970s (I think) a number of editors of major medical journals and some geneticists and other doctors decided to try to promote consistency with syndrome names and tried to enforce dropping of the 's from eponymous syndromes. They would prefer Asperger syndrome to Asperger's. There was a noticeable increase is use of the plain form in the medical literature, but the 's forms have never completely gone away, and there is no body with power to make either the "official" way to do it. User:Alteripse 04:44, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks for the info. I did use "official" in quotes for that reason. So it comes down to common usage - either using the "official" Wikipedia standard of Google (tongue-in-cheek because I disagree with the extent to which it's used to solve disputes): 179,000 hits for "Asperger's syndrome", the top hit being a page titled "Asperger Syndrome"; 311,000 for "Asperger syndrome", or, usage by medical journals (which, you say also leans toward Asperger). User:Guettarda 18:37, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
==Pro-cure POV attack==
Someone is trying to push here pro-cure POV. I analyze their contributions in detail.
''The Asperger’s Syndrome community, particularly on the internet, is deeply divided along ideological lines into two broad groups loosely known as the “pro-Aspie” group and the “pro-cure” group.'' That's right.
''Pro-Aspie groups believe that Asperger’s is not a disability, but simply a part of the individual’s personality. Therefore, they actively oppose many forms of treatment of the condition. They strive to change the world to accommodate them based on the assumption that the condition will never be cured as a matter of principle. To this end, they encourage social skills education for sufferers and education for those living with people with Asperger’s.'' Word sufferer isn't appropriate for an article that strives for NPOV. It is indifferent for pro-Aspies whether you can "cure" Autism or not, so don't start to talk about it here.
''Pro-cure groups are opposed to and offended by the pro-Aspie culture likening it to the growing Pro-anorexia culture on the internet. Pro-cure groups claim that their position is supported by scientific fact. They believe that the primary aim for sufferers is to not suffer any more. They want to be cured, and in the mean time, want to be able to live life as best as possible despite their condition.'' You can't compare pro-autism to pro-anorexia movement. Those conditions differ remarkably. Autism doesn't kill you. Pro-anorexia movement claims that anorexia is a choice, but everyone (including pro-autistics) knows that autism isn't. I am also curious what are those scientific facts. Discrimination and planning schools and other institutions only for NTs don't count, then we also had to eliminate the blacks, the blind and the lefthanded.
''It is worth noting that one is more inclined to adhere themselves to a group or a website if it involves expressing a desire to remain as one is rather than to change. Why join a group with the express desire to no longer be a part of the group? This explains why you may find many pro-Aspie sites on the internet but few pro-cure communities. This does not mean that all Aspies are pro-Aspies, or even a majority. The overwhelming majority of parents and those who face the daily realities of living with a sufferer support the search for a cure, as do most adult sufferers.'' What is your source on this opinion survey?
''Further inspection of the forums on the pro-Aspie community websites as well as the autism wiki reveals an anti-responsibility, anti-employment, almost anarchist agenda whose scope extends far beyond the limited topic of developmental disorders. Opinions are labelled as “ignorant” and “a misconception” even though they are held by many sufferers themselves.'' This kind of defaming isn't allowed in Wikipedia! I am curious how many pro-autistic website have you read. I might know what community is in question, bu I say no names... One community isn't reliable sample.
I'd like to know if there are pro-cure communities and organizations outside US. I haven't heard any before stumbling on Cure Autism Now Foundation in Internet. (My location is Finland, that matters in this subject.) -User:Hapsiainen 13:17, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)
:I went further and asked about pro-cure groups from a neuropsychiatrist I know. She is specialized in Asperger's syndrome. She had never heard of them, and was staggered. -User:Hapsiainen 23:25, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
I modified the section to be NPOV, but I still dispute the factual accuracy. I don't see a "division" in the online Asperger's community among autistic/Asperger's people surrounding the cure issue. I think the claim to the contrary needs a reference if the section is to stay in the article. User:Q0 11:48, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Here are some more things that need referencing in the "Asperger's on the Internet" section:
# It is claimed the anti-cure group is known as the "pro-aspie" group. I have never heard of this naming scheme for the anti-cure group. I would like to see a reference for it.
# I have heard a few autistic/Asperger's people express a desire for a cure, while the overwhelming majority that I have met do not and I have not seen a "division" of any kind in the online community. The section claims some people believe the pro-cure Asperger's people are the majority and that there is a division. I would like to see a reference for this.
User:Q0 03:02, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
:I have to emphasize that the my mother tongue isn't English and I don't understand all the nuances of the text. I thought that division could also be 1:50, not necessary 2:3 or 1:1. When I commented the text, I didn't notice that it stated "two broad groups". There is only one broad group. I have corrected my comments. I haven't also heard of word "pro-aspie" before. Maybe they derived it from pro-anorexia. Putting pro in front of a word show that the phenomenon has remarkable opposition. Hence pro-aspie can't be a neutral word, because it assumes the oppositon, which isn't the case. -User:Hapsiainen 03:37, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)
In addition to having never heard of a pro-cure faction (I and my son both have AS), my neurologist has never heard of such a "faction." Is there any evidence for the existence of such a group that would warrant keeping the section? - User:Rjstreet 04:45, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)
:I have met some people on the autistic spectrum who wanted to be cured, but I'd say about 90% were opposed to one. I think it can be mentioned that some autistic (or Asperger's) people support a cure but I don't think it should say there is a pro-cure "faction" unless evidence is found to support it. User:Q0 19:22, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
== Neanderthal mt DNA? ==
This assertion needs some supporting references - I could find no hits on google or google scholar about this idea. What is the source for this? User:Guettarda 00:33, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)
:Actually, I saw a program on the science channel (I think it is owned by the same company as discovery channel) that found a skeleton with a combination of human and neanderthal characteristics which dated at some time after the Neanderthals were believed to have gone extinct. It is possible that everybody is part Neanderthal. I'm not sure if I taped it or not but I'll provide more information if I do find it. However, I don't think the show mentioned Asperger's or mitochondrial DNA. User:Q0 03:40, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
::There is almost no evidence for human-neanderthal hybridisation (see, ''e.g.'', [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/science/15nean.html this NYTimes article]) - some questionable skeletons, but no mt DNA evidence as far as I am aware. There is one external reference, but I couldn't find ''evidence'', just speculation. AFAIK the neanderthal DNA which has been extracted is very different from modern human DNA, suggesting that is hybrids did occur, they were either did not have offspring (reasonable, hybrid sterility is common) or were very rare. The incidence of autism/AS is ''far'' too high to be explained by this.
::More to the point though, the information is in the article, and seems to have been accepted ''with absolutely no evidence''. I may have missed the announcement, but it seems that if the "evidence" suggested in the article really existed, that knowledge of this stuff would have made its way to participants in a workshop on Neanderthals (cf, the NYTimes article). User:Guettarda 20:37, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
It should be pointed out that mtDNA is independant of nuclear DNA, unlike nuclear DNA, mtDNA comes only from the mother. A lack of Neanderthal mtDNA
in modern humans only tells us that no purely female lines of Neanderthal descent current exist. Some positive references for Neanderthal Hybrids.
# [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3346455.stm BBC - Late Neanderthals 'more like us']
# [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/486041.stm BBC - Neanderthals survived longer than thought]
# [http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/neanderkid.html Archaelogy - Neandertal-Cro-Magnon Hybrid?]
User:Entropy888 04:59, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
==Vaccines==
Don't remove the section that says that Asperger's is linked to early vaccinations. My mom attended a seminar about Asperger's (when you have the duty of raising a boy with Asperger's, you tend to learn a bit about it) and that is what they thought the cause was. As these early vaccinations rose, the cases of Asperger's also increased.
