This season is the season for understanding Autism and the disorders in its spectrum. My job for the week is to look at the assessment and diagnosis of autism, and I found a book that I really enjoyed reading. I've just gotten past the first chapter or so of this book, Autism and Asperger Syndrome, by Simon Baron-Cohen, and found it helpful in understanding more about the learning difficulty.
In particular, I liked that the book started off with two case studies describing classic autism and Asperger syndrome, which brought to life the difficulties that children with these two different (yet similar) conditions had. Towards the end, it also identified the two similarities and differences of the two difficulties that summed up the details succiently. This I'm going to put here for better understanding
Two similar key features between classic autism and Asperger syndrome
1. Social communication difficulties
2. Narrow interests and repetitive actions
Two key differences
1. In Asperger syndrome, IQ is at least average and there was no language delay
2. In classic autism, IQ can be anywhere on the scale, and there was language delay
Can't wait to read and find out more! :)
Don't think I've heard of Asperger syndrome before. With the number of children I come in contact with on a regular basis, it would be good background information in case a case of such comes by.
ReplyDeleteWell, the term Asperger syndrome is relatively new. Some people term is Asperger disorder. But I heard that in the new DSM-V, they might put it together under the Austism Spectrum Disorder as high-functioning autism. We shall see :)
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