Asperger Syndrome and Definition

Biography Of Temple Grandin To Air On HBO Canada

2010-02-03T23:01:00.000-06:00

TORONTO — When actress Catherine O'Hara came face-to-face with the remarkable woman whose life story is told in the made-for-TV movie, "Temple Grandin," she says she was overcome with a desire to hug the brilliant scientist.

Trouble is, she knew that Grandin's autism meant she had an intense aversion to being touched.

"When you hear her story, you really do, you just want to hug this woman," the gregarious O'Hara exclaims during a recent stop in Toronto to promote the film.

"Just because she's amazing and you want to be as near to her as you can be."

Her recent meeting with the renowned scientist is top-of-mind as she discusses her latest film, "Temple Grandin," airing Saturday on HBO Canada.

She says the encounter ended with Grandin and the cast arm-in-arm for a group photo, and says that as Grandin's fame has risen, so too has her tolerance for fans who want to be near her.

O'Hara plays Grandin's Aunt Ann in the film, which traces an incredible story of perseverance and passion.

The movie begins with Grandin as a frustrated teen labelled unteachable, and follows her blossoming interest in science and a unique empathy for animals that eventually makes her an expert on animal behaviour and autism.

Claire Danes plays Grandin, a task that involved adopting a slew of quirky mannerisms that include a heavy-footed gait, childlike enthusiasm and an odd, declarative speaking tone.

"She's just so totally this woman," O'Hara marvels.

Danes' research for the role included weeks of reading on autism, as well as observing autistic girls and studying Grandin's unique cadence and speech patterns.

She's so convincing as the autistic genius that viewers may at first have a hard time getting beyond the bizarre mannerisms to surrender to the story, O'Hara allows.

"If you're in comedy, people run with you with that but I think it'll probably take a moment," says O'Hara.

"If people don't know the real Temple Grandin ... and you first see Claire Danes you'd go 'What? What?"'

O'Hara's Aunt Ann owns a cattle farm where Grandin spends the summer as a teen. It's there that the curious animal lover develops a fascination for cows and their mannerisms, and takes note of such peculiarities as the movement of a horse's ears and the different types of moos that cows make.

From there, Grandin goes on to study animal behaviour at university and develops a new way of cattle handling that revolutionizes the way livestock is raised for slaughter. She's now professor of animal science at Colorado State University, the author of an array of books and a frequent speaker on autism.

"It's a really great, interesting strong, funny story where I personally learned so much about cows and what they need and how they think," says O'Hara, noting that Grandin has designed over half the slaughter houses in North America and tours the world speaking on ways to handle cows humanely.

"I know we're talking about cows being raised for slaughter but ... we don't have to be cruel. If we're going to raise them to eat them anyway the least we can do is treat them humanely and that's what she's all about."

"Temple Grandin" airs Saturday on HBO Canada.

Amazing Race To Have A Person With Asperger Syndrome This Season

2009-09-10T11:24:00.003-05:00

CBS will have someone with Asperger Syndrome on the Amazing Race 12 this season.

On Wednesday, CBS announced the 12 teams that will be competing for a $1 million prize on its 15th installment of the award-winning reality show.

Among the teams are a couple Harlem Globetrotters, professional poker players, married yoga teachers, a person with Asperger's syndrome.

This should be great for many people to see what the definition of Asperger Syndrome is by
watching someone with Asperger's compete.

Asperger Syndrome and Definition

2009-02-06T13:28:00.000-06:00

Aspergers Syndrome (AS) is a neurological condition on the autistic spectrum, people with AS often process information and view the world in a different way to people without AS. They may also find certain situations that none AS peopel enjoy difficult to engage in, for example social situations or crowded places. However, it is not and entirley negative condition, and peopel with AS usualy live full and happy lives and often have abilities in certain areas that outstrip the abilities of the none AS population. It is also important to note that AS is not a disability or an illlness, and has no connection with any kind of anti-social behaviour.

Amazing boy with Asperger Syndrome gives the Definition of Hero

2008-01-30T14:37:00.000-06:00

A 9-year-old autistic boy from the U.K. is being hailed a hero after he grabbed the steering wheel of his mother's car when she blacked while driving 70 mph, it is reported.
According to The Daily Mail, Jonathan Anderson took over the controls of the car in rush-hour traffic, saving them both from a potentially deadly situation.
Anderson, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, struggled to get the car under control and twice weaved across lanes of traffic, it was reported.
But fortunately, he stayed calm and eventually brought the car to a stop using the emergency brake, The Mail reported.
"I must have passed out, because the next thing I saw was a paramedic fitting a brace around my neck," said the boy's mother Marion Anderson.
"I just couldn't believe it when I was told what had happened and what Jonathan had done."
The schoolboy is to be presented with a bravery certificate, according to the report.
"He's my little superhero," said Anderson.

Model with Asperger Syndrome may have been eliminated because of her mild Autism

2007-11-30T13:17:00.000-06:00

She scaled a rock-climbing wall in high heels in a single bound. And she was the chatty "girl" who provided "America's Next Top Model" with its best TV this season. But Heather Kuzmich was eliminated Wednesday, perhaps partly because she has a mild form of autism.

Kuzmich -- a student at the Illinois Institute of Art at the West Mart Center -- has Asperger syndrome. It makes Kuzmich slightly socially clumsy.

Some rivals made fun of her, like when she jumped in a shower with two freaked-out naked girls, because she'd called dibs.