Please don't write a response to the vaccine-case on this talk page. Do it on mine. - User:B-101 13:58, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC) (User talk:B-101)
:That all the people interested had to go from here to your talk page? How clumsy, this is the natural place for the response. The theory that the vaccines cause Autism isn't accepted by the scientific community. Some weaknesses of the theory (from Quackwatch.org):
# The known number of ASD cases has been increasing since 1979, but there was no jump after the introduction of MMR vaccine in 1988.
# Cases vaccinated before 18 months of age had similar ages at diagnosis as did cases who had been vaccinated after 18 months or not vaccinated, indicating that vaccination does not result in earlier expression of autistic characteristics.
# At age two years, the MMR vaccination coverage among the ASD cases was nearly identical to coverage in children in the same birth cohorts in the whole region, providing evidence of an overall lack of association with vaccination.
# The first diagnosis of autism or initial signs of behavioral regression were not more likely to occur within time periods following vaccination than during other time periods.
# A weak statistical association existed between MMR vaccination and initial parental concern, but this appears to have been due to parents' difficulty in recalling precise age at onset and a preference for approximating the age as 18 months.
:What seminar did you visit? I have to remove the the parargraph you added, because it is simply false. Instead I put a link to an article about the subject. -User:Hapsiainen 15:01, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)
::There may be more to it than just co-incidence - many people will argue very strongly that ''their'' child never showed any signs until they were vaccinated (autism or AS). However, vaccination is a traumatic experience, and it might serve as a ''trigger'' in children with AS/autism. I am (by word of mouth, though I could find out if it's published or not) that trained professionals could identify children with autism or AS in first birthday videos, even though the parents did not suspect anything at the time. So the first time a parent ''notices'' it may not be the onset - after all, most parents first experience with a baby with AS or autism is their own child. User:Guettarda 15:43, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
My mom attended a seminar near where we live. She has a copy of the power point presentation, but I'll double-check the information. It may be coincidence, but she really has learned a lot about it.- User:B-101 15:52, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)
== Dog eating homework idiom ==
The text says: "When a teacher asks a child with Asperger's, "Did the dog eat your homework?","
Well, what would a non-aspie child answer ''if she was unfamiliar with the idiom''?
I was an intelligent child, and they thought I was aspie (even a couple of years before that became a fashionable diagnosis in my region), and one of the reasons was that I always questioned idioms like that. I would answer "No, I don't have a dog" and the NT teacher would balk at that. I still don't know if I was/am aspie or not, (I've got a diagnosis that says I am, but I don't have any problems "reading other people"), but I wonder what a non-aspie child would answer, and I think it's a weird example.
Not everyone (especially children!) has heard that expression or would make sense of it.
: I think a better example of an idiom would be "I don't bite." It's commonly used as a slightly disparaging thing to say to somebody perceived as "shy", and might be something most aspies have heard directed at them at one time or another, and had no idea what it meant. User:Kaibabsquirrel 04:59, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
== Neutrality in possible causes and origins ==
In the seventh paragraph of the section 'Possible causes and origins' the final sentence reads:
'Although this theory has a degree of popular currency and has been discussed in a number of documentaries on the subject, it fails to address the basic empirical observation that Asperger's and related disorders are overwhelmingly predominant in males, yet children of the two sexes are immunised in roughly equal numbers.'
I have no knowledge of the matter or opinion either way, however this sentence ignores the fact that immunisation could have increased the chance of autism or Asperger in males, and not so much in females? I suggest the following out of want for a more neutral standing, however I am not willing to make the change because of my lack of knowledge about the topic. Could someone better equipped take a stand?
'Although this theory has a degree of popular currency and has been discussed in a number of documentaries on the subject, it does not address the empirical observation that Asperger's and related disorders are overwhelmingly predominant in males, yet children of the two sexes are immunised in roughly equal numbers.'
-- Chris Hughes 00:56 GMT 14/03/2005
:# The most important issue is that studies which have looked for a correlation between vaccination and AS/autism have failed to find any correlation.
:# If immunisation was somehow "causing" AS or autism, then you should see similar levels in males and females because the proportions immunised are similar. So the underlying cause must be something other than immunisation. Of course it could be possible that the relationship between immunisation and AS/autism could be different in males and females - but that is a totally separate argument (and, AFAIK, not supported by the existing studies). User:Guettarda 01:20, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
The claim that AS is higher in first children of older parents is a very interesting one. It was the first I have seen of this, but I was the first child of older parents myself. This claim should certainly be sourced, but it should not have been deleted just like that. User:PatGallacher 00:14, 2005 Mar 25 (UTC)
:But if it stays in the article, people think it is already sourced. The same user User:68.193.103.52 have also put other unsourced claims to the article, but haven't returned to explain them. The user has also added other text to other articles, which people have reverted as unsourced. (Special:Contributions/User:68.193.103.52) -User:Hapsiainen 11:54, Mar 25, 2005 (UTC)
Are there any cures or treatments for Asperger's syndrome?
:Asperger's syndrome isn't a disease, so there isn't. Aso there isn't a neurological "quirk" common to all Aspergers. But there are therapies, support groups etc. They help Aspergers to interact with neurotypicals, to stay awake and go to sleep in reasonable times, to not get lost etc. The problems vary from person to person. -User:Hapsiainen 13:38, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
==Aspie & aspiette==
I have never heard of this distinction: "The word Aspiette is a female Aspie, whereas Aspie can be described as male." I found no pages in English with word aspiette from Google, so I removed the paragraph. -User:Hapsiainen 13:38, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)
:I have heard this term used sparingly on the ChatAutism IRC network however it does seam quite rare and most are quite happy with simply Aspie User:MttJocy 00:47, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
== Geek vs. Asperger's ==
One section of the page makes pains to distinguish being a "geek"
from having Asperger's. There is no black and white distinction
here, its all shades of grey. Ask "geeks" about there childhoods,
you'll find that Asperger's/autistic childhoods arn't all
that uncommon. Even amongst the many "geeks" who never fully
fit the current diagnostic criteria, you will find many autistic
traits.
The question shouldn't be "do I meet the DSM criteria?" but rather,
"are these my people?". Believe me, you'll know pretty damn fast when
you walk into a room full of Aspie's and/or autistics if you belong
there. Or maybe you partly belong there, but whatever the case you
don't need a doctors note to know what you are.
Imagine how far the gay culture and gay rights would have gotten if you
needed a doctors diagnosis of homosexuality to identify as gay. Regrettably
Asperger's is a label which we do not define for ourselves. I
honestly wish there was another word for "us" which isn't up to the
experts to define.
User:Entropy888 05:28, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
== Jeff Chon? ==
who's that? the name just turned up in the list, but no wiki page exists on him? is that encyclopedia worthy, or just someone who wanted to be named in the same sentence as eg Bill Gates? (User:Clemmy 22:41, 12 May 2005 (UTC))
== another disabilities ==
Does anyone have an idea what's the frequency of dyslexia and dyscalculia among aspergerians?
User:84.228.249.227 00:39, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
I don't know the official stats from empirical research, but during my Psych training, we were taught that the traits for autism spectrum disorders and dyslexia/dyscalculia cosegregate, or occur together in family trees of related individuals. Dyscalculia is especially common in aspergians whose particular troubles involve complex abstract reasoning. It is often the case that aspergians have excellent memory retention skills, but a very concrete experience of the world that makes intensive abstract reasoning, such as in algebra and so on, particularly difficult. --User:Changelingsoldier 22:44, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)
== Children with Asperger ==
My 5 year old son has something going on and I think it may be Aspergers, however there are many general traits that he definitely does not share. He will start Kindergarten in the Fall and has been accepted into the Special Ed department and I am getting him back into regular therpy as well. One of the problems I have had in getting him help (I have always known something was different and tried to get a diagnosis at age 3, although I had no knowledge of Asperger at the time) is that people dont thing there's anything wrong with him other than being a little "odd." Do any of you have experiences of early diagnosis you could share?
