Aspergerger Essay

Nura Elliott

Psychology 2

TR 9:10 to 10:40

Facts about Asperger’s Syndrome

Abstract

The name might sound a little funny, but the disorder is no laughing matter. Asperger Syndrome is a developmental condition in which a child does not learn to communicate and interact with others in a typical way. This condition is one of the Pervasive Developmental Disorder which is the group of conditions associated with Autism (Izenberg, 2001). Including these facts will open individual’s eyes and make them more aware of the syndrome.

Origin of the Name

In 1944, an Austrian pediatrician named Hans Asperger did a study on four children in his practice who had a problem associating with each other. Although their intelligence appeared normal, the children lacked nonverbal communication skills, failed to show any emotions among one another, and were physically clumsy. They would speak in a monotone pitch or overly formal. Dr. Asperger called the condition “autistic psychopathy” and described it as a personality disorder primarily marked by social isolation. Asperger’s observations, published in German, were not widely known until 1981, when an English doctor named Lorna Wing published a series of case studies of children showing similar symptoms, which she called “Asperger’s” syndrome. Wing’s writings were widely published and popularized. AS became a distinct disease and diagnosis in 1992, when it was included in the tenth published edition of the World Health Organization’s diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), and in 1994 it was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic reference book.

What is Asperger Syndrome?

Asperger’s Syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is in the same group of developmental disorder as autism. Asperger’s and autism both are brain conditions that affect the individual’s ability to...