Asperger's Syndrome

Autism. We all know the word; we’ve all heard it before. Most of you have probably known someone with some form of autism. Yes, some form. There is a whole spectrum of disorders that fall under the pervasive developmental disorder genre. This is known as the autism spectrum. Included in this spectrum is Asperger syndrome. Also known as Asperger’s syndrome or Asperger disorder. The name “Asperger” came from Hans Asperger, who first described the syndrome in 1944. Asperger syndrome can affect an individual, just as much as any other form of autism can.

Hans Asperger’s observations, and other research, suggest that there is a genetic contribution to Asperger’s syndrome. The reason for this is because there is a tendency for Asperger’s to run in families, if not Asperger’s specifically a more limited form of the disorder. Aside from the genetic contribution idea, many environment factors have been hypothesized to act as contributors. There is no specific gene for Asperger’s, nor has any environment factor been confirmed by scientific investigation.

My brother, at the age of eleven, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when he was in fifth grade. I myself was in fourth grade, and even though many adults tried to explain to me what was wrong with my brother, it never really clicked. I realized that he was “special”, and it immediately became my job, in my mind, to watch out for him. Every once in a while some classmate or neighbor would decide to make fun of my brother and I would just start screaming at them to take it back. Now, looking back at these times, I realize I overreacted at times.

Kids with Asperger’s tend to display intense interests in specific things. For my brother it was Pokémon, at first. Even before his diagnosis he would be seen with the latest Pokémon cards, battling our older brother for hours. Of course I was drawn into the games, partly because I had nothing else to do since my sister was never home, and partly because I was the only person who would play with Kurtis for hours on end. Next came Naruto. To this day he has every volume of that anime series, and regularly checks online for chapter updates. Around that same time he also got into Lego. I mean, he really got into the building blocks. He’d build Darth Vader with the instructions, a school building from scratch, a complex plane from the Star Wars movies from memory. Today he has three huge bins filled with Legos. He doesn’t play with them too much anymore, but every once in a while he will take them out and build something magnificent.

The most dysfunctional aspect of Asperger’s syndrome is possibly the lack of demonstrated empathy. This isn’t saying that people with Asperger’s are anti-social, they do approach others, but they lack some very key social skills. For example, they can’t read facial expressions too well. They do not recognize or understand the listener’s feelings and reactions to the topic they’re talking about. An individual with Asperger’s could talk for hours on one subject alone; all the while not understand the signals someone else might pick up. Like if the listener displays lack of interest, eye contact becomes less frequent, responses shorter, the sighs of exasperation. Those affected with Asperger’s can’t pick these little clues up. Through therapy however, some can learn how to pick up some of these signals. Some may see this as being insensitive, but if they only knew that the person had Asperger’s maybe they would be more understanding.

From what I have learned, many people with Asperger’s are extremely smart in many or one specific field. However, they are not as absorbed in the topic as Autistic savants. Children with Asperger’s may have in their possession an unusually advanced vocabulary at a young age. These children also seem to have a particular weakness in nonliteral language areas such as humor, teasing, and irony. They are able to develop their language skills without general delay and their speech does not contain significant abnormalities. However, sometimes there are abrupt transitions, literal interpretations, use of a metaphor meaningful only to the speaker, and oddities in loudness, intonation, rhythm, pitch, and prosody. Sometimes people with Asperger’s cannot understand the humor in jokes or anecdotes told by friends. They simply just aren’t able to appreciate it. According to the Adult Asperger Assessment diagnostic test, the positive preference towards non-fiction and a lack of interest in fiction is common among adults with Asperger’s.

The ideal treatment for Asperger’s syndrome involved therapies that address core symptoms of the disorder, including poor communication skills and obsessive or repetitive routines. Wikipedia’s page on Asperger syndrome suggests these types of treatments:

  • The training of social skills for more effective interpersonal interactions
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy to improve stress management relating to anxiety or explosive emotions and to cut back on obsessive interests and repetitive routines,
  • Medication, for coexisting conditions such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder
  • Occupational or physical therapy to assist with poor sensory integration and motor coordination
  • Social communication intervention, which is specialized speech therapy to help with the pragmatics of the give and take of normal conversation
  • The training and support of parents, particularly in behavioral techniques to use in the home.

After being diagnosed with Asperger’s, my brother Kurtis was put right into therapy. For a good year or so before he was diagnosed he did a lot of occupational therapy as well. Every week we would drive a good hour or so into Boston to get to where his therapy was. My brother also has sensory integration, which prompted my parents to put him into occupational therapy as well. In our old house, in the basement, there is a whole section of it that was devoted to his occupational therapy. My parents had a bar put into the ceiling so that we could set up his swings and other things. After his diagnosis he went to talk to a psychiatrist every week to help him understand and cope and train his social skills and other things in the list mentioned above.

If you notice someone who is different then you, don’t just ignore them or poke fun at them. It’s rude. And sometimes you have no idea what’s going on in their personal life. The things they’re not wearing on their sleeves. For years my parents came up with presentations for school teachers, explaining to them how they can help my brother in the classroom. They have been doing this since his diagnosis, up until last year when he asked them to stop because he didn’t want to be seen as ‘that kid’ from his teachers and classmates. Kurtis just wanted to be himself, Asperger’s and all, around his new high school friends and teachers. Some kids are okay hiding behind their Asperger’s, using it as an excuse for doing something, but others are not. These are the kinds of kids whom are everywhere, in every school building. The ones that you’ve suspected are ‘different’ but don’t know how to ask or go about doing it because you don’t care. You like the person just the way they are.

Autism. We all know the word; we’ve all heard it before. Most of you have probably known someone with some form of autism. Yes, some form. There is a whole spectrum of disorders that fall under the pervasive developmental disorder genre. This is known as the autism spectrum. Included on this spectrum is Asperger syndrome.

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