Asperger\'s Syndrome in 2001, Henderson

Asperger's Syndrome

In 2001, Henderson explains that Asperger's Syndrome (AS) is a pervasive developmental disorder on the autism spectrum characterized by social deficits, relatively normal language and cognitive development, and the presence of idiosyncratic interests. To determine if Asperger's Syndrome is an appropriate diagnosis for an individual, the person's intellectual ability, academic achievement, developmental history, behavioral patterns, adaptive behavior and even motor skills should be assessed by an experienced psychologist, preferably one familiar with autism spectrum disorders. In 2008, Toth & King report that AS is considered to be a variant of autism rather than a distinct disorder, similar if not equivalent to high-functioning autism. Asperger's most famous cases were patients described as having above-average intellectual and language abilities, with significant disturbances in social and affective communication.

Henderson (2001) describes the characteristics related to cognitive processing, particularly executive function deficits, which are descriptive of persons with AS, include: Cognitive inflexibility, in which the person with AS has difficulty adapting to changing expectations, schedules, word or concept definitions, and perseverates on prescribed areas of interest. Attention problems, in which the person with AS has difficulty concentrating, sharing attention between two tasks, suppressing attention to non-salient information, and switching from one task to another. Coping strategies include visual cues to accompany auditory messages, controlling the environmental distractions, and providing structured environments as well as visual warnings of change.

Characteristics descriptive of persons with AS that are related to communication include: High-level pragmatic communication deficits, in which the person has difficulty extracting the subtleties of normal conversation, particularly those related to affect and intention; difficulty with perceiving and abiding by socially expected communication behaviors, in which the person with AS has difficulty with conversational skills, eye contact, or social distance. Persons with AS can memorize social rules and incorporate social information from self-help books for interpersonal interactions. (Henderson, 2001)

Toth & King (2008) explain that within the past two decades, a growing body of research has attempted to address the diagnostic and phenotypic ambiguity between AS and high-functioning autism. Some authors believe that the neuropsychological and behavioral profiles of AS and high-functioning autism differ, while others have argued that there is little empirical evidence for a distinction between these two disorders. Researchers conducted a comprehensive study that examined differences based on external criteria (cognitive / intellectual profiles, executive function, language, current symptoms, early history, and course of illness) as opposed to criteria involving the definition of the two syndromes. They found few group differences in current symptom presentation and cognitive function but many differences in early history. Individuals with AS outperformed those with high-functioning autism on the comprehension subtest of the WISC-III and in expressive language ability, but there were no differences on measures of executive function (flexibility and planning); individuals with AS also had better imaginative and creative abilities and more circumscribed interests, whereas those with high-functioning autism showed a greater insistence on sameness. Early history variables were best able to differentiate the two disorders. Compared with children with AS, those with high-functioning autism were more impaired in early language development and behavior over the preschool period, had more severe lifetime symptoms, and had a greater need for specialized education services; showing that little difference exists, in relation to cognition and AS.