But Kuzmich, a 21-year-old native of Valparaiso, Ind., isn't bitter in the slightest when she watches the show.

"It's pretty accurate, other than the fact that they weren't that mean to me. Bianca and I got along pretty damn well" despite a few televised squabbles, Kuzmich says.

"They aren't really showing parts where we bonded" because "they only have a certain amount of time" to produce an episode.

"I do believe I got a fair shake," Kuzmich says. "If I hadn't mentioned that I have autism, the girls would have not [claimed] I got treated specially. I never felt like I got treated specially."

In fact, Tyra Banks and other judges dumped her after saying they wouldn't show favoritism because of her syndrome-related troubles: Flubbing a TV ad big time; and failing to navigate cab rides while trying to book gigs.

I ask Kuzmich if contestants get secretly happy when a rival fails a challenge. That's only "kind of true," she says.

"Girls do get worried about each other, because you do realize we're human beings," she says. "So in the back of the mind, we do think that. But truth be told, we are worried about each other," too.

Often, reality show stars are villains, but Kuzmich was likable and earned a lot of face time -- and body time. She stripped nude on TV with ease when she showered.

"I knew they weren't going to show [nudity on the air]," Kuzmich says. "But at the time I was like, 'Ha.' I really didn't care at that moment. I was stressed out."

Then there was the small fit Kuzmich threw over sleeping arrangements. Bianca laughed at her.

"Wish I could get the joke," Heather responded.

"You!" Bianca clarified. "YOU'RE the joke."

Kuzmich does wish other girls had been given more airtime.

"There's people out there that think I said certain things so I could get more [TV] time. And honestly that's not what I was trying to do."

Kuzmich plans to pursue modeling. She won CoverGirl model of the week eight times. But she's also headed back to class to study videogame art and design, to have "something to fall back on."

"When I was on the show, I sneaked in a [Nintendo] Game Boy," she says, though producers took it away, along with other girls' iPods.

She rolled with it all.

"The experience was like modeling camp. It was very much fun," she says. "All of them were really great."

Children with Asperger Syndrome using theater workshop for social skills

2007-08-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

Theater workshops are a popular summertime activity for kids. Most often the goal is to teach youngsters a few basic acting skills. But in Willmar, one theater workshop is teaching social skills to teenagers with a mild form of autism.
Willmar, Minn. — A girl and two boys sit on a bench in a second-floor classroom above Willmar's Barn Theatre. The teens look shy and bit reluctant when they're asked to sit in a circle and join hands. And a stranger hovering nearby with a microphone doesn't help put anyone at ease.
Most adolescents would be at least uncomfortable holding hands with peers they've only known for a few days. But for these kids sometimes it can be downright terrifying. They've all been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism.Kids with Asperger's don't have problems with language like those with more serious forms of autism. For them the challenges are more social in nature. They have a hard time understanding body language and facial expressions. They tend to avoid physical contact. And they prefer not to make eye contact.
Nikki Bettcher Erickson, the theater director who helped develop this program, puts the kids through acting exercises; some are familiar. During one, a girl and a boy sit face to face, touching finger tips and moving in unison as if facing a mirror image.
The exercise is intended to make them more comfortable with touching and eye contact.
Another challenge for kids with Asperger's is understanding emotion. So Betcher Erickson developed an exercise to help the kids express how they feel and understand how other people are feeling.
"I'll start out at the beginning of a circle and we'll go around in a circle and see how many different levels of sad we can use," she says. "For instance I would start out saying 'I'm sad,' and then the next person has to make it more sad. And then it keeps going up, until the last person in the circle is the most sad."
"And we do the same thing with happy, or angry, or stressed out, or calm. We try to use all these different levels of emotion,"

Bettcher Erickson uses these same techniques in local schools when she works with kids with behavioral problems.
Bill Sheehan, a psychiatrist based in the western Minnesota town of Benson, thought the same approach would work for kids with Asperger's. So Sheehan worked with Bettcher Erickson to develop the workshop. He says it's a new approach to therapy.
Theater therapy, as it's called, is already used to help treat depression and addiction. But the two say their program appears to be the only one in the country aimed at kids with autism.
Sheehan says their activities give the teens a chance to practice interacting with peers in a safe atmosphere.
"Gradually as they get their confidence up or they practice these kinds of things, it greatly improves their ability to be able to function in a social world, so that's the goal of this whole approach," Sheehan says.

Sheehan says this theater therapy has been embraced by not only parents, but the kids themselves. He considers that an accomplishment, especially because children with Asperger's are often reluctant to take part in therapy sessions.
Proof he says is the enthusiasm of participants like Caitlyn Wheeler, 17, from Atwater. Wheeler hams it up in an acting exercise, while her classmates try to guess what emotion she's acting out.
After the workshop, Wheeler grabs her dad's hand and heads straight to the door, not eager to stick around and talk with a reporter. But her dad encourages her, and in the end she's willing to stay and offer a strikingly mature assessment of the dreams she has for her future.
"More acting, and maybe get my acting degree in theater, see if I could get into a Broadway musical or famous play or whatever," she says.
Whether or not the therapy helps Wheeler's social interaction with other people is yet to be seen. But for now it's given her the confidence to consider spending more time in front of people on stage.
Organizers of the workshop say their next step is to find funding to study and develop hard data on the therapeutic benefits of theater for kids dealing with Asperger's Syndrome. The next workshop is scheduled for September in Willmar.

