What You Should Know About Autism Spectrum Disorders

The range of symptoms can be mild to severe; they can have few symptoms or many. The range of severity and amount of symptoms means that no two children or no two adults with Asperger's Syndrome are the same.%u2028
Below are some of the common signs observed in people with AS

Language:
 
At an early age children with Asperger's Syndrome may have a large vocabulary. Their graspof grammatical rules may be unusually high for their age. Their speech though may be somewhat stilted and repetitive. The voice pattern tends to be monotone and emotionless and conversations revolve around it self.
 
Cognition or mental processes:
 
The people with Asperger's Syndrome is generally obsessed with complex topics, such as history, music, and weather patterns. In this sense, they are often described by others as odd or eccentric.
 
In terms of their IQ, it often ranges from normal to high in verbal ability, however it is below average in performance ability. Many individuals with Asperger's Syndrome also have dyslexia, writing problems, and difficulty with mathematics. They may also lack common sense and think concrete versus the ability to abstract thinking.
 
Behavior:
 
They typically appear to be clumsy and awkward in movement, have off forms of self-stimulatory behavior, odd movements like flapping of hands. They exhibit sensory problems but not as dramatic as those who have forms of autism. They may show inappropriate reciprocal interaction and are unaware of social conventions with regard to personal spaces (e.g. they would stand close to others when speaking to them) They often avoid direct gaze when they greet individuals. They have a great deal of difficulty with interpreting nonverbal cues such as body language and facial expressions.

Did you know that apathy is a symptom of Asperger's Syndrome? It is not always seen or even connected, but there is a real link between an individual with Asperger's Syndrome experiencing stress, and suddenly sinking in severe apathy. Some have likened it to feeling stuck in a vat of sinking sand and not being able to move their feet to get out.
 
Apathy may be seen in the adult who simply cannot get out of bed to get ready for work. You may also notice it in the school-aged child who does not cooperate with a parent to get ready for school. Eating, toileting, and various other tasks that would normally only take a fraction of an hour would suddenly turn into tasks that span the better portion of the waking hours. 
Apathy happens at work or in school. In this case, the person would need close supervision so that s/he will remain focused on the task at hand. Not being familiar with AS, however, may result to supervisors and teachers becoming frustrated at what they might consider a lack of respect, attention and obedience. 
Apathy is marked by a sudden inability to communicate effectively. It is not that the individual with Asperger's Syndrome is at a loss for words, rather the person cannot sustain the communication exchange. Children do not properly communicate their needs to teachers, which results to unwarranted disciplinary measures meted out to them, and even their exclusion from certain tasks and school activities. In adults, this might result to an employee being reprimanded, placed on administrative leave, or dismissed from work. 
 
At home, family members often observe apathy to be signaled by the person's "spacing out". No amount of verbal encouragement or entreaties seems to be draw out the person from the world she or he has retreated to. Often, family members get frustrated at the lack of response. Harsh words to shake the person out of apathy also does little beyond making the patient with AS withdraw even further.
 
Physicians have theorized a certain form of disconnection between knowing what needs to be done and visualizing the activity necessary to get there, causes the apathy. Adding to this kind of disconnection are that outward pressures on the Asperger's Syndrome patients lead to a further shutdown. Now it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that makes the patient virtually incapable of acting until the spell is broken. She or he feels powerless to overcome the condition and move on with the tasks.