Asperger’s Syndrome is a developmental disorder that is considered a part of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It used to be a stand alone disorder before 2013. It has similar symptoms as the other types of Autism like impaired language, repetitive thinking, abnormal communication skills and need of routine. The people diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome have high intelligence and face no speech delays.

Signs of Asperger’s Syndrome

Asperger’s Syndrome has multiple types of symptoms that adversely affect social, physical, cognitive and learning skills of the children. A child can show few or many of the symptoms. No two children have the same signs of Asperger’s. There are five types of Asperger’s Syndrome symptoms we can observe in the children with Asperger’s:

Social Signs

Children with Asperger’s Syndrome face difficulties during handling social situations. These are the common issues one can observe in them:

1. They prefer isolation and initiate minimum interaction in social situations.
2. The kids with Asperger’s don’t prefer making friends.
3. They have inappropriate mannerisms and behaviours.
4. The children keep on staring at people and maintain poor eye contact.
5. They show a lack of common sense.
6. The kids find it difficult to interpret gestures.
7. They don’t take humour and sarcasm easily.
8. The Asperger’s children fail to show empathy.
9. Sometimes they can’t control their emotions. Expressing their feelings is also troublesome for them.
10. They may prefer only talking about themselves.

Due to these reasons, children with Asperger’s can be considered as rude by others. The problem is they don’t even recognise if somebody is offended or uninterested. They may speak in inappropriate manner sometimes. They can fixate on talking about something so deeply that may not be of interest to others.

Image courtesy: https://leafwingcenter.org/aspergers-syndrome/

Cognitive Behaviours

Children with Asperger’s Syndrome have normal to above average intelligence level. But that doesn’t mean that all of them will excel in studies. Some of them struggle a lot in this matter. Here are some cognitive signs found in children with Asperger’s:

1. The Asperger’s kids have excellent rote memory.
2. They face difficulties learning abstract information.
3. They have great ability to learn factual and technical information.
4. The children may focus on the details so much that they can miss ‘the bigger picture’.
5. They can have poor organisational skills.
6. The kids may have one or two subjects that they are very much interested in.
7. They try to be extremely knowledgeable about them.

Though many of these children don’t have any cognitive issues, some of them may have issues with having good focus or a learning disability that affects their education in a bad way. Due to these, they may face issues regarding reading, writing and doing maths.

Speech and Language Skills

Asperger’s children do not face language issues like kids having other types of Autism Spectrum Disorder but they have some particular unusual language skills. These issues are:

1. The Asperger’s affected children follow a scripted and very formal way of speaking that sounds pretty robotic.
2. They have repetitive speech patterns.
3. They don’t inflect while talking.
4. The kids have a high pitched voice when they speak. This makes them seem loud.They find it difficult to use language in social contexts.

The children with Asperger’s have better vocabulary and good sense of grammar but they can’t use language properly in a social situation.

Physical Symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome

The physical Asperger’s Syndrome symptoms are:

1. The kids with Asperger’s Syndrome have delayed motor skills.
2. They make awkward physical movements.
3. They face issues when coordinating with someone or something.
4. The children have high sensitivity towards loud noises, clothings, odours, or food textures.

Kids with Asperger’s Syndrome may appear very clumsy. They face problems while doing simple tasks like catching a ball. But many of them have no motor skills issues.

Psychosocial Problems

Children with Asperger’s Syndrome do face some psychosocial problems due to the other challenges they face. The issues they face mostly are:

1. The children diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome face issues like depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, moodiness, etc.
2. They can face social isolation and loneliness due to that.
3. They can appear pretty shy.

These children need mental health related support to get rid of these issues and continue a healthier social life.

How Does Asperger’s Syndrome Get Treated?

Early diagnosis and regular treatment help the children with Asperger’s Syndrome live a better life. It supports them in their adulthood even. They also may need some medicines to deal with depression, anxiety and other health issues. These are therapies that show improvement in the symptoms of the disorder:

1. Social Skills Therapy: This therapy is particularly for the improvement of the child’s social skills.
2. Physical Therapy: It is to improve the child’s core body strength. So, they can get rid of being clumsy.
3. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): CBT helps the children learn how to control their emotions and to behave in a proper social way.
4. Occupational Therapy: It is needed for the improvement of the kids’ motor skills.

Asperger’s Syndrome can be treated with proper therapies and medications. Early intervention shows meaningful improvement against it. First and foremost you should love and help your child to bring improvement.

Featured image courtesy: https://www.lifespeech.org/aspergers-syndrome-symptoms-treatment/