Nick News takes a look at Autism and Asperger Syndrome and Definition and the stuggles kids face

2007-03-29T22:39:00.000-05:00

Today, an estimated one in 150 kids is diagnosed with autism. Imagine being disconnected from the world around you; not being able to make sense of some things you see, hear, smell and touch; needing something and not being able to express yourself. The award-winning Nick News with Linda Ellerbee takes a look at the lives of kids struggling with different levels of autism in Private Worlds: Kids and Autism premiering Sunday, April 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon.
"Autism is not a
mental illness. It's not contagious, and it's not a choice; and while kids with autism have been described as living in their own private worlds," Ellerbee said, "they are also living in our world. Therein lies the challenge for all of us: How do we live differently together?"
Private Worlds: Kids and Autism begins with the story of Andrew, a severely autistic fifth grader. It's difficult to understand what life is like for Andrew because he can't communicate his feelings. His family can't go places or do things with out considering his needs, or without worrying he might do something inappropriate in public. Though Andrew will never get entirely better, the family is doing what it can to make his life as full as possible.
The special also introduces viewers to Bond, a 15-year-old with Aspergers Syndrome, generally considered a more high functioning form of autism. He's smart and articulate, but still has problems socializing. Temple Grandin tells her amazing story through her groundbreaking books about being autistic, and implores kids not to tease their autistic classmates. Matt is fourteen and has "Savant Syndrome," which means he possesses an extraordinary gift, in his case, the ability to play the piano. "Savant syndrome" is rare, but it happens.
A final segment highlights how other kids can be a part of the lives and worlds of kids with autism. We meet kids who are part of a special hockey program where kids with autism play with typical kids. Their story shows us that kids with autism have a lot to offer as friends. Private Worlds also features commentary from kids who are not autistic, but speak about what it's like to be around kids who are.
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, which recently celebrated its 15th year on the air, is the longest-running kids' news show in television history, and has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about important issues of the day. In 2005, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming for From the Holocaust to the Sudan. In 2002, "Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan," won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 1994, the entire series, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 1998, "What Are You Staring At?" a program about kids with physical disabilities, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. Nick News with Linda Ellerbee has received more than 20 Emmy nominations. Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is also the recipient of three Peabody Awards, including a personal one given to Ellerbee for her coverage, for kids, of the President Clinton impeachment; two Columbia duPont Awards; and more than a dozen Parents' Choice Awards.
Nickelodeon, in its 28th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 92 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for almost 12 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. .

