Asperger's Syndrome

When a child is born, every parent hopes the baby is normal. Physically this can be diagnosed by the doctors but in terms of the mental and psychological development of the child, this will not be known until the infant has reached the toddler years.

Autism in general is where a person has a pervasive developmental ability that affects both verbal and nonverbal communication that is clearly seen in children from 2 to 3 and is confirmed at the age of 3 to 4. A paper concerning this was first made in 1943 but was seen by Mr. Leo Kanner in 1938.

This paper wasn't noticed at first by a people in the scientific community. Parents and doctors only began to notice this more than 20 years later and after conducting more research branched out autism to low, medium and high levels.

Asperger's syndrome is characterized by someone who has difficulty in interacting with other people, has restricted and unusual interests with certain topics and at times may be a bit delayed with the thinking and communication skills. The unusual interests could be things normal people take for granted such as airplane flight schedules, ovens and kinds of windows.

This is classified under a spectrum disorder which is considered as a high functioning autism in which certain psychological development is delayed. People who have this may have difficulty communicating with people, have a hard time keeping friendships and have a great need for routine and unusual sensory reactions. This could also make the person think that ones environment is a strange place to be in.

Many people who have this will have difficulty in life. The progress of a patient will depend if that person was diagnosed early in life and is dependent on the language skills, access to proper educational programming, the cooperation and support of the parents and other family members and other external factors connected with the aggressive behavior that can be brought under control.

Should a child show any signs of the characteristics that pertain to this syndrome, a scientific clinical approach will be used to treat each with the help of the child psychiatrist and the parents of the child given that there are no single medical test for diagnosing Autism.

Evaluation and assessment with the child can be done with direct and indirect data in many ways;

1. Conversing over the unusual interests that child has a fascination about and understanding it.

2. Conducting a clinical interview with the family that focuses on the family background, the medical and the behavioral history of the child.

3. This can also be done by giving the child a cognitive or IQ test to see the child's mental abilities.

4. A general behavior rating test.

5. Interviews and other records that the school can provide which can also help the child's condition.

Children who have this syndrome can go to the same school with normal children. Special attention should just be given as part of the treatment to help the child.

There is no definite cure for anyone who has any of the forms of autism. The only thing that can be done is to manage the behavior through community programs; behavioral management, medications and special education that will help the patient go through life as normally as possible. This can only succeed with the cooperation of the psychologists, the support of the parents.