In the mid 1900's, Psychiatrist Hans Asperger detailed his observations of several young patients with autistic characteristics. These children were not totally cut off from others as in extreme cases of autism. They had normal to high intelligence, vocabulary and ability to interact with their surroundings. Some performed repetitive motions, had highly focussed interests, most had trouble coping with changes to a fixed routine.



Asperger's Syndrome is not Asperger's Disease: You can not catch it. It is not a defect, but is a normal variant of the human condition.

There are several things that are part of the constellation of Asperger symptoms: These kids had the ability to talk intelligently on a narrow range of interests, but were poor communicators outside of those topics. An aspie may lack of coordination or small muscle control. This may show up in a lack of ability in sports, especially team sports, and poor handwriting. A couple of other symptoms are notable: sensory aversion to some sounds or textures.

More importantly, the most striking thing about Asperger's seems to be a lack of awareness of social queues -- A gap in the awareness of what others are thinking and feeling and why. In other words, a kind of social insensitivity. A seeming inability to understand the motivations of those around them.

You might relate to this best if you think of 'social deafness' exactly as if there was a sense organ for social information, like our ears process sound. Our ears processes and converts subtle air vibrations into sound and we can hear. The 'social sense' organ converts those subtle queues that most people share about social behavior. For an aspie, these are perceived, dimly, if at all. Just as there are varying degrees of hearing impairment, there are varying degrees of Asperger's. That is why it is part of what is called the Autistic Spectrum.

A person who is totally deaf, may never talk. A person with lesser impairment may speak with great difficulty. A person with only slight deafness may only miss certain sounds or mistake words. It is the same for Aspies: Even the highest functioning of us will strain to detect social nuances. We can seem totally "out of it," or sometimes we can, with effort, stretch ourselves to interact in a free-form social fashion, sometimes with better results than others, but it is almost always a strain, and may leave us needing lots of time alone to process and recover our energy.

I have endured Asperger's symptoms ever since I can remember, in the mid 1950's. I have difficulty understanding conversation when several people are talking at the same time, I am uncomfortable with breezes, or the wind from a fan. I like the soft feel of cotton on my skin during the day, and the comfort of very heavy blankets at night. But the oddest thing is that, for me as an aspie, small-talk is hard.

So What can you do as either a parent with a child with aspergers, or an adult that suspects you have aspergers?

Up to now, there is little help from Science in a cure, or reversal of the symptoms. The research is still ongoing to find out exactly what is happening, and it is slow going, because of the wide variability in the constellation of symptoms. It is very likely that Aspergers is not a single diagnosis but really a wide number of conditions that tend to have a similar outcome.

There are two areas for work here: from inside out, and from outside in. The external approach is that your friends and acquaintences just be made aware of the lack of sociability is not from lack of want or trying, it is more like being 'socially deaf' and that some help and guidance and tolerance might be welcome. The inner work involves learning coping skills and learning 'awareness skills.'

It's a bit like learning to drive, It takes practice to learn when to accelerate, when to swerve and when to stop. In the realm of emotions, to recognize the subtle signs of someone's attitude shifts, and what to do when they shift.

But it is possible to learn: when a person has a tendency towards Asperger's, the skills are learnable, it is just not a gift that we get 'out of the box.' The neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) skills of rapport building and language analysis are a big help in this.

Where can you get help? If you are lucky enough to have a counselor who has HFA or Aspergers, that counselor can be of immense help to learn the coping skills that are needed. A counselor who has no personal experience, may have great compassion, but likely does not know what the 'social vacuum' really feels like. Keep looking.

Aspergers is not all dust and ashes: it is not a death sentence and there are advantages. Being a person that is separated from this invisible human communication may allow you the freedom to explore your own interests.

Did you know that Asperger Symptoms have been noted in some of the greatest people who have ever lived? In fact, the constellation of Asperger symptoms are strongly associated with creativity, focus of concentration, determination of spirit, advancement of science, spirituality, art and music.

Living without 'small-talk' can free your mind. And give you time and energy to pursue more personally important goals.