Daniel Tammet explains Asperger Syndrome and a Definition of Savant Syndrome

2007-01-15T09:45:00.000-06:00

From ABC NEWS
Jan. 15, 2007— Born with a rare condition called Savant Syndrome, Daniel Tammet sees the world like few other people.
To Tammet, numbers have shapes, emotions have colors, and math is as easy as blinking. He can learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week and has a complusive need for order and routine.
In "Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Aspergers and an Extraordinary Mind," Tammet lets readers in on how his mind works. Not only does "Born on a Blue Day" provide a a fascinating portrayl of a man with unique talents, it also offers insight into the power of the human brain.
Read an Excerpt from "Born on a Blue Day" below:
Blue Nines and Red Words
I was born on January 31, 1979 — a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number 9 or the sound of loud voices arguing. I like my birth date, because of the way I'm able to visualize most of the numbers in it as smooth and round shapes, similar to pebbles on a beach. That's because they are prime numbers: 31, 19, 197, 97, 79 and 1979 are all divisible only by themselves and 1. I can recognize every prime up to 9,973 by their "pebble-like" quality. It's just the way my brain works.
I have a rare condition known as savant syndrome, little known before its portrayal by actor Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning 1988 film Rain Man. Like Hoffman's character, Raymond Babbitt, I have an almost obsessive need for order and routine which affects virtually every aspect of my life.
For example, I eat exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast each morning; I weigh the bowl with an electronic scale to make sure. Then I count the number of items of clothing I'm wearing before I leave my house. I get anxious if I can't drink my cups of tea at the same time each day. Whenever I become too stressed and I can't breathe properly, I close my eyes and count. Thinking of numbers helps me to become calm again.
Numbers are my friends, and they are always around me. Each one is unique and has its own personality. The number 11 is friendly and 5 is loud, whereas 4 is both shy and quiet — it's my favorite number, perhaps because it reminds me of myself. Some are big — 23, 667, 1,179 — while others are small: 6, 13, 581. Some are beautiful, like 333, and some are ugly, like 289. To me, every number is special.
No matter where I go or what I'm doing, numbers are never far from my thoughts. In an interview with talk show host David Letterman in New York, I told David he looked like the number 117 — tall and lanky. Later outside, in the appropriately numerically named Times Square, I gazed up at the towering skyscrapers and felt surrounded by 9s — the number I most associate with feelings of immensity.
Scientists call my visual, emotional experience of numbers synesthesia, a rare neurological mixing of the senses, which most commonly results in the ability to see alphabetical letters and/or numbers in color. Mine is an unusual and complex type, through which I see numbers as shapes, colors, textures and motions. The number 1, for example, is a brilliant and bright white, like someone shining a flashlight into my eyes. Five is a clap of thunder or the sound of waves crashing against rocks. Thirty-seven is lumpy like porridge, while 89 reminds me of falling snow.
Probably the most famous case of synesthesia was the one written up over a period of thirty years from the 1920s by the Russian psychologist A. R. Luria of a journalist called Shereshevsky with a prodigious memory. "S," as Luria called him in his notes for the book The Mind of a Mnemonist, had a highly visual memory which allowed him to "see" words and numbers as different shapes and colors. "S" was able to remember a matrix of 50 digits after studying it for three minutes, both immediately afterwards and many years later. Luria credited Shereshevsky's synesthetic experiences as the basis for his remarkable short- and long-term memory.
Using my own synesthetic experiences since early childhood, I have grown up with the ability to handle and calculate huge numbers in my head without any conscious effort, just like the Raymond Babbitt character. In fact, this is a talent common to several other real-life savants (sometimes referred to as "lightning calculators"). Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician and the leading researcher in the study of savant syndrome, gives one example, of a blind man with "a faculty of calculating to a degree little short of marvelous" in his book Extraordinary People:
When he was asked how many grains of corn there would be in any one of 64 boxes, with 1 in the first, 2 in the second, 4 in the third, 8 in the fourth, and so on, he gave answers for the fourteenth (8,192), for the eighteenth (131,072) and the twenty-fourth (8,388,608) instantaneously, and he gave the figures for the forty-eighth box (140,737,488,355,328) in six seconds. He also gave the total in all 64 boxes correctly (18,446,744,073,709,551, 616) in forty-five seconds.
My favorite kind of calculation is power multiplication, which means multiplying a number by itself a specified number of times. Multiplying a number by itself is called squaring; for example, the square of 72 is 72 x 72 = 5,184. Squares are always symmetrical shapes in my mind, which makes them especially beautiful to me. Multiplying the same number three times over is called cubing or "raising" to the third power. The cube, or third power, of 51 is equivalent to 51 x 51 x 51 = 132,651. I see each result of a power multiplication as a distinctive visual pattern in my head.
As the sums and their results grow, so the mental shapes and colors I experience become increasingly more complex. I see 37's fifth power — 37 x 37 x 37 x 37 x 37 = 69,343,957 — as a large circle composed of smaller circles running clockwise from the top around.
When I divide one number by another, in my head I see a spiral rotating downwards in larger and larger loops, which seem to warp and curve. Different divisions produce different sizes of spirals with varying curves. From my mental imagery I'm able to calculate a sum like 13 ÷ 97 (0.1340206…) to almost a hundred decimal places.
I never write anything down when I'm calculating, because I've always been able to do the sums in my head, and it's much easier for me to visualize the answer using my synesthetic shapes than to try to follow the "carry the one" techniques taught in the textbooks we are given at school. When multiplying, I see the two numbers as distinct shapes. The image changes and a third shape emerges — the correct answer. The process takes a matter of seconds and happens spontaneously. It's like doing math without having to think.
Different tasks involve different shapes, and I also have various sensations or emotions for certain numbers. Whenever I multiply with 11 I always experience a feeling of the digits tumbling downwards in my head. I find 6s hardest to remember of all the numbers, because I experience them as tiny black dots, without any distinctive shape or texture. I would describe them as like little gaps or holes. I have visual and sometimes emotional responses to every number up to 10,000, like having my own visual, numerical vocabulary.
And just like a poet's choice of words, I find some combinations of numbers more beautiful than others: ones go well with darker numbers like 8s and 9s, but not so well with 6s. A telephone number with the sequence 189 is much more beautiful to me than one with a sequence like 116.
This aesthetic dimension to my synesthesia is something that has its ups and downs. If I see a number I experience as particularly beautiful on a shop sign or a car license plate, there's a shiver of excitement and pleasure. On the other hand, if the numbers don't match my experience of them — if, for example, a shop sign's price has "99 pence" in red or green (instead of blue) — then I find that uncomfortable and irritating.
It is not known how many savants have synesthetic experiences to help them in the areas they excel in. One reason for this is that, like Raymond Babbitt, many suffer profound disability, preventing them from explaining to others how they do the things that they do. I am fortunate not to suffer from any of the most severe impairments that often come with abilities such as mine.
Like most individuals with savant syndrome, I am also on the autistic spectrum. I have Asperger's syndrome, a relatively mild and high-functioning form of autism that affects around 1 in every 300 people in the United Kingdom. According to a 2001 study by the U.K.'s National Autistic Society, nearly half of all adults with Asperger's syndrome are not diagnosed until after the age of sixteen. I was finally diagnosed at age twenty-five following tests and an interview at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge.
Autism, including Asperger's syndrome, is defined by the presence of impairments affecting social interaction, communication, and imagination (problems with abstract or flexible thought and empathy, for example). Diagnosis is not easy and cannot be made by a blood test or brain scan; doctors have to observe behavior and study the individual's developmental history from infancy.
People with Asperger's often have good language skills and are able to lead relatively normal lives. Many have above-average IQs and excel in areas that involve logical or visual thinking. Like other forms of autism, Asperger's is a condition affecting many more men than women (around 80 percent of autistics and 90 percent of those diagnosed with Asperger's are men). Single-mindedness is a defining characteristic, as is a strong drive to analyze detail and identify rules and patterns in systems. Specialized skills involving memory, numbers, and mathematics are common. It is not known for certain what causes someone to have Asperger's, though it is something you are born with.