:Wikipedia isn't a discussion forum. Try searching appropriate places for discussion from links that you can find from Asperger's syndrome -User:Hapsiainen 19:14, Jun 9, 2005 (UTC)
== Links ==
I wikified the article a little - many links were then removed by User:Hapsiainen. I've reverted to reinclude them; please see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links). User:Proto 09:44, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:You wikified the article too much. See Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context. Words like trains and dinosaurs are not relevant, because they are not very related to the topic of the article. They, and several other things, are subject that aspies could be interested in, nothing more. It is were unlikely that a person looking for information about Asperger's syndrome would like to read about them. They'd rather read about autism or Hans Asperger. You also linked words in plural although it is a rule that article title is singular, plural is a exception of it. Also, markup like imaginary friends is Wikipedia:How to edit a page#Links and URLs, don't try to complicate it to imaginary friend . -User:Hapsiainen 19:31, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)
== Label-craziness ==
JarlaxleArtemis">User:JarlaxleArtemis 19:45, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)
:Actually these speculations are based on their life stories, including their particlar eccentricities. If you fill out a form in a pre-diagnosis meeting you will hae that scored and it will tell you if you have the common symptons. They rank these people based on their behaviour and evaluate them. It is not conclusive evidence as they can't test the people themselves, but it is good to show people that people have been sucessfully dealing with the condition for hundreds of years, and gives people something to relate to.
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Asperger\'s_syndrome:
Asperger's_Syndrome
Asperger's_syndrome
Asperger's_syndrome
Asperger's Syndrome
#REDIRECT Asperger's_syndrome
Asperger's syndrome
'''Asperger's syndrome (AS'''), is a pervasive developmental disorder commonly referred to as a form of "high-functioning" autism. Individuals with Asperger's are considered to have a higher intellectual capacity while suffering from a lower social capacity. The term "Asperger's syndrome" was coined by Lorna Wing in a 1981 medical paper. She named it after Hans Asperger, an Austria psychiatrist and pediatrician whose work was not internationally recognized until the 1990s. == Characteristics == Like other conditions currently classified as an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome is strongly gender biased, with males currently comprising approximately 75 percent of diagnoses. However, this figure may not be completely accurate, as girls are arguably more exposed to social situations and thus have more of a chance to learn to imitate the non-autistics and behave "normally". Physically and genetics, aspergians are no different from non-autistics. The difference lies in the social life. Non-autistics — called neurotypicals, or NTs, by people on the autistic spectrum who reject the word "normal" — possess a comparatively sophisticated sense of other people's mental states. Most people are able to gather a whole host of information about other people's cognitive and emotional states based on clues gleaned from the environment and the other person's body language. Persons with autism are relatively deficient in this ability, and the individual with Asperger's can be every bit as "mind-blind" as the person with profound classical autism. For those who are severely affected by "mind-blindness", they may, at best, see a smile but not know what it means (is it an understanding, a condescending, or a malicious smile?) and at worst they will not even see the smile, frown, smirk, or any other nuance of interpersonal communication. They generally find it difficult or impossible to "read between the lines"; that is, figure out those things a person is implying but is not saying directly. It is worth noting, however, that since it is a spectrum disorder, a few with Asperger's are nearly normal in their ability to read facial expressions and intentions of others. Those with Asperger's often have difficulty with eye contact. Many make very little eye contact, finding it overwhelming, while others have unmodulated, staring eye contact that can be off-putting to others. Asperger's syndrome can involve an intense and obsessive level of focus on things of interest and is often characterized by special (and possibly peculiar) gifts; one person might be obsessed with 1950s professional wrestling, another with national anthems of African dictatorships, another with building models out of matchsticks. Particularly common interests are means of transport (for example trains), computers, and dinosaurs. These interests are often coupled with an unusually high capacity to retain and recall encyclopedic amounts of information about the favored subject. In general, orderly things have appeal to individuals with Asperger's. When these special interests coincide with a materially or socially useful task, the individual with Asperger's can often lead a profitable life. The child obsessed with naval architecture may grow up to be an accomplished shipwright, for instance. In pursuit of these interests, the individual with Asperger's often manifests extremely sophisticated reason, an almost obsessive focus, and eidetic memory. Hans Asperger called his young patients "little professors", based on the fact that his thirteen-year-old patients had as comprehensive and nuanced an understanding of their field of interest as university professors. Individuals with Asperger's have emotion as strong as, or perhaps stronger than, most people, though what generates an emotional response might not always be the same. What they lack (or are markedly slower to develop) is the inborn ability to perceive the emotional states of others or to express their own emotional state via body language, facial expression, and nuance in the way that most people do. Many people with Asperger's report a feeling of being unwillingly detached from the world around them; they lack the natural ability to see the subtexts of social interaction, and they equally lack the ability to broadcast their own emotional state to the world accurately. This leads to many troubles in childhood and adulthood. Asperger's children are often the target of bullying at school because of their idiosyncratic behaviour, language, and interests, and because of their lower or delayed ability to perceive and respond appropriately to non-verbal cues, particularly in situations of interpersonal conflict. When a teacher asks a child with Asperger's, "Did the dog eat ''your'' homework?", the child with Asperger's will remain silent if they don't understand the expression, trying to figure out if they need to explain to the teacher that they don't have a dog and also that dogs don't generally like paper. The child doesn't understand what the teacher is asking, cannot deduce the teacher's meaning, or the fact that there is a non-literal meaning, from the tone of voice, posture or facial expression, and is faced with a question which makes as much sense to him as "Did the glacier in the library bounce today?". The teacher may walk away from the experience frustrated and thinking the child is arrogance, spiteful, and insubordinate. The child sits there mutely, feeling frustrated and wronged. Those affected by Asperger's may also manifest a range of other sensory, developmental, and physiological anomalies. It is common for Asperger's children to evidence a marked delay in the development of fine motor skills. They may display a distinctive 'waddling' or 'mincing' gait when they walk and may walk with their arms held out in an unusual manner. Compulsive finger, hand, or arm movements, such as flapping, are also observed. Some Asperger's children suffer from varying degrees of sensory overload, and may be pathologically sensitive to loud noises or strong smells and may dislike being touched — for example, certain Asperger's children exhibit a strong dislike of having their head touched or their hair disturbed. The "sensory overload" factor may exacerbate problems faced by Asperger's children at school, where levels of noise in the classroom can become almost intolerable for them. Another noted behavioural characteristic that may be present is echolalia, which causes the subject to repeat words, or parts of words, when they speak, like an echo. Children with Asperger's often display advanced abilities for their age in language, reading, mathematics, spatial skills, or music, sometimes into the 'gifted' range, although as noted above, they may be counterbalanced by appreciable delays in other developmental areas. As with most gifted children, children with Aspergers are often misdiagnosed by teachers as being a "problem child" or a "poor performer," but the reality is that they simply have an extremely low tolerance and motivation for what they perceive to be mundane and mediocre tasks, and will often rather daydream within their own focused universe than work on the task at hand. There seems to be a strong correlation between those with Asperger's/High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and the INTP type of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): [http://www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html description 1], [http://www.intp.org/intprofile.html description 2]. ==Social interaction and cognitive patterns== Asperger's can also lead to problems with normal social interaction between peers. In childhood and teenage years, this can cause severe problems as a child or teen with Asperger's can have difficulty interpreting subtle social cues, and as such be ostracized by their peers, leading to social cruelty. A child or teen with Asperger's is frequently puzzled as to the source