Asperger's Disorder Symptoms

Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

*marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal 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 and 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, nonfunctional routines or rituals
*stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

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 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 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.

Criteria summarized from:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

From Mental Help Net

Sound like me alright hehe

I know I fit the bill since I have the dx for 5 years and was confirmed by 6 differnt doctors.

I was dx'd in 2002...

I am a "grandma" aged person diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago. I received good counselling and I take Ritalin, but I still have big problems accomplishing things.

I could trace a line back to my mother and her hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Who knew so many years ago--50--about diagnosis and treatment?

Today I received an email from my sister's adult daughter. She has a son with autism (now 9 years old). She also has a son who is 6, and has just been diagnosed as having Asbergers. Why did it take so long? The first boy was diagnosed at 2. I had visited them two summers ago, and the older boy, affectionate and quiet, was the one who needed full-time attention and one-on-one guidance. The younger one was a sweet, curious, demonstrably affectionate, social kid. Is he changing?

This family has the resources to deal with this financially, but I know it is going to take even more of their dedication and understanding.

Maybe these differences are genetically related.(?)

I don't know enough to tell you why your nephiew was only recently diagnosed with aspergers syndrome. However I can speculate a little.

First of all, it is commonly held that the majority of people who have aspergers syndrome are never diagnosed. Secondly, the milder the symptoms the less likely it is that it will ever be diagnosed. Furthermore, the older the patient gets the more reluctant the medical profession is to diagnose aspergers syndrome.

Basically, if you do not have compelling symptoms and/or were not diagnosed at an early age, there is a fair chance you never will be diagnosed with aspergers syndrome.

I suspect that the very mild cases are hardest to diagnose, and to make it more difficult, aspergers syndrome can be difficult to distinguish from adhd in some people... particularly in children, and even more so in children who do not have obviously compelling autistic traits.

I doubt that he is changing, but there is most likely some observed set of traits that caused the doctor to diagnose aspergers syndrome.

The child may be very social, he may have a strong desire to be social (or not). A lot depends on the person. One of the key problems is an impairment on nonverbal communications.... meaning that the AS child might not be very able socially regardless of the desire to be social.

Aspergers is most likely genetic in origin and it is something that a person either does or does not have. It can be mild, or severe.. the expressed traits of AS vary a lot from one person to the next and it can be hard for doctors to diagnose.

I hope this helps
Me :D

I am a "grandma" aged person diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago. I received good counselling and I take Ritalin, but I still have big problems accomplishing things.

I could trace a line back to my mother and her hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Who knew so many years ago--50--about diagnosis and treatment?

Today I received an email from my sister's adult daughter. She has a son with autism (now 9 years old). She also has a son who is 6, and has just been diagnosed as having Asbergers. Why did it take so long? The first boy was diagnosed at 2. I had visited them two summers ago, and the older boy, affectionate and quiet, was the one who needed full-time attention and one-on-one guidance. The younger one was a sweet, curious, demonstrably affectionate, social kid. Is he changing?

This family has the resources to deal with this financially, but I know it is going to take even more of their dedication and understanding.

Maybe these differences are genetically related.(?)

She also has a son who is 6, and has just been diagnosed as having Asbergers. Why did it take so long? ....

Maybe these differences are genetically related.(?)
Dr. Piven recently lectured at the M.I.N.D. institute regarding autism (this and other great lectures available for view at http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/events/dls_recorded_events.html). One of the things that caught my attention was their decription of autism-like traits ("Broad Autism Phenotype", or BAP) in family members that do not have diagnosable autism but are described by others as very logical, somewhat rigid in their thinking, etc.

Recent studies have reported that siblings of autistic children have more difficulty with communication and recognizing facial cues than children from general population sampling. Determining whether these children actually fit into an asperger's or other autism-spectrum diagnosis, simply have some traits in that direction, or are responding to their environment, doesn't seem to be easy.

The good news is that 6 is still an excellent age to be diagnosed with aspergers, young enough to learn a second language--in this case, a social language--with far greater ease than an older child, and at a great spot to start identifying any sensory or other issues and developing skills to work with them.

Personally, I think any child with BAP traits or autistic-spectrum disorders in their family (including grandparents, aunts, and uncles) would benefit from this same type of training, whether they have inherited some autistic traits or not. Whether we personally inherit the genes or just learn the 'accent' from our familial interactions, early training goes a long way toward using the best from both worlds.

Diagnosed with Autism and ADHD when I was 4.
Non verbal until 4 1/2