For as long as I can remember, I have experienced numbers in the visual, synesthetic way that I do. Numbers are my first language, one I often think and feel in. Emotions can be hard for me to understand or know how to react to, so I often use numbers to help me. If a friend says they feel sad or depressed, I picture myself sitting in the dark hollowness of number 6 to help me experience the same sort of feeling and understand it. If I read in an article that a person felt intimidated by something, I imagine myself standing next to the number 9. Whenever someone describes visiting a beautiful place, I recall my numerical landscapes and how happy they make me feel inside. By doing this, numbers actually help me get closer to understanding other people.
Sometimes people I meet for the first time remind me of a particular number and this helps me to be comfortable around them. They might be very tall and remind me of the number 9, or round and remind me of the number 3. If I feel unhappy or anxious or in a situation I have no previous experience of (when I'm much more likely to feel stressed and uncomfortable), I count to myself. When I count, the numbers form pictures and patterns in my mind that are consistent and reassuring to me. Then I can relax and interact with whatever situation I'm in.
Thinking of calendars always makes me feel good, all those numbers and patterns in one place. Different days of the week elicit different colors and emotions in my head: Tuesdays are a warm color while Thursdays are fuzzy. Calendrical calculation — the ability to tell what day of the week a particular date fell or will fall on — is common to many savants. I think this is probably due to the fact that the numbers in calendars are predictable and form patterns between the different days and months. For example, the thirteenth day in a month is always two days before whatever day the first falls on, excepting leap years, while several of the months mimic the behavior of others, like January and October, September and December, and February and March (the first day of February is the same as the first day of March). So if the first of February is a fuzzy texture in my mind (Thursday) for a given year, the thirteenth of March will be a warm color (Tuesday).
In his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks mentions the case of severely autistic twins John and Michael as an example of how far some savants are able to take calendrical calculations. Though unable to care for themselves (they had been in various institutions since the age of seven), the twins were capable of calculating the day of the week for any date over a 40,000-year span.
Sacks also describes John and Michael as playing a game that involved swapping prime numbers with each other for hours at a time. Like the twins, I have always been fascinated by prime numbers. I see each prime as a smooth-textured shape, distinct from composite numbers (non-primes) that are grittier and less distinctive. Whenever I identify a number as prime, I get a rush of feeling in my head (in the front center) which is hard to put into words. It's a special feeling, like the sudden sensation of pins and needles.
Sometimes I close my eyes and imagine the first thirty, fifty, hundred numbers as I experience them spatially, synesthetically. Then I can see in my mind's eye just how beautiful and special the primes are by the way they stand out so sharply from the other number shapes. It's exactly for this reason that I look and look and look at them; each one is so different from the one before and the one after. Their loneliness among the other numbers makes them so conspicuous and interesting to me.
There are moments, as I'm falling into sleep at night, that my mind fills suddenly with bright light and all I can see are numbers — hundreds, thousands of them — swimming rapidly over my eyes. The experience is beautiful and soothing to me. Some nights, when I'm having difficulty falling asleep, I imagine myself walking around my numerical landscapes. Then I feel safe and happy. I never feel lost, because the prime number shapes act as signposts.
Mathematicians, too, spend a lot of time thinking about prime numbers, in part because there is no quick or simple method for testing a number to see whether or not it is prime. The best known is called "the Sieve of Eratosthenes" after an ancient Greek scholar, Eratosthenes of Cyrene. The sieve method works in this way: Write out the numbers you want to test, for example 1 to 100. Starting with 2 (1 is neither prime nor composite), cross out every second number: 4, 6, 8…up to 100. Then move to 3 and cross out every third number: 6, 9, 12…then move to four and cross out every fourth number: 8, 12, 16…and so on, until you are left with only a few numbers that do not ever get crossed out: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31…These are the prime numbers; the building blocks of my numerical world.
My synesthesia also affects how I perceive words and language. The word ladder, for example, is blue and shiny, while hoop is a soft, white word. The same thing happens when I read words in other languages: jardin, the French word for "garden," is a blurred yellow, while hnugginn — Icelandic for "sad" — is white with lots of blue specks. Synesthesia researchers have reported that colored words tend to obtain their colors from the initial letter of the word, and this is generally true for me: yogurt is a yellow word, video is purple (perhaps linked with violet) and gate is green. I can even make the color of a word change by mentally adding initial letters to turn the word into another: at is a red word, but add the letter H to get hat and it becomes a white word. If I then add a letter T to make that, the word's color is now orange. Not all words fit the initial-letter pattern: words beginning with the letter A, for example, are always red and those beginning with W are always dark blue.
Some words are perfect fits for the things they describe. A raspberry is both a red word and a red fruit, while grass and glass are both green words that describe green things. Words beginning with the letter T are always orange like a tulip or a tiger or a tree in autumn, when the leaves turn to orange.
Conversely, some words do not seem to me to fit the things they describe: geese is a green word but describes white birds (heese would seem a better choice to me), the word white is blue while orange is clear and shiny like ice. Four is a blue word but a pointy number, at least to me. The color of wine (a blue word) is better described by the French word vin, which is purple.
Seeing words in different colors and textures aids my memory for facts and names. For example, I remember that the winning cyclist of each stage of the Tour de France wins a yellow jersey (not green or red or blue), because the word jersey is yellow to me. Similarly, I can remember that Finland's national flag has a blue cross (on a white background) because the word Finland is blue (as are all words beginning with the letter F). When I meet someone for the first time I often remember their name by the color of the word: Richards are red, Johns are yellow, and Henrys are white.
It also helps me to learn other languages quickly and easily. I currently know ten languages: English (my native language), Finnish, French, German, Lithuanian, Esperanto, Spanish, Romanian, Icelandic and Welsh. Associating the different colors and emotions I experience for each word with its meaning helps bring the words to life. For example, the Finnish word tuli is orange to me and means "fire." When I read or think about the word I immediately see the color in my head, which evokes the meaning. Another example is the Welsh word gweilgi, which is a green and dark blue color and means "sea." I think it is an extremely good word for describing the sea's colors. Then there is the Icelandic word rökkur, which means "twilight" or "dusk." It is a crimson word and when I see it, it makes me think of a blood red sunset.
I remember as a young child, during one of my frequent trips to the local library, spending hours looking at book after book trying in vain to find one that had my name on it. Because there were so many books in the library, with so many different names on them, I'd assumed that one of them — somewhere — had to be mine. I didn't understand at the time that a person's name appears on a book because he or she wrote it. Now that I'm twenty-six I know better. If I were ever going to find my book one day, I was going to have to write it first.
Writing about my life has given me the opportunity to get some perspective on just how far I've come, and to trace the arc of my journey up to the present. If someone had told my parents ten years ago that I would be living completely independently, with a loving relationship and a career, I don't think they would have believed it and I'm not sure I would have either. This book will tell you how I got there.
My younger brother Steven has recently been diagnosed with the same form of high-functioning autism that I have. At nineteen, he is going through a lot of the challenges that I too faced while growing up, from problems with anxiety and loneliness to uncertainty about the future. When I was a child, doctors did not know about Asperger's syndrome (it was not recognized as a unique disorder until 1994) and so for many years I grew up with no understanding of why I felt so different from my peers and apart from the world around me. By writing about my own experiences of growing up on the autistic spectrum, it is my hope that I can help other young people living with high-functioning autism, like my brother Steven, to feel less isolated and to have confidence in the knowledge that it is ultimately possible to lead a happy and productive life. I'm living proof of that.
Copyright © 2006 by Daniel Tammet