of this cruelty, unaware of what has been done "wrong". Recent efforts in the field of special education have concentrated on teaching children with Asperger's how to interact with their peers, achieving only moderate success, while the alternative of teaching their peers to cope with Asperger's children does not seem to have been seriously considered by many professionals. The social alienation of some people with Asperger's syndrome is so intense in childhood that some create imaginary friends for companionship. Asperger's syndrome hardly guarantees a miserable life. Often the intense focus and tendency to work things out logically, characteristic of Asperger's, will grant them a high level of ability in their field of interest. Despite their difficulty with social interaction, many people with Asperger's possess a rare gift for humor (especially puns, wordplay, doggerel, satire), and writing. In fact, sometimes their fluency with language is such that a number of them also qualify as hyperlexia. While many people with Asperger's will probably not have lives that are considered a social success by common standards - and there are some who will remain alone their entire lives - it is possible for some to find understanding people with whom they can have close relationships. Many autistics have children, in which case their children may be neurotypical or may have an autism spectrum disorder. Many autistics are unaware of their autism, because milder forms of autism are widely misunderstood and often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed by professionals. === Social Stories and Comic Book Conversations === Carol Gray, a well-recognized researcher in the area of educational intervention for individuals on the autism spectrum, has developed a technique called the [http://www.thegraycenter.org/Social_Stories.htm Social Story] that has been found helpful in explaining social situations. A Social Story is a story written for a particular individual with Asperger's in order to provide a written framework for a social situation that they encounter regularly and have difficulty working through. The story is constructed of four types of sentences: * descriptive sentences describe the situation in terms of cues or characteristics that can be observed whenever the situation occurrs * perspective sentences that tell about a person's internal state such as their knowledge, feelings, beliefs, or motivations * directive sentences identify a suggested response or choice of responses ** note that these stories are a collaborative effort between the individual with Asperger's and his or her teacher, and in no way seek to "tell the person what to do" - the stories aim to provide a written, visual cue as to how a situation may be encountered and dealt with * affirmative sentences emphasize the other three types, often expressing a commonly shared opinion or value within a culture. E.g. the perspective sentence "Sometimes I get angry." may be followed by the affirmative sentence "This is okay. Many people get angry. " This type of structured, written and visual cue can often be helpful to individuals with AS. A similar type of written/visual cue called a Comic Strip Conversation can also be helpful. A social situation is illustrated similar to a comic strip. Highly salient cues to location are illustrated. Stick figures are used to represent the actors in the situation. Speech bubbles represent things that were actually said, and thought bubbles represent what the person with Asperger's was thinking and what the other individual may have been thinking. A color code is used to represent the underlying emotions or motivations. Often, adding the structure and visual cues to the situation assists the Aspergian to percieve otherwise-missed social cues. For further reading, see: == DSM definition == Asperger's is defined in section 299.80 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as: #Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following: ##Marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction ##Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level ##A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people) ##A lack of social or emotional reciprocity #Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following: ##Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus ##Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals ##Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements) ##Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects. #The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. #There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years) #There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills or adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood #Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia. Please read the DSM cautionary statement. The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals diagnostic criteria have been roundly criticized for being vague and subjective: what one psychologist calls a \"significant impairment\" another psychologist may call insignificant. == Relationship to autism == Experts today generally agree that there is no single mental condition called autism'''. Rather, there is a spectrum of autistic disorders, with different forms of autism taking different positions on this spectrum. But within certain circles of the autism/AS community, this concept of a "spectrum" is being severely questioned. If differences in development are purely a function of differential acquisition of skills, then attempting to distinguish between "degrees of severity" may be dangerously misleading. A person may be subjected to unrealistic expectations, or even denied life-saving services, solely on the basis of very superficial observations made by others in the community. In the 1940s, Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, working independently in the United States and Austria, identified essentially the same population, Asperger's group being perhaps more "socially functional" than Kanner's as a whole. Some of Kanner's originally identified autistic children, might today get an Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, and vice versa. It is a mistake to say that a "Kanner autistic" is a child who sits and rocks and does not communicate. Kanner's study subjects were all along the spectrum. Researchers are grappling with the problem of how to divide up the spectrum. There is no easy way to do this. It would appear that one can divide the population of autistics in any particular way and define the group accordingly. Autistics who speak, those who don't. Autistics with seizures, those without. Autistics with more "stereotypical behaviors", those with fewer, and so forth. Some are trying to identify genes associated with these traits as a way to make logical groupings. Eventually, one may hear about autistics with or without the HOXA 1 gene, with or without changes to chromosome 15, etc. Traditionally, Kannerian autism is characterized by significant cognitive and communicative deficiencies, including delays in or lack of language. Often it will be clear that these people do not function normally. An individual with Asperger's on the other hand will not show delays in language. It is a more subtle disorder and affected individuals will often only appear to be odd. Kanner's syndrome is described in the article autism. Some clinicians believe that communicative and/or cognitive deficiencies are so essential to the concept of autism that they prefer to consider Asperger's as a separate condition altogether from autism. This opinion is a minority one. Uta Frith (an early researcher of Kannerian autism) has written that people with Asperger's seem to have more than a touch of autism to them. Others, such as Lorna Wing and Tony Attwood, share in Frith's assessment. Dr. Sally Ozonoff, of the University of California at Davis's MIND institute, argues that there should be no dividing line between "high-functioning" autism and Asperger's, and that the fact that some don't start to produce speech until a later age is no reason to divide the two groups, as they are identical in the way they need to be treated. Asperger's syndrome and other forms of autism are often grouped together in a Pervasive Developmental Disorder family. ==Possible causes and origins== The causes and origins of autism and Asperger's syndrome are subjects of continuing conjecture and debate, and there is still considerable debate on these topics, alongside the broader debate about whether Asperger's and other conditions (such as Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) are part of the so-called autism spectrum or not. Amongst several competing theories are the ''underconnectivity theory'' developed by cognitive scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, the ''extreme male brain theory'' by Simon Baron-Cohen, the lack of ''theory of mind'', and the ''Pre-operational autism theory'', which states that autistic people are those who get neurologically stuck at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development, where much of information processing is at a holistic-visual level and is largely musical and non-verbal. This also addresses the issue of the theory of mind where children at the pre-operational stage of cognitive development have not attained decentralisation from egocentrism. The Monotropism hypothesis argues that the central feature of Autism is attention-tunnelling, monotropism. The hypothesis is founded on the model [http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/mind.htm Mind as a Dynamical System: Implications for Autism]. In this model of mind, the fundamental and limited resource is mental attention. Mental events compete for and consume attention. In a polytropic mind, many interests are aroused to a moderate degree. In a monotropic mind, few interests are very highly aroused. When many interests are aroused, multiple, complex, behaviours emerge. When