There is a difference between Aspergers and autism. It all starts with small differences when a baby arrives, but in early life, differences between autism and Aspergers begin to show more and more.
Asperger’s syndrome affects both children and adults. It makes it difficult for these people to interact with those around them. This is due to a lack of communication skills, which is oftentimes associated with learning disabilities.
How Asperger’s Syndrome And Autism Are Alike
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Asperger’s syndrome is an autistic disorder that is related to autism. It has fewer symptoms though. It is important to understand that pure autism is rare – only about 1 in every 5,000 children has it. Autism also occurs 4 times more often in boys than in girls. However, there are a lot of different autistic spectrum disorders, which are conditions that have symptoms that are related to the manifestations of autism. The first signs of this disorder appear soon after birth but may not appear until the child is 4-years-old.
There are 3 main symptom groups involved in autism. Patients with Asperger’s syndrome have only some of these signs, unlike the children with actual autism who suffer from disorders from all of the 3 of them. This is why Asperger’s syndrome is considered to be a mild form of autism.
Communication Delays In Autistic People
Unlike people with other forms of autism, people who suffer from Asperger’s syndrome don’t have communication delays. They also don’t have any problems with language development. This is different from children who have Autism. By the time Asperger’s children are 2-years-old they are fine with words, and by the time they are 3-years-old they catch on to phrases. On the other hand, children with Autism struggle with language. This is one difference between Aspergers and autism.
Social Interaction and Autism
Children with autistic disorders find it difficult to interact with the people around them. They rarely make and sustain eye contact, they resist cuddling, reject any form of affection and never look for it, cannot stand being kissed, have difficulty making friends and are mostly unable to play with children their own age.
Oftentimes they will have problems obeying simple rules, which is why they have problems attending a regular school. Normal peer relationships are also diminished due to the lack of social skills. Autistic people also tend to migrate toward exclusive activities. This will also affect their self-help daily living skills (i.e. toileting, feeding, dressing, brushing teeth). However, it is important to point out that one person with Autism may experience very different symptoms and behaviors than another person with Autism.
Obsessive Interests and Autism/Aspergers
Autistic people tend to show an obsessive interest in repetitive actions and will look at an object for an increased period of time. They have no imagination and are not interested in imaginative play. The games are almost the same every day and are usually what younger children play.
Physical Actions in Autistic Children
Regular actions like walking, sitting up or lying down are not learned until the child is older. Even then Autistic children continue to be clumsy and struggle to play games. Older patients develop obsessive interests for exact timetables and they also tend to resist changes in their environment. They will quickly become agitated and angered if their routine is changed at all. Autistic children are extremely sensitive both noise and light and will usually show severe responses to these things.
IQ Range For Autism and Aspergers
Autistic people tend to fall within a range of IQs. On the other hand, people with Asperger’s syndrome tend to be very bright. Their IQ is really high and they are really intelligent.
The Curiosity Factor
Asperger’s children will develop a normal curiosity about the world around them. They will have a desire to see and learn more about it. However, children with Autism never seem to have this sense about the world. Autistic children tend to recede into themselves and not care about the world outside of themselves at all.
Daily Living
Children with Asperger’s Syndrome seem to find it a lot easier to tackle daily chores (i.e. dressing themselves, eating at a table). However, this is not always the case. There are some children who have Autism that respond remarkably well to these things. Nevertheless, this is the general trend.
Repetitive Tasks
Autistic children seem to find an odd sort of relief in doing repetitive tasks. Sometimes they may seem unable to do them though. On the other hand, children with Asperger’s Syndrome are often seen as high-functioning children.
In Conclusion
It is very important to conduct individual assessments and correctly diagnose your child. There’s a really wide range of individual disorders within the overall Autism spectrum. While some children may require very specialized care for extended periods of time, others are able to be successfully integrated into a mainstream school. The debate will no doubt continue as experts try to more fully define the difference between autism and Asperger’s syndrome.