Asperger Syndrome and Definition from two college students living with Asperger's

2007-01-10T09:36:00.000-06:00

Daniel Eisenberg rushes from his Alfred Hitchcock class to the Tufts student center, where, as film society chairman, he retrieves reels of "Prairie Home Companion." He's a sophomore math major, and a member of Tufts' Monty Python Society, quiz bowl team, and lecture series. He hopes to study in England next year.

Paul Ratner studies electrical engineering part time at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and works part time as a circuit tester. He transferred last spring after struggling academically and suffering from depression at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana.
Eisenberg and Ratner are college students with Asperger's syndrome, whose experiences, like Nomi Kaim's, illustrate the range the neurological disorder can exhibit. While Eisenberg, 19, expects to graduate on time from Tufts University , Ratner, 23, traverses a rockier course. Where Eisenberg was diagnosed at 8, Ratner learned he has Asperger's only after problems surfaced at Rose-Hulman. Where Eisenberg is poised, confident, albeit with a flat affect, Ratner is nervous, less likely to make eye contact.
"Primarily, the problem is social. I don't have many friends," says Ratner.
"I don't know where I end and Asperger's begins," says Eisenberg. "I don't like big parties. I don't know if that comes from the Asperger's and not being able to process all that or if it's me being me."
Shortly after Asperger's was officially recognized in 1994, Eisenberg's aunt read about it. Maybe that's Daniel's problem, she suggested. Maybe this explains his tantrums and social troubles.
Eisenberg's parents drilled him on social conventions, insisted on play dates, prepped him for new situations, and sent him to Harvard one summer to preview college life. He takes Risperdal for stress, but didn't take it last semester until exams approached. He has a single room for refuge.
"I can actually tell the difference when I'm on the medication and when I'm not. I'm a lot more likely to escalate a stressful situation than be able to diffuse it. Usually it comes out in social situations, or in terms of work just overloading. It results in a little bit of a breakdown. An I-can't-do-anything-right-now-life-is-too-hard breakdown," he says. "A couple of days later I'll say, 'Really? I broke down because of that?' "
Eisenberg is still "slow on the uptake" socially. "My family is very gentle," he says, "about telling me when what I've done is wrong." He's drawn to math's objectivity. "It's comforting to know there's an answer," he says.
Time helps. "As you get to know more about what's going to happen with different people and different settings," he says, "it's easier."
Ratner is newer to Asperger's. As a full-time student at Rose-Hulman, he failed courses once the material got harder, which triggered depression so severe he was hospitalized twice before quitting. When he finally learned he had Asperger's, the symptoms fit -- the difficulties organizing his homework, making friends, tolerating situations as mundane as a brightly lit or noisy place. "Being in a room where there are lots of conversations makes me feel bad," he says. "I try to listen to every conversation." As for reading social cues, he says, "I'm probably so bad that it goes right over my head."
Medication helps control his depression. He's getting A's and planning a career. He joined the Asperger's Association of New England and plans to try Springboard, a social group for people with Asperger's or learning disabilities.
Ratner finds himself mentioning Asperger's when he talks about himself. Eisenberg rarely does. "No need to," he says. "I have a 3.87 GPA. I have friends, and I'm hopefully going to Oxford next year. So what?"

