There has been a lot of debate about the nature of Asperger's
syndrome and where it fits within the Autism spectrum. The one thing
that is known for sure is that Asperger's IS a type of autism, but
without many of the debilitating symptoms. There are many differences
between what most people think of when they imagine an autistic child
and one that suffers from Asperger's syndrome. Let's take a look at some
of the basic differences.
1. A child who is typically autistic
will show severe lapses in the development of language. A high
percentage of autistic children may never develop language skills at
all. With a child or an adolescent who has Asperger's syndrome, language
skills are usually not affected at all and in fact can be above
average. A child with Asperger's syndrome can show impaired social
development that may lead to a lack of language usage, but the actual
development of the language itself is on par with other children of the
same age.
2. A second way to differentiate Asperger's disease from
classic autism is the cognitive abilities of Asperger's children. Most
kids that have Asperger's show normal or even above average cognitive
ability in classroom settings and on I.Q. tests. This extends into the
later years of development too. However, children with classic autism
show cognitive impairments that usually do not improve with age.
3.
A third and major difference between kids with autism and Asperger's is
the way the two interact socially. In most cases, although there are
variances since each child with autism and each child with Asperger's
reacts differently, a child who is autistic can sometimes come across as
being cocky or not really caring about children around them. However
children with Asperger's syndrome in most cases want to be social but
are just very, very awkward. They tend to be too formal in social
situations, and they are thought to not show empathy to other children.
They may also appear to have no knowledge of social rules and proper
mannerisms. They can also show almost complete lack of eye contact,
which many regard as a lack of interest in being social, but it is more
out of awkwardness than a lack of wanting to be social.
4. A final
way that you can tell if a child has Asperger's syndrome and not
traditional autism is the way an Asperger's syndrome child becomes
obsessed with things. The subject of the obsession can range something
like sports statistics to obscure things like names of Russian czars or
any other bizarre thing you can think of. This obsessive behavior also
has an impact on the child's socialization. They tend to only want to
talk about whatever their current obsession is with other people,
including kids their own age. This can add to the awkward social
interaction that is common for those with Asperger's syndrome.