few interests are aroused then a few, intensely motivated, behaviours are engendered. From monotropism hypothesis, autism results from different strategies of distributing attention in the brain. The ''Underconnectivity theory'' indicates a deficiency in the coordination among brain areas. With the aid of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it was seen that white matter, which connects various areas of the brain like cables, has abnormalities in people with autism. (For those interested in brain studies, see Neuropsychology.) The underconnectivity theory holds that autism is a system-wide brain disorder that limits the coordination and integration among brain areas. This theory is Ockham's Razor, in that it explains why autistic people are matured on certain dimensions, such as visual information processing and logical analysis, and yet are socially — and sometimes neuro-physiologically — significantly younger than their chronological age. The underconnectivity theory can be regarded as monotropism in the brain. Other theories address the rise of autism in recent times. They suggest that the rise of visual media and the increasingly central role of visual information processing in the breakdown of language contributes to the increase of autism. Other theories involve the effect of toxins and poisons on neural development. It has been suggested that high levels of heavy metals such as lead may be a causal factor, and lead poisoning has been strongly linked to some cases of severe autism. One of the most controversial claims, along these lines, is that conditions such as autism and Asperger's are caused by adverse side-effects of immunization—particularly the so-called MMR Vaccine vaccine—and from the heavy-metal preservatives that in the past were used in their manufacture. This theory has a degree of popular currency and has been discussed in a number of documentaries on the subject. It has also been supported by some recent research that indicates that glutathione, a natural antioxidant, [http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/04/03/hscout524907.html may be unusually low in autistic people]; this may explain why the tiny amounts of mercury found in vaccines might be detoxified in the bodies of some children, but cause damage that leads to autism in a few. If this theory has merit, a blood test for autism, measuring glutathione levels, might be in the offing in the near future. However, critics argue that this theory fails to address the basic empirical observation that Asperger's and related disorders are overwhelmingly predominant in males, yet children of the two sexes are immunized in roughly equal numbers. A lesser known theory is that Asperger's and related syndromes may, in part, perpetuate genetic traits which were once highly advantageous to survival. One of the most notable characteristics of many people with Asperger's is that even very young children display a prodigious and often Eidetic memory (photographic) memory, with the ability to precisely recall very large amounts of music, dialogue and speech after even a single hearing. Although being able to precisely memorize and recall vast amounts of detail, such as cricket scores, dinosaur facts or television-show dialogue, may seem little more than an unusual trait in some societies, it is important to realize that such a skill would have had a high value in pre-literate society. The ability to accurately memorize and re-tell stories, myths, histories and other important oral traditions — such as directions to a remote food or water source — could have meant the difference between life and death before the invention of writing. == Effect on relationships == The significant others of people with Asperger's are more prone to major depression than the general population because people with Asperger's often have trouble showing affection or have little desire to show affection, and can be very literal and hard to communicate with in an emotional way. It is helpful for those involved with someone with Asperger's to read as much as they can about Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hyperlexia and other Comorbidity disorders. It also helps to visit support groups' websites on the Web and talk with others who are involved with people with Asperger's. A significant other will often be much less angry or depressed if he or she understands that the Asperger's symptoms are not intentionally directed, but are part of a Neurology disorder. That when someone does not spontaneously show affection, it does not necessarily mean that he or she does not feel it. Thus, the significant other will come to feel less rejected and be more understanding. Light will be shed on the nature of the misunderstandings. They may figure out ways to work around the problems; for example, by being more explicit about their needs. For instance, when describing emotions, it can be helpful to be direct and to avoid vague terms like "upset" when the emotion being described is "anger". Another suggestion could be to lay out in clear language what the problem is and to ask the partner with Asperger's to describe what emotions are being felt or ask why a certain emotion was being felt. == A gift and a curse == Recently, some researchers have speculated that many well-known people including Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, Craig Nicholls, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Glenn Gould, Gary Numan, Erik Satie, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodore Kaczynski, William James Sidis, Bobby Fischer, Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates have or had AS, as they showed some Asperger's related tendencies, such as intense interest in one subject and social problems. Such diagnoses remain controversial, however (cf. BBC News, ''[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2988647.stm Einstein and Newton "had autism"]'', 30 April 2003), and some more so than others, as most scholars seem to agree that Satie suffered at least from some form of autism. The obvious social contributions of such individuals has led to a shift in the perception of Asperger's and autism away from the simple view of a disease needing to be cured towards a more complex view of a syndrome with advantages and disadvantages. There is a semi-jocular theory within science fiction fandom, for example, which argues that many of the distinctive traits of that subculture may be explained by the speculation that a significant portion thereof is composed of people with Asperger's. A Wired Magazine article called ''[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html The Geek Syndrome]'' suggested that Asperger's syndrome is more common in the Silicon Valley, a haven for computer scientists and mathematicians. It created an enduring myth popularized in the media and self-help books that "Geek Syndrome" equals Asperger's syndrome, and precipitated a rash of self-diagnoses. Though these conditions do share traits, there is a consensus that most geeks are arguably "variant normal" and do not exhibit autistic-spectrum behaviors. "Geeks" may exhibit an extreme professional or casual interest in computers, science, engineering and related fields, and may be introverted; however, they do not suffer from impairments per se. This does not imply that there is no overlap between "geeks" and Asperger's patients, but it should be noted that self-diagnosis is a dangerous practice, and one prone to error. == Criticisms == Some people, including some people diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, argue that Asperger's syndrome is a social construct. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre has written a book arguing that Asperger's syndrome is an extreme version of the way in which men's brains differ from women's. He says that, in general, men are better at systematizing than women, and that women are better at empathizing than men. Hans Asperger himself is quoted as saying that his patients have 'an extreme version of the male form of intelligence'. One objection which has been put forward to this view is that, although AS is more common among males than females, females with AS do not necessarily come across as particularly masculine personalities, and some of them can show an exceptional interest in activities such as dancing. Yet again, what is perceived as a "masculine personality" may not be what Baron-Cohen had in mind by male intelligence, and dancing may be considered feminine only by certain social conventions. That dancing is considered a feminine pursuit clearly does not mean that a patient's interest in it must be motivated or directed by a non-systematic (presumably "female" in Baron-Cohen's work) brain structure. == Affectionate terms == "Aspie" is an affectionate term used by some with Asperger's syndrome to describe themselves. Others prefer "Aspergian,", "Asperger's Autistic" or no name at all. == References == *[1] Mayes SD, Calhoun SL, Crites DL: ''Does DSM-IV Asperger's disorder exist?'', Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 2001 June; 29(3), pages 263–271, [http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0902/3_29/76558499/p1/article.jhtml online version] * ''The ADHD-Autism Connection: A Step toward more accurate diagnosis and effective treatment'', by Diane M. Kennedy, ISBN 1578564980 (The aim of this book is to explore the similarities that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) shares with a spectrum of disorders currently known as pervasive developmental disorders.) * ''Asperger's Syndrome — A Guide for Parents and Professionals'' by Tony Atwood. This book is considered to be the Bible as far as general AS books go. * ''Martian in the Playground'' by Claire Sainsbury. This book is all about the schoolchild with Asperger's Syndrome. * ''Freaks, Geeks and Asperger's Syndrome'' (ISBN 1843100983) by Luke Jackson. This book won the National Association of Special Educational Needs Children's book award. Luke Jackson and his family starred in the British TV program, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/tvradio/autism/ My Family and Autism]. Luke is about 14 and has Asperger's syndrome. He has a brother with dyslexia, a brother with ADHD and a brother with profound autism. He also has three neurotypical sisters. * ''Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain'' by Simon Baron-Cohen. The author proposes the theory that autism and Asperger Syndrome can be explained as extreme examples of the male type of mind. == See also == *Autism rights movement *Conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders * Autism ** List of persons with autism spectrum disorders ** List of fictional characters on the autistic spectrum * Picture thinking * High-Functioning Autism (HFA) == External links == ===Diagnosis and self-diagnosis tools=== *[http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/tests/aq_test.asp Autism Research Center: The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)] — A self-administered test for High-Functioning Autism (HFA): S. Baron-Cohen, S. Wheelwright, R. Skinner, J. Martin and E. Clubley, (2001), ''The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) : Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians.'' Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 31:5-17. *[http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/tests/default.asp Autism Research Center: Other Tests] ===In the media=== *[http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=5-May-04 ''Fresh Air with Terry Gross''] Program on Aspergers, May 5, 2004. *[http://www.lcmedia.com/mind374.htm ''The Infinite Mind''] Aspergers Syndrome: A Special Report (Part One), May 11, 2005. *[http://www.lcmedia.com/mind375.htm ''The Infinite Mind''] Aspergers Syndrome: A Special Report (Part Two), May 18, 2005. *[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html Geeks and Autism] Wired ===Community forum sites=== *[http://www.aspergia.com/ Aspergia] Promoting the development of an Aspergian cultural identity. *[http://www.wrongplanet.net/ WrongPlanet.net Asperger's Syndrome Support] online resource and community for those with AS *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMSecretSociety/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Secret Society] A place for Aspies and HFAs that would like to participate in deep discussions within the framework of respect, friendship, and mutual support. *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMFamilyForum/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Family Forum] A place where parents and relatives of Aspies and HFAs can discuss Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism with Aspies and HFAs. *[http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/FAMSecretShield/ Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle - Secret Shield] For those Aspies and HFAs who have been bullied. *[http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com Aspies for Freedom] Site that has a positive approach to autism and focuses on autistic advocacy. *[http://www.autismforum.net/ AutismForum.net] offers a discussion forum, articles, and a chat room for the Autism community. *[http://www.xmission.com/~winter/ubb/ultimatebb.php Aspergers Community Board] offers a discussion forum for parents of AS children and teenagers, as well as for adults with Asperger's. Also offers pre-set searches for common queries. *[http://www.aspergianpride.com/ Aspergian Pride]Contains articles, web links, and forums that present positive views of autistic identity as a unique, meaningful culture and as a way of being. *[http://www.spectrumhaven.com SpectrumHaven.com] Site for kids and teens with Asperger's Syndrome *[http://www.aspietalk.co.uk/ AspieTALK (United Kingdom & Ireland)] Discussion Forums & Chat Room for Adults & Teens in the UK & Republic of Ireland with Asperger Syndrome - includes regional forums (e.g Central England, Scotland etc.) ===Support groups=== *[http://www.aspennj.org ASPEN Asperger Syndrome Education Network] *[http://www.autism-society.org Autism Society of America] *[http://www.nas.org.uk National Autistic Society, UK] *[http://autistics.org/ Autistics.org], resources by and for persons on the autistic spectrum *[http://www.autismnsw.com.au ASPECT Australia] Autism Spectrum Australia, for people on the autism spectrum and their families ===Informational=== *[http://www.autism-assembly.com Autism Assembly] Coalition of people on the autism spectrum, websites and groups, part of the global autism rights movement. *[http://www.geocities.com/environmental1st2003/FAM_Secret_Society.html Fellowship of the Aspergian Mircale] An informational site that has links the Fellowship of the Aspergian Miracle family of forums. *[http://www.autisticprideday.com Autistic Pride Day] Official information site for Autistic Pride Day, June 18th each year. *[http://www.ukautism.com Autism Awareness Campaign UK] *[http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/ Oops wrong planet syndrome] *[http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/ Online Asperger Syndrome Information and Support] *[http://aspergerinfo.org Dallas Asperger Network for Information, Support and Help] *[http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html Online (informal) test for signs of Asperger's] *[http://www.autism-in-mind.org Autism In Mind], autism support website. *[http://www.neurodiversity.com/ Neurodiversity.com], Autistic spectrum resources *[http://www.aspergerinformation.net AS-IF (aspergerinformation.net)] Great resources about Asperger *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk Autism and Computing], Autistic spectrum resources *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/marc2.htm A survival guide for people with Asperger syndrome], by Marc Segar *[http://www.autismandcomputing.org.uk/mind.htm Mind as a Dynamical System: Implications for Autism], They argue that the central feature of Autism is attention-tunnelling, monotropism. *[http://www.aspies.co.uk Aspies.co.uk], Personal site detailing interventions taken to help a child with Asperger's Syndrome. *[http://www.rdos.net/eng/asperger.htm The Neanderthal theory of autism], A non-dysfunction theory of autism and many other related conditions. *[http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php An aspie quiz], A test aimed at the behavioral differences between non autistics and those with aspergers. *[http://www.mental-health-matters.com/disorders/dis_details.php?disID=10 Mental Health Matters: Asperger's Syndrome] *[http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/immu/autism.html Quackwatch.org: Misconceptions about autism: Vaccines cause autism] *[http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/ Autistic Advocacy] *[http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/ Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support] *[http://www.askanaspie.com/ AskAnAspie.com] Offers information (written by a group of students at the University of Chicago who have Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism) that is specifically designed for parents. ===Medical community=== *[http://www.cureautismnow.org/index.jsp Cure Autism Now Foundation] ===Humor=== *[http://isnt.autistics.org/ Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical] (a parody by autistic and Asperger's people) ==Literature== *''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: A Novel'' by Mark Haddon ISBN 0385509456 *''The Adhd-Autism Connection : A Step Toward More Accurate Diagnoses and Effective Treatments'' by Diane Kennedy, Rebecca Banks, Temple Grandin; ISBN 1578564980 *''Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us'' by John J. MD Ratey; ISBN 0553379593 *''Understanding and Working With the Spectrum of Autism: An Insider's View'' by Wendy Lawson; ISBN 1853029718 ===Cinema=== *Mozart and the Whale Autism Childhood psychiatric disorders Eponymous diseases
Asperger's syndrome
== Introduction == I'm deleting a large chunk of text - however, since I wrote the text originally, no one should be concerned. :) I asked a friend knowelegeable about such matters to contribute some text, which I consider far superior to my initial entry and am thus putting in wholesale. user:-- April AS is the common shorthand for it. Or ASP Quick question about the following sentence from near the end of the article: ''The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual's diagnostic criteria have been roundly criticized for being far too vague and subjective. '' Is it the DSM's Asperger's diagnostic criteria that have been criticized, or *all* of the DSM's diagnostic criteria for all the disorders it tries to cover? I don't know, but I think the sentence or paragraph could be reworded a little to remove that confusion; as it is, I could read it either way. User:Wesley 17:07 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC) : Both. Some people think that all or the vast majority of the DSM-IV is nonsense. A slightly larger number of people think that the specific entry for asperger's is nonsense. The former is arguably off-topic, though. -User:MyRedDice : ''What is Acapedia -> see talk:Acapedia'' :Besides that question, this article needs a lot of work -- too many long chunks of text. -- User:Zoe Changed abbreviation to ASD, which is what's used by most professionals User:GregNorc ---- ---- This is an outstanding article that I found to be highly evolved and a really great read. The only personal link I have to Autism was with a woman I dated with three autistic children. She was phenomenal to endure the perpetual frustration of teaching them and attending to their needs. From then on, I have been keenly aware of autism clinical trials and am looking forward to potential diagnostic, clinical, and therapeutic breakthroughs in this often confounding disease. --User:Piewalker 05:23, 10 May 2005 (UTC) ---- I just restored the page after an anonymous user blanked it, and probably missed