New book on Asperger Syndrome gives in-depth look and definition

2006-11-07T12:55:00.000-06:00

"My Asperger Soul" is an in-depth look at life with Aspergers Syndrome. Clinical, social, and personal assessment and overview is given throughout "My Asperger Soul" and every step of the way through the author’s life. Information ranges from the time of pre -school years until present day and through college.J. Darlynne Worsham was diagnosed in the sixties with Autism. Her parents were from a cultural background of ignorance, and the belief that corporal punishment and religion would cure any child of any disorder. "My Asperger Soul” will make you cry. "My Asperger Soul" will give you an inside view of the isolation, depression, and thinking of Aspergers Syndrome. Most of all it will give you an idea of the resilience.By the time you finish reading "My Asperger Soul" you will have a more accurate understanding of Aspergers Syndrome. The education system, mental health services, and work environments of America still do not understand or accept individuals with Aspergers Syndrome. This disorder is increasing in frequency. This disorder is not caused by defective or mercury laced vaccines. Aspergers is something new. Aspergers presents society with a new type of people with a new way of thinking. ABOUT AUTHORJ. Darlynne Worsham has a Bachelors of Science and Masters in Counseling Psychology. She has lived in many different countries and has experience in the field of mental health and teaching. ABOUT LULUFounded in 2002 "Lulu (www.lulu.com), the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books."

Asperger Syndrome and Definition by Scott Michael Robertson: Aspie

2006-09-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

My name is Scott Michael Robertson. I'm a 26-year-old third-year Ph.D. student studying information sciences and technology at Penn State University.
I'm different from my friends and peers in graduate school in that I have Asperger's syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum. I self-diagnosed with AS in 1999. Six years later, a doctor confirmed my diagnosis.
The youngest of three children, I grew up in the Pines Lake community of Wayne. It was apparent to my parents from the beginning that I was very different from my two siblings. I was extremely shy in most social situations and often didn't look people in the eyes when I spoke.

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Many of my senses were acutely heightened. I reacted defensively when people tried to touch or hug me. I could detect many smells and hear many sounds from far away. When I was 6, even a simple visit to the grocery store overwhelmed my senses. The vibrant colors, reverberating voices of shoppers and intense smells of thousands of diverse foods were too much for my young brain to process and filter.
I learned to sit up, crawl, walk and ride a bike very late. I feared swimming in the ocean during family trips to the New Jersey Shore because of the powerful and loud crashing waves.
As I grew older, my communication and social oddities became readily apparent. I had trouble comprehending facial expressions and body language. While I did have a few friends in elementary school, interacting with my peers and establishing friendships in junior high and high school was extremely challenging. Children bullied and teased me incessantly for many years. They called me names, threatened me, ignored me and rejected any efforts I made to join group conversations.
I felt as if I were an alien on a planet that was not my own. I often became very sad and depressed, although I continued tenaciously to produce my best academic efforts in school and brought home mostly A's (and some B's).
More than anything, I longed to know why I was so very different from others and why I couldn't act like they did no matter how hard I tried.
Serendipitously, I found the answer I was seeking in the fall of 1999, during my freshman year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Halfway through the term, we read a book about autism called "Mindblindness." The book proposed that people with autism have a deficit in "theory of mind" skills that inhibits their ability to understand the beliefs and ideas of others and themselves. This accounts for the social and communication differences seen in autism.
I was assigned to write a paper on autism and theory of mind for the class. Being the good student that I am, I went online to learn more. My eyes soon went wild in amazement. I realized quickly that my experiences, background and developmental history fit the description of Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, to a T.
I had finally found why I was so different: I was a person with autism.
Knowing the reason behind my differences helped me to teach myself how to adapt and fit in better with the world around me. Through practice and hard work, I learned how to read and use facial expressions better and how to interact in different social settings.
I developed strategies for handling sensory overload. I joined the student newspaper in undergrad and gained practice in understanding other points of view through interviewing hundreds of people for stories during my three years as an editor and reporter.
I also succeeded in forming close-knit friendships with my comrades on the newspaper. Since then, I have been very fortunate to meet many other wonderful people in graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University and then at Penn State University, as well as online.
My friends have helped me through the good times and the bad times and have taught me many valuable lessons about life. They have been great people, with whom I now share my time, thoughts and feelings. In turn, I have also felt strongly energized at helping them out when they sought a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen.
Socially, I've become more comfortable in recent years chatting with friends and peers at parties and bars and participating in trips to fairs, amusement parks and the movies.
Having had few friendships as a youngster, I cherish what I have today.
During my junior year of undergraduate studies, I made a promise to myself that I would repay all of the support I had received over the years by paying it forward.
I committed myself to pursuing research that could help others with disabilities. My Ph.D. thesis will likely explore how to design technologies (like personal digital assistants) for teens and adults with autism. I'm also involved in two recently launched autism initiatives: Spectrum University (spectrumuniversity.com), a Web site about autism and college, and the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (autisticselfadvocacy.com.)
I began sharing my own experiences to help others learn from what I have lived. On August 4, my birthday, I gave the keynote speech at the 2006 National Autism Conference. My heart was pounding as endless worries flooded my nervous mind. I looked out from a podium across a sea of more than 900 people and spoke about the challenges and aspirations of being an adult with autism.
If I could impart just one lesson from my life for you as a reader, it would be that many accomplishments can be achieved and many barriers and obstacles can be overcome if you work hard and remain optimistic and focused on the goal ahead rather than the past behind.

