Autism spectrum is classified to different disorders as Autism, Asperger syndrome, Childhood disintegrative disorder and Rett syndrome. All these disorders have common symptoms, such as social deficits, communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors and interests and sometimes accompanied by cognitive delays.
Asperger syndrome is named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, whom studied and described the symptoms in the year 1944, but it was not diagnosed until 50 years later by the English psychiatrist Lorna Wing who named it.
The patients of Asperger syndrome don’t have cognitive delays, but they have high intelligence. The causes of Asperger syndrome are not identified, but it is probably caused by genetic bases. Asperger syndrome or Asperger disorder is distinguished by major difficulties in social interaction, along with the other symptoms.
There are 22 symptoms that characterize Asperger syndrome
Loneliness, manifested in at least two of the following four signs:
– No close friends;
– Avoids others;
– Has no interest in acquiring friends;
– Prefers to be single
Impaired social interaction, manifested in at least one of the following 5 symptoms:
– Refers to others only with his own needs;
– Awkward social relationships;
– One-sided relationship with peers;
– Difficulty in recognizing the feelings of others;
– Detachment from the feelings of other people
Impaired non-verbal communication, manifested in at least one of the following 7 signs:
– Limited facial expression;
– Not able to read emotions in facial expressions of others;
– Not able to transmit information through the eyes;
– Does not look at others;
– Does not use hands to express himself;
– Gestures are large and clumsy;
– Comes too close to others while speaking
Poor speech, appearing in at least two of the following 6 symptoms:
– Violations of intonation;
– Talks too much;
– Says too little;
– Inability to engage in conversation;
– Idiosyncratic use of words;
– Repetitive speech
Arpita Biswas