Springtides, Inc.Asperger's Syndrome
- The average age of a child when diagnosed with Asperger's is between 8 and 11 years old.
- Characteristics of a child with Asperger's Syndrome:
- delayed social maturity and social reasoning
- immature empathy
- difficulty making friends and often teased by other children
- difficulty with the communication and control of emotions
- unusual language abilities that include advanced vocabulary and syntax but delayed conversation skills, unusual prosody and a tendency to be pedantic
- a fascination with a topic that is unusual in intensity or focus
- difficulty maintaining attention in class
- an unusual profile of learing abilities
- a need for assistance with some self-help and organizational skills
- clumsiness in terms of gait and coordination
- sensitivity to specific sounds, aromas, textures or touch
The Gillberg diagnostic criteria for Asperger's syndrome (Gillberg 1991)
- Social impairment (extreme egocentricity)(at least two of the following):
- difficulties interacting with peers
- indifference to peer contacts
- difficulties interpreting social cues
- socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior
- Narrow interest (at least one of the following):
- exclusion of other activities
- repetitive adherence
- more rote than meaning
- Compulsive need for introducing routines and interests (at least one of the following):
- which affect the individual's every aspect of everyday life
- which affect others
- Speech and language perculiarities (at least three of the following):
- delayed speech development
- superficially perfect expressive language
- formal pedantic language
- odd prosody, peculiar voice characteristics
- impairment of comprehension including misinterpretations of literal/implied meanings
- Non-verbal communication problems (at least one of the following):
- limited use of gestures
- clumsy/gauche body language
- limited facial expression
- inappropriate facial expression
- peculiar, stiff gaze
- Motor clumsiness:
- poor performance in neurodevelopmental test
Diagnostic criteria for Asperger's disorder according to DSM-IV (TR) (American Psychiatric Association 2000)
- Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
- marked impairment in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
- failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
- a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
- lack of social or emotional reciprocity
- Restricted repetitive or 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, non-functional routines or rituals
- stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
- The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment 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, 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.
The information on this page was taken from the following sources:
The Complete Guide To Asperger's Syndrome by Tony Attwood