Asperger's Syndrome Disorder

Abstract

Asperger's disorder is a developmental disorder which greatly impacts the lives of both those who have the disorder, and those close to them. People with Asperger's have an inability to function normally in social environments due to a lack of comprehension and understanding of basic social cues. In addition to the difficulties arising purely out of lack of communications skills, those with the disorder are also prone to acts of bullying by other's who do not understand the disorder. Family members of the person who has Asperger's can also suffer stress indirectly as a result of having a relative with Asperger's. Treatments are able to alleviate some of the difficulties of the disorder, and over time many of the symptoms of the disorder can improve.

Asperger's Syndrome is a disorder that affects the development of those who have it. People with Asperger's experience great difficulty in learning how to interact with others in a social context. Common difficulties for those who are afflicted with this disorder include: difficulty understanding social rules and recognizing both verbal and nonverbal cues from others. Asperger's belongs to a group of disorders called pervasive developmental disorders, and share several similarities with autism. Autism and Asperger's patients both tend to be greatly focused on particular interests or hobbies and have atypical social interactions with others. Those with the disorder typically have unusual facial expressions and make use of odd gestures. Despite all of these problems, however, those with Asperger's disorder are in neither their intelligence nor language development, and develop self reliance and interest in the world around them at the same ages as children not affected with the disorder. (Curtis, 2008)

Many times the parents of children with Asperger's will first become aware of the disorder in their children when the child starts going to school. Before this time the child might not have been exposed to many other children, but differences normal children and the way in which the child interacts with others may tend to alert the parent to the disorder. In addition to the difficulty in understanding the subtle nuances of communication, such as tone, pitch, body language, and facial expressions, the child may also seem odd in that he is overly interested in one particular subject or interest. Another typical symptom of the disorder is that the child will take everything said to him literally and will have difficulty understanding implied meanings in what is stated, such as in jokes or sarcastic comments. The symptoms will not appear identically in everyone however, and even two people with the same symptoms may have them to varying degrees. Asperger's is a syndrome, which means that in order to have the disorder a child must present a combination of the symptoms, and a child who displays just one or two of the symptoms would not be said to have the disorder. (www.WebMD.com, 2008)

Due to the effects of the disorder people afflicted with Asperger's have a hard time interacting with other people. Because of the way children with Asperger's act, with their unusual interests and strange behavior and speech, they many times become the target of bullying at school. Children with Asperger's often do not know what they have done to deserve this treatment, which could possibly lead to withdrawing from social situations. This withdrawal is compounded by the fact that, unlike people afflicted with other pervasive development disorders, people with Asperger's want to have social interaction, despite the fact that they often don't socialize successfully. Although children with Asperger's show advanced capabilities in a variety of subjects including: math, reading, and language, they also suffer from delays in other areas. Teachers may consider the child problematic due to his reluctance toward performing some tasks, such as homework, and the child may seem arrogant or insubordinate. Tantrums, outburst, and other problematic behavior may result from lack of support and understanding on the part of the teacher and the child's parents. (Morris, 2008)

In addition to the difficulties in understanding social cues and their odd behavior, people with Asperger's find it hard to adequately socialize with others due to two other symptoms which could potentially occur in the disorder, mind-blindness and alexithymia. Mind-blindness refers to an inability to understand that another individual has a mind of their own, leading to trouble in predicting the beliefs or intentions of another person; the person with mind-blindness is unable to develop a theory of mind, and thus is not capable of putting himself in someone else's shoes. People naturally are able to infer how another person might feel in a given situation, and based on this understanding they can imagine what another person's intentions could be, however