Asperger Syndrome

Frank R. Cicero,M.S., BCBA Director of Psychological Services Eden II School For Autistic Children DrMDK.com

Male1: Some kids go to school and they seem to be a little bit not good in social skills, and the term, Asperger’s syndrome comes up. What is that and how come that was not diagnosed if the kid was two or three? Male2: Asperger’s syndrome is a specific diagnosis on the autism spectrum or within the pervasive developmental disorders. It is a newer recognized disorder, however, was around and-- Male1: So in other words, it has been around as long as man is here probably, we are just recognizing it recently. Male2: I dp not know how long it has been around for, but when the original diagnosis of autism was coming out in 1943, we found that this other psychologist, Hanz Asperger was doing research at the exact same time and he actually came out with a very similar diagnosis to autism. His children however, were a little bit different and he now has credit with this Asperger’s disorder. Basically, what it is, it is autism, however the students have much more language if not typically developing ability to use language. They usually tend to be cognitively higher so they have a little bit— Male1: They do not have to be, but they are usually. Male2: They usually are then autism, but the deficit is the social skills. It seems to be where the deficits lie so even though they have an ability to use language, they tend to use the language, non-socially, they have non-social routines. They get hooked into individualized interests that other people do not have and just an inability to socialize appropriately with others in the environment. Male1: If that diagnosis was made, what can we do about it? Male2: Same thing—fine behavior analysis has been shown to work very well, but the techniques of applied behavioral analysis and the theories of applied behavioral analysis with children with Asperger’s, however, with children with Asperger’s, what they are finding now is you can actually use more of a cognitive behavioral approach, so use a little bit more traditional type counseling methods mixed in with applied behavior analysis and definitely social skills training. They definitely need a lot of social skills training groups, not necessarily individual counseling sessions, but group sessions. Interaction with typical peers would be very important with a younger child diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder. Male1: There are probably some adults who have never been diagnosed, but probably have the condition. There function in society, is that true? Male2: Definitely. There are in fact—there is an idea out there that a lot of people that are in certain professions might be diagnosed with Asperger’s. The more isolated professions, the more technical professions, whether or not that is true, we really do not that there are undiagnosed individuals. However, there is no reason why a person with Asperger’s cannot find their niche in society. So in other words, they just find the job that suits them. They find the education that suites them and they are okay with the socialization that they have. They are okay with their life the way it is. Now that is where sometimes, the cognitive behavioral counseling, emotional counseling might come into play because if you have a person with Asperger’s who is not okay with their lack of social skills, who is not okay with the job roles that they might be more successful at giving that diagnosis, you can have co-morbid depression issues, anxiety issues and that might need some professional assistance. Male1: Some people get this label, do not like the label, but the purpose of it is not to label with you something, it is to see if we can find a bunch of people with similar type of problems and if we can see that maybe we can make some progress in treatment. These therapies that will come up on the road cannot be successful if we do not put a group of people with similar characteristics together and with the internet, a lot of people are diagnosing themselves because they start hearing about something and maybe their doctors do not even know about. Is that true? Male2: Yes, I would not say that a label is necessarily a bad thing and I would not say that people with Asperger’s and parents of children with autism do not want the label. Well, obviously, you do not want the label, you did not want the disorder. However, I have talked to a lot of parents. I have talked to a lot of people with Asperger’s disorder and actually, once they get that label, it is almost like a feeling of relief that they found out what the problem is. They finally found it out. And now that they have found it out, now they could go seek therapy. Now they can have at least a course of action and they can figure out a prognosis for themselves or for their child. Male1: And probably if you look at anybody, everybody has something. No one is perfect, but in this particular situation, if you can get the right label, there are a lot of good things that can happen to improve the quality of your life, is that true? Male2: Definitely, because then you could actually now seek out the services that you need. The difference with autism and other developmental disabilities is that there are some other developmental disabilities like Down’s Syndrome, like Fragelex Syndrome—those other development or hearing impairments, vision impairments, those are much more easily diagnosed because it is apparent. And once it is apparent, the parents—there is no searching, there is no seeking for what is the difficulties with my child. It is just kind of it is what it is from birth, we found it out, we deal with it and we seek the appropriate therapist.