- So Asperger Syndrome or Asperger's
is one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders.
And while everyone with Asperger's
is affected a little differently
most people with this syndrome
have some difficulties relating to other people.
And this stems from having trouble with social communication
and interactions.
So let's draw a few pictures here to better understand
what we mean by trouble with communication and interactions.
So, I'm just going to draw this face here
and let's make this face happy.
And now imagine if you were having a conversation
with this person here and all of a sudden their smile here
it turned upside down into a frown.
Well, that might indicate to you
that something about this conversation,
maybe something you said, or something you did,
or maybe something that the person was thinking about,
something upset or bothered this person here,
right, to make them frown.
Well, if a person with Asperger's
was having a conversation with someone
and their facial expression changed, like it did here,
the person with Asperger's
actually might not really notice this.
And that's because people with Asperger's
have trouble using and understanding
these sorts of non verbal behaviours
like facial expressions or gestures.
And they might continue on with the conversation
as though nothing had changed
because this doesn't really indicate to them
that the person is unhappy.
And if we draw a person here
and maybe let's say that this person is walking by
and they say, "Good morning" and they wave, and smile.
Well, for someone with Asperger's
they might not really realize
that they're supposed to return or reciprocate this gesture
by also saying, "Good morning," and waving back.
It might not really occur to them that this is something
that they're supposed to do.
For someone with Asperger's
it doesn't really seem like a required response.
And we actually describe this as trouble with social
and emotional reciprocity.
And Reciprocity here just means kind of returning
or exchanging something.
So in this case, it means returning the friendly greeting.
So this social and emotional reciprocity
is kind of like the give and take of a conversation.
It's what allows us to converse
and interact with other people.
And this is something that people with Asperger's
have a lot of trouble with.
And let's draw one final picture here,
so let's say that it just rained
and now there's this really pretty rainbow in the sky.
Well, if you saw that
you might have a desire to point it out
and share this pretty rainbow with someone around you.
But for someone with Asperger's they don't really have this
spontaneous desire to share something of interest
or enjoyment with someone else.
So they don't really point things out that interest them,
or excite them,
or share their achievements with other people.
So this trouble with communication and interaction
is one of the main features of Asperger's.
And these different examples here
are some ways that this trouble with communication
and interaction can manifest in someone with Asperger's.
And there's one other main feature of Asperger's
and that's Restricted Interests and Repetitive Behaviours.
So in order for us to see what we mean
by Restricted Interests let's actually draw a graph here.
A graph that shows the level of interest
in a few different activities.
And you'll see what I mean in a sec.
So on our y-axis here, let's make this the Level of Interest
so the higher up we are here, the more interest there is.
And on our x-axis here
we'll put down some different activities.
And we'll use this pink color here
to show what we might Expect from the average child.
And we'll use this green color here
to show what we might see from a child with Asperger's.
Okay, so let's put down a few activities here.
So let's put down Reading and we'll put down Drawing.
And let's do one more, we'll put down Playing with Blocks.
So these are a few of the activities
that we're going to look at.
So maybe we would expect that quite a few kids like to Read
so let's maybe draw our Reading bar to about here.
So this about the Level of Interest
that we might expect from the average kid.
And maybe we would expect even more kids like to Draw
than they do Read
so maybe we'll make this bar a little higher here.
And let's say that we expect kids
to like Playing with Blocks
about the same as we would expect them to like Drawing.
So maybe we'll make that one about the same height here.
Now for kids with Asperger's
they usually have an activity or two
that they're really, really keen on, they're super into it.
But then they don't really show interest
in other activities.
So for example, maybe for someone with Asperger's
they really aren't really interested or keen on Reading.
So their little bar would be way down here,
a lot lower than what we might expect
from the average child.
And they don't really want to Draw at all
so their bar is also really low.
But let's say they absolutely love Playing with Blocks.
They would spend all their time Playing with Blocks
if they could, they're really keen on blocks.
And they're way more keen then we would expect
from an average kid
so their interest level is way up here.
So while every kid with Asperger's is different
and has different levels of interest in different activities
generally what we see is something like this.
This restricted interest in one or two activities
and then not much interest at all in anything else.
So this kind of shows us
what we mean by Restricted activities.