some small piece of formatting somewhere. Please fix anything you spot. -- User:Jredmond 15:49, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC) ---- I think it would be neat to list some of the historical figures that are suspected of having Aspergers, such as Newton Einstein and Bill Gates... :I don't, because that would be idle speculation and a bit too gossip-like. -- User:Olathe November 22, 2003 :Got 1 at youth club :) Einstien, Gates, Newton, Keanu Reves.... All on there. Plenty of people whom it is suspected they had Aspergers... One day I'll be on that list ;) :: The list is interesting but some justification might be in order. User:Phil Boswell 15:21, Dec 4, 2003 (UTC) :::"Due to their success via unconventional means, fitting into the symptoms of Asperger's?" Before I put that up, does that all work for you as justification?User:Leumi ::Sorry, what I meant was that we need to quote a reasonably reliable source rather than just posting WAGs and hoping nobody gets cross. Just saying "We think this guy has/had Asperger's because he's a geek" won't cut the mustard. Remember we're writing an encyclopædia here, not a gossip column. User:Phil Boswell 09:15, Dec 5, 2003 (UTC) :::I suppose you're right. I'll work on a more comprehensive version. Sorry about that, I certainly didn't mean for it to be offensive or gossipy, considering my intimate knowledge of the condition. I do see your point though and will work on a more comprehensive justification. User:Leumi 16:25, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) ::Oh I'm not offended, I usually sound like that (did you like my hastily improvised smiley? :-) If you have some sort of qualification, or (as you say) intimate knowledge, and it wouldn't be embarrassing, maybe you could note such on your User page. Unfortunately my personal knowledge is not in a context which I am able to make public right now, which is kind of frustrating. User:Phil Boswell 17:15, Dec 5, 2003 (UTC) :::I have it, as well as unipolar depression, and have some of the good effects (like intelligence, absolute pitch), if you have any questions feel free to ask me. I had a special-ed monitor until tenth grade, and was in special classes until third. I'm watching this article. --User:Pakaran 17:18, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) :: I have it as well, including some of the good effects mentioned (don't have absolute pitch. To my knowledge at least. I haven't done music in a while). I am currently in the special education system, which I think needs some revisiong but that's not here or there, as I am a high school student and only a teenager. Don't worry, it doesn't really embarrass me, and I'd love to answer any questions you might have. I have founded what you might call a club with various "eccentric" teenagers with similar conditions, so I have some knowledge of it's symptoms and effects. User:Leumi 17:20, 5 Dec 2003 (UTC) ---- "Asperger's Disorder" is a non-neutral term, a point made humourously at the [http://isnt.autistics.org/ "Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical"] [parody]. "Asperger's Reorder" would be more accurate, but that term is not in popular use. If "Asperger's Syndrome" were used, and "Asperger's Disorder" was a redirect, that would surely be better IMO. --User:Morosoph 14:48, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC) It really should be named "Asperger's Syndrome". I tried to rename it, but I wasn't successful. I can't tell if the software was really stopping me, or if it was the "helpful" people riding on "Recent Changes" that were stomping on me in the middle of trying to rename it according to the instructions on how to move a page. -- User:Amillar 18:53, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) :It seems to me that this page *should* be at Asperger's Syndrome, simply based on standard usage. (e.g. 74,000 Google hits for Syndrome, 8,500 for Disorder) It also seems to be the preferred term in the artcile text. - User:Seth Ilys 18:57, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) ---- Is anyone partially against the list of people at the end of the article? It's not even a list of formally diagnosed people, and seems like it's just an attempt at justifying a statement "oh look it's not all that bad" - User:Richard cocks 18:53, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC) :The section should probably be re-worded. I think that it can help people to realise that AS is a fundamentally different mindset, and not merely another mental illness.--User:Morosoph 15:42, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC) ---- Although this comment has nothing to do with the improvement of Wikipedia I would like to thank all of you for making Asperger's Syndrome a "Featured article". I have Asperger's Syndrome and regularly meet people who have prejudices towards autism. When they think of autism, they think of a child that plays with the wheel of his toy-car for hours in a row. They don't seem to comprehend that there are people with a type of autism but still seem to function relatively well in a society. Sometimes they don't believe I have Asperger's because I function so well and they think of the social problems I mention as nonsense. Making Asperger's Syndrome a featured article on the Wikipedia main page may well improve the understanding people have when they think of Asperger, autism and me. Thank you. From the Netherlands --User:Maarten van Vliet 11:20, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC) ---- I've heard that Asperger's is much more common among males than females. And that females show very different symptoms than males. I.e. is not as hindered in social relations and not so obsessed with a strange hobby. I also think that Asperger's is a genetic disorder. User:BL 12:09, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC) :: Bahhhhhhahahahahaha - I know 3 girls w AS (shorthand for aspergers) and they are all obsessed with something, be it Pigeons, Anime or Star Trek..... ::: (wo)Man, quit this! I know at least five boys with it (when I take myself in the count) and only one girl. In game therapy, when I was a child, I was in a group where there were as many as five boys and only one girl. So in my personal experience the share of boys in the total group of aspergerists is even bigger than 3 out of 4.--User:Caesarion 13:03, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Asperger's and autistic disorder are more common among males (by 4:1, IIRC) but the symptoms present in pretty much the same way. I personally believe that AS/Autism has a genetic component in many if not most cases, but there is a great deal of dispute about that. Remember also that a "syndrome" is defined by its common features; virtually by definition we don't know what causes it at the time it is designated a "syndrome" ''cf.'' "AIDS" User:Cecropia 17:01, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Nominal female Aspie here, who feels extremely hindered in social relations. (I suppose most would say I have a major strange hobby bordering on obsession, too, though I hadn't thought of it that way.) I am at the more high-functioning end, and am not widely read on the condition, but am willing to answer questions relating to my individual experiences. User:132.185.144.122 15:13, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC) Hey, whats ur hobby? Mine is designing war games for the PC and space based stories. Plus board games.... --Chris same here, im still a teen but i think i've done a satisfactory job of attempting to overcome those difficulties in regards to social relations. great to see a page so well written. And in response to BL's comment above, I'd like to see if anyone can find evidence as to how asperger's might be genetic. my father displays symptoms characteristic of aspergers (the dsm-iv-tr guidelines are way too vague), and it would be logical, from a wired article on the 'geek syndrome' ([http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html]) that it is somewhat genetic. *shrug*, just my two cents. - User:Applegoddess 08:44, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC) Same here --Chris again :P This is a serious question, raised in the "Criticism" section of the main article. I have met a number of women with AS, and most of them would not come across as particularly masculine personality types. AS is a complex phenomenom which can affect people differently, and there is a lot more to it than unusual or obsessive interests, but going by something one woman with AS said to me once, it is possible that some girls with AS can show an exceptional interests in traditionally "feminine" activities e.g. dancing. Even a lot of men with AS are about the last people you would expect to find getting into a fight in a bar. User:PatGallacher 01:29, 2005 Feb 1 (UTC) Someone has tried to reply to this on the actual article, but the article is now getting confused. When Baron-Cohen, rightly or wrongly, advanced his theories about AS being an extreme form of "male intelligence", he really did mean by that mental traits you tend to get in men, not just a socially constructed phenomenom. Therefore this does raise some important issues about females with AS. The person who attempted to reply to this is entitled to their opinion, which may merit discussion, but it is not the same as Baron-Cohen's opinion. User:PatGallacher ==Genetic Traits== Are autism, ADD, dyslexia, or Asperger's genetic traits? Are there any good links to sources with an opinion? I am very high-functioning to the point that I am usually Passing. I strongly feel that Asperger's is a social construct, or at the least it is a learned trait, and thus not intrinsic to an individual. The entire thing is a vicious cycle; higher intelligence and mildly poor social skills create a "snowball" effect as a child grows up: I was teasted and ostracized by other children for my Asperger's symptoms, thus I developed emotional problems due to stress. My proof is that I used