How Do Autism and Aspergers Relate?
This is quite a common question. How do Autism and Aspergers relate? Well, for starters, they both come under the same broad category – Pervasive Development Disorders, or Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism is the most commonly recognized of these disorders, though there are similarities and differences when you consider Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. These similarities and differences are the answer to the question, “How do Autism and Aspergers relate?”
The first thing to be said in answer to the question, “How do Autism and Aspergers relate?” is that social interaction and communication skills will be severely compromised in children with Autism and in children with Aspergers Syndrome. Once of the most prominent signs that a child might be suffering from Aspergers Syndrome is an interest in a very narrow subject, with no apparent interest in anything that might lead from it.
For example, a child might spend hours learning about the pterodactyl and not be interested in the least in a tyrannosaurus. Or a child might memorize the model numbers of cars and yet not in the least be interested in racing or in bikes. These are symptoms that become evident by the time the child is five or six years old, but children with Aspergers Syndrome are rarely diagnosed by then.
Another point that is of interest when you consider the question, “How do Autism and Aspergers relate?” is language. Children with Autism are diagnosed fairly early because of the trouble they have with language. They find speech, and grasping the idea of words and letters, very difficult. Children with Aspergers Syndrome do not have this problem – they grasp the idea of language fairly easily, like children with no disorders do. By the time they reach the age of two, they are fine with words, like most children, and by the time they are three, they progress to phrases. This is one reason Aspergers Syndrome can be difficult to diagnose.
One very important part of the answer to the question, “How do Autism and Aspergers relate?” is how they should be treated. They should be treated with love and affection, because they see the world very differently from the way we do, and the world sees them differently, too. They have to know that they are safe and cared for, even if they might not seem to care. Imagine a world you cannot understand, and having to live in it – that is how these children feel every day.