And when we say Repetitive Behaviours here
what we mean are things like lining up toys
or moving certain body parts in repetitive ways.
So this is something that we also often see
in someone with Asperger's.
So it turns out that these main signs of Asperger's
are actually what we use to diagnose the syndrome.
There really isn't a blood test or a brain scan
that we can use to confirm Asperger's
so we really rely on looking for these behavioral signs.
And how we usually go about doing that
is by asking the parent questions and watching the kid
who we think has Asperger's interact with other people.
So maybe we watch to see if they're making eye contact
or using non verbal cues.
We'd look to see if they're picking up
on the body language changes or changes in tone of voice
from other people when they're talking to them.
We might play with them
and see if they want to show us their toys that they like
or share something with us.
We might ask them or their parents about their interests
to see if they seem kind of restrictive
like this graph here.
These sorts of questions and observations
would help us look for these signs of Asperger's.
Now at this point you might be wondering
what's the difference between Asperger's
and Autistic Disorder?
Because if you've read
or heard anything about Autistic Disorder
it sounds pretty similar to what we're describing here.
So while the two are very similar
there's one kind of main thing
that sets Asperger's apart from Autistic Disorder.
So kids with Asperger's they don't really appear to have any
delays in language or intellectual development.
They don't really miss any of those key language milestones
like their first word.
Whereas for kids with Autistic Disorder
this is something that is often noticed by the parents
pretty early on.
The parents notice that their kid is kind of missing
language milestones or just doesn't quite seem to be
developing the way they should be.
So that's one of the big differences between Asperger's
and Autistic Disorder.
And you can imagine
that if there aren't really any apparent delays in language
with kids with Asperger's
it could mean that it would take quite a while to figure out
that a kid has Asperger's and to make the diagnosis.
And this is, indeed, the case.
So for a lot of kids with Asperger's
it isn't really picked up on until later on
when they're put into a demanding social situation
like a new school environment.
Now while we're on the topic of diagnosing Asperger's
I should actually point out that a few years ago
one of the main manuals,
the main guides that we use to make diagnoses
which is called the
"Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders"
or the "DSM", well, the "DSM" actually changed a bit.
And it removed Asperger's as its own diagnosis.
So in the previous version of the "DSM" the "DSM 4"
and just so you know we're currently on the "DSM 5"
so in the older version the "DSM 4"
someone could be diagnosed
with one of a few different Autism Spectrum Disorders.
So there was Asperger's, Autistic Disorder,
Childhood disintegrative disorder,
and Pervasive developmental disorder.
So these were all individual disorders
that someone can be diagnosed with.
But when the new "DSM 5" came out
it was decided that it would be better
to kind of merge these all together,
these different disorders into one disorder,
Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The idea was that this one Spectrum here
would better account for all the different variations
that we see in people with Autistic Disorders
by putting everyone on one Spectrum
rather than having several distinct disorders
with different criteria.
So that's what the "DSM 5" looks like.
So now in the "DSM 5" instead of having Asperger's
as a diagnosis that can be made
there's just one Autism Spectrum Disorder.
But not every country uses the "DSM"
so depending on what guidelines are used in your country
to make a diagnosis,
you might still see a diagnoses of Asperger Syndrome made.
So whether someone is diagnosed with Asperger's
or Autism Spectrum Disorder instead
the Management is very similar.
There isn't any medication
or specific plan to manage Asperger's.
And because everyone is very different
Management plans can vary a lot
between different people with the syndrome.
So the main sort of goal of Management
is to get the parents, and other family members,
and teachers to create an environment
that allows the kid with Asperger's
to work on improving their communication
and interaction skills.
So to help the kid work on their social skills
parents might encourage making eye contact
and understanding
and using body language during conversations.
They might help the kid understand social conventions
like sharing, and smiling, and greeting people,
and really emphasizing these on a daily basis.
And in order to encourage new interests
because remember, kids with Asperger's
can be really Restrictive with their interests.
Parents and teachers might try to find activities
that are similar to but still different
from the one that the kid with Asperger's enjoys.
So maybe if the kid really enjoys drawing, for example,
parents and teachers might try to encourage
other similar artistic activities
like painting or sculpting.