My ASD Child

Aspergers (AS) is one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) which is a family of congenital conditions characterized by marked social impairment, communication difficulties, play and imagination deficits, and a range of repetitive behaviors or interests 1. The prototypical PDD is autism, which was first described by Leo Kanner at Johns Hopkins in 1943 2. Autism occurs in 1 out of every 1000 births 3, is a neurobiologic disorder with a strong genetic component (a 2%–5% recurrence rate in siblings, which is a 50 fold increase relative to the general population) 4, and some as yet tentative biologic markers involving brain structure (e.g., some people may have larger brains) and brain function (e.g., the typical brain specialization to recognize faces is not present) 5. Approximately 70% of people with autism have a degree of mental retardation, and the typical cognitive profile includes great variability of skills (e.g., usually higher level nonverbal problem-solving skill...

Social and communicative dysfunctions are arguably the most handicapping conditions associated with Aspergers. Although the rubric social communication is used frequently to encompass these deficits, social communication is actually a redundant term. All communication, by its definition as an exchange of information between speaker and listener, is social in nature. The purpose of using the term social communication here, however, is to focus attention on the close relationship between the linguistic forms of communication used by high functioning people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and the function of these skills in the achievement of social interaction. In fact, in typical people over the age of 3 years, linguistic communication is the primary modality of social interchange. Although linguistic communication skills are used for a variety of purposes—regulating others' behavior, referring to objects and events, narrating and predicting experiences, and learning acad...

Question : Do people with Aspergers often take action on the threats they make when they blow up? My sister (who died tragically 5 years ago) has a 18 yr old so with AS. When he gets really worked up, he threatens to kill himself and "take others with him." His threats of suicide are often paired with "if I don't get what I want", not "I am so depressed I want to die." These threats seem to be more of a bullying technique instead of a cry for help. I hesitate to call the police because there is no other topic that sets him off more than the police. Click here for the answer...