to have obsessive compulsive disorder-symptoms as a child to the point that I was a prisoner in my own home, but after moving to a new town and starting my life over in my teens, this stopped utterly; my social skills also drastically improved. I feel that I became emotionally withdrawn not for lack of trying but because I was excluded from growing up with the same emotional support as other children. I strongly agree with the statement that Asperger's is just an extreme case of the way the "male-brain" works (although it applies to both genders). But the snowball effect is that once a child is teased, excluded, etc., the emotional detachment and anguish this causes leads to psychological problems that really wouldn't have developed to such an extent in a caring environment (I am not a psychologist, and I am not hubristic enough to think that these broad claims I am making should be taken as fact, but I feel they should be researched). Why must a person's self-worth be based on their level of social-interaction? If I speak to someone and dont' necessarily look them in the eye, does this mean I have less value as a person? What are we, wolves? A person's intelligence, integrity, and creativity are what make us most true to ourselves, not how well we interact socially. Under Adam Smith's social model (Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations and I feel his work led to the rise of consumerism, people have become consumers who gratify their immediate needs and those who believe in truth and expression; artists, scientists, etc. are ignored. Rousseau was disgusted by this and developed the concept of a bohemianism, someone who lives on the fringe of society and refuses to be tyrannized by public opinion. Rousseau (in The Social Contract) defined freedom as setting your own rules and then obeying them (under Smith, society sets the rules, so no one is harmed, and thus all members become well-suited to social interaction). Do I feel that, under rules I have set for myself, social interaction comes first? No. "Staying true to myself" does. I am eccentric. This is not a problem; John Stuart Mill in "On Liberty" called for a return of "the eccentric" to society. Mill said that as a society we live in an age where there is a "tyranny of the majority"; public opinion (proper social interaction helps this) determines what is right and wrong, not objective truth. Public opinion "raises the low and lowers the high", and consumerism and conformity have won out over self-expression. I am receiving a mixed message; on the one hand, I am supposed to "be myself" and revel in this; "everyone is special" is a cornerstone of teaching in schools. However, it would appear that "some people are more special than others" (To paraphrase Animal Farm). Nietzsche would call this "herd-mentality". Ultimately, Mill says that eccentricity in society must take precendence over public opinion, because it will broaden our sense of freedom and lead to a search for the best life. I am deficient at both verbal social skills and non-verbal signals. This in no way makes me less of a person. Social interaction does not define such things as creativity, ambition, love; things that make us truely human. But I look around today at a consumerist, conformist culture that excludes all eccentricity. Was society always like this? I don't think so. I think we just assumed that society was always like this, that this was the way things are supposed to be because we cannot remember it being another way (post hoc ergo propter hoc). Again, it is a vicious cycle; eccentric, above-average intelligence "Asperger's" children are ostracized by others growing up; this is what leads to our loss of social coordination and the ability to function with social signals; I believe that this is a Pavlovian trait. Case in point, the trademark "bland, unexpressive face" (noted in the entry in this article on Georgie from Dead Like Me) is not an intrinsic flaw in our character; it is a Pavlovian trait. We have been taught to fear social interaction because it usually ends in rejection, and thus we have developed a passive-aggressive defensive mechanism, a "turtle" response if you will. We should consider this strange reaction to awkward social events not a deficieny of ourselves, but something forced on us. We live in a culture where youth, beauty, and consumerism are king (read Brave New World, I find it precient). Of thousands of scientists or great thinkers today, who can name even a handful? But pop culture icons and movie-stars are worshipped. Do bubblegum-pop bands have anything meaningful to say? About knowledge, the soul, how I should live my life, etc? The tyranny of public opinion has set in an I fear what is to come. Many intelligent, though eccentric, "Apserger's Syndrome" patients have been excluded from contributing to society, and under false pretexts and broad social label have been almost completely marginalized. For those like myself that have symptoms that fall under the umbrella-term of "asperger's syndrome", I feel that the tyranny of the majority is pushing us Towards A "Lurker Caste"; in effect we will "lurker" on the margins of a social order which they have created tailored to their specifications (this all happens unconsciously mind you) but only watch from the fringe, a disenfranchise group subjected to great misery, in a world not of our own making. ---Name Withheld, 17:04 EST, Sep 13 2004(UTC) :On the question of whether it is a genetic trait, much evidence definitely points to it being a real, neurological difference, and not just a matter of social training. In one family I know, one child is clearly Aspie while the other three are not. All the children were raised the same way. That's just one data point, but if you do any reading, you'll find it is a clear trend. I'd recommend the book "Pretending to be Normal" as a good starting place. --User:Amillar 22:26, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC) :truely -> truly; precient -> prescient :Hmm, I remember writing tirades of this length about morality and ethics on a MUD I was wronged on, but I didn't ramble or rely on irrelevant name-dropping or flawed arguments. To refute you shortly, a human is a social animal; it's also many other things. Therefore, the less of any trait out of all seen and known human traits one has, the less human one is. Moreover, I might have had the article's symptoms some time in my life, though I could well understand social clues; the problem was I was un-coordinated, astigmatic, neurotic, and withdrawn. But those problems solved themselves with all the suffering I went through. User:Lysdexia 20:15, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC) :Is ADD genetic? I read a book about ADD called "Scattered Minds" I forget the writer. He was asking where it come from as well. ADD tends to be more prevalent if a parent has ADD as well. He also found that ADD tends to be more prevalent in people with emotional problems relating to parents, specifically feelings of love and acceptance. His theory is that there is a genetic portion of it that makes us more sensitive to developing it and that emotional relationships as a child are the source. It is hard to say though, many people with ADD may actually have Aspergers syndrome, it can have similar symptoms, including obsessive behaviour. I do show obsessive behaviour, but the obsession seems to drift and refocus on other things all the time. The writer of the book also showed obsession, he spent more than 1000 dollars in a week (I think that was the figure) on cds... specifically classical music. "Civilization is the progress toward a society of ''privacy''. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."--Ayn Rand. (Comment) I have aspergers and attend a youth club for people with aspergers. We have 5/6 female members. So far, 1 is obsessed with pigions, 1 with Anime, 1 with star trek and the other 2/3 we arnt sure about. Out of the remaining 2 or 3, 1 shows obsession with people like michal jackson, but im not sure if that counts. The male members do suffer obsessions also. I myself am a computer and war game fanatic. My freind alan is a star wars fanatic, my freind danny a guitar nut etc.... While it may be genetic, females and males act very similar in most respects. Also, my youth club attendances have helped, as have other strange freinds in other places (Epilepsy, dislexia and at 1 point a strange goth creature named shaun....) :P However, I'm probably 1 of the more nomal people with aspergers... ---Chris Barrett, Dec 31, 2004 ==Possible Copyright Violation== The entire 'characteristics' section seems to be lifted (and partially modified) from http://www.informationheadquarters.com/Autism/Aspergers_Syndrome.shtml. User:Crackshoe 16:50, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) : That site probably sources from Wikipedia rather than the other way around. Check similarities in other fields such as history of computing. User:Richard cocks ::See the bottom of that page, where it says "This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License." -- User:The Anome 18:22, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) ==
Recently, some researchers have speculated that many well-known people including Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, Craig Nicholls, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Glenn Gould, Gary Numan, Erik Satie, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodore Kaczynski, William James Sidis, Bobby Fischer, Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates have or had AS, as they showed some Asperger's related tendencies, such as intense interest in one subject and social problems.I think these researchers may be exaggerating just a bit. Just because someone has an intense interest in a subject doesn't mean that they have a mental disorder. They're probably just extremely dedicated to their work, and their work is appealing to them. _
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