Asperger's Disorder Definition

2006-07-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

Asperger's Disorder is the term for a specific type of pervasive developmental disorder which is characterized by problems in development of social skills and behavior. In the past, many children with Asperger's Disorder were diagnosed as having autism, another of the pervasive developmental disorders, or other disorders. While autism and Asperger's have certain similarities, there are also important differences. For this reason, children suspected of having these conditions require careful evaluation.
In general, a child with Asperger's Disorder functions at a higher level than the typical child with autism. For example, many children with Asperger's Disorder have normal intelligence. While most children with autism fail to develop language or have language delays, children with Asperger's Disorder are usually using words by the age of two, although their speech patterns may be somewhat odd.
Most children with Asperger's Disorder have difficulty interacting with their peers. They tend to be loners and may display eccentric behaviors. A child with Asperger's, for example, may spend hours each day preoccupied with counting cars passing on the street or watching only the weather channel on television. Coordination difficulties are also common with this disorder. These children often have special educational needs.
Although the cause of Asperger's Disorder is not yet known, current research suggests that a tendency toward the condition may run in families. Children with Asperger's Disorder are also at risk for other psychiatric problems including depression, attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Child and adolescent psychiatrists have the training and expertise to evaluate pervasive developmental disorders like autism and Asperger's Disorder. They can also work with families to design appropriate and effective treatment programs. Currently, the most effective treatment involves a combination of psychotherapy, special education, behavior modification, and support for families. Some children with Asperger's Disorder will also benefit from medication.
The outcome for children with Asperger's Disorder is generally more promising than for those with autism. Due to their higher level of intellectual functioning, many of these children successfully finish high school and attend college. Although problems with social interaction and awareness persist, they can also develop lasting relationships with family and friends.

Asperger Syndrome and Definition

2006-01-17T09:32:00.000-06:00

The Dr. Phil show will look at Asperger Syndrome and Definition during it's broadcast on Jan.17

Drama program enhances social skills of individuals with Asperger Syndrome

2006-01-04T12:10:00.000-06:00

Drama program enhances social skills for children with Asperger's SyndromeActing exercises helping those in autistic spectrum
By: Michelle Miller, Journal Staff WriterTuesday, January 3, 2006 2:11 PM PST

Jeff Ogata and his 10-year-old son, Xian Ogata, participate in a miming exercise Thursday as part of a drama program that teaches autistic children social skills. Photo by Ben Furtado/Auburn Journal
For a child with autism, everyday social situations can feel like being on stage and not knowing your lines.Because of the unique way they see the world, people with autism don't know how to respond to others during social interactions.But they can memorize how to act, like performing a part in a play.So when former professional actors Amelia Davies and John Stamm realized that what they've studied for years could help autistic spectrum children, they created a program that uses drama exercises to work on social skills.The approach works well on children with Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism, two disorders on what is known as the autistic spectrum, where symptoms range from mild to severe."Asperger's children are very verbal and frequently very, very intelligent with very high IQs," said Davies, who lives with her husband, Stamm, in Marysville. "But their core deficiency is an inability to relate to others."

Neurologically typical people inherently understand social situations, pick up on body language and facial cues and show empathy during a conversation, Davies said. An Asperger's child may just walk away from a conversation because they don't understand the concept of "social niceties.""You can see how it would be very difficult to keep a job or a relationship," she said. "They feel lost in the social world, but they have so much to give."Through repeated exercises, Davies said it's entirely possible for Asperger's children to learn how to "act" in social situations. They can memorize the myriad of facial expressions, the emotion they convey and how to react to them.During a workshop in Auburn this week, autistic children were treated to exercises that had them ducking samarai swords and wading through Jell-O.The exercises help with focus, understanding non-verbal communication and social interaction - all while embracing the silly, which Davies said Asperger's children relish.During Thursday's class, Davies asks the children to shuffle themselves within the group to see if she can remember their names. She feigns struggling to come up with one boy's name."Is it ... Wolfgang? ... Johann?" she asks as the boy smiles broadly and shakes his head no.Other exercises feature pantomime. Children imitate emotions shown by an instructor and memorize their meaning."But most of all, it's just a lot of fun," Davies said. "If they can't have fun, they're not going to see the power of social skills.""As parents and educators, we want to help them enjoy their lives so much that we focus on their core deficiencies. We don't focus on their core talents."Some of those talents include the ability to memorize lines well, a terrific sense of humor and a knack for imitation - not to mention a penchant for being "refreshingly blunt," Davies said Thursday."This one boy at the workshop yesterday said, 'I'd like to say I was not informed I was coming here until I was in the car so I'm not pleased about being here.'" she said. "You have to look at that kid and say, 'That's so cool of you to tell me that.'"The Auburn Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Learning Disabilities Support Group hosted Davies and Stamm's workshop and will facilitate more drama classes in Auburn, said support group founder Karen Clay.Along with help from autism author Dr. Jeanette McAfee, Davies and Stamm have been planting the seeds across Northern California for the teaching methods put forth in Davies' book, "Teaching Asperger's Students Social Skills Through Acting."The workshop this week was also the culmination of a 10-week course Davies and Stamm taught so others could use their methods in one-on-one or larger settings.Sacramento attorney Jeff Ogata thought Davies and Stamm's methods were great and wanted to see if someone would teach them locally. He ended up learning them himself in the 10-week course.His 10-year-old son, Xian, has Asperger's."He can recite whole commercials and imitate the voices just like on TV. But we had to teach him what a smile meant," Ogata said. "The simple things we all take for granted, they don't understand. This program allowed Xian to be sociable and interact. He's made some new friends."The drama exercises can help children feel like part of the foreground in social life, not part of the scenery."Drama is not the answer for social skills, but it's a scaffolding tool supporting social skills," Davies said. "All we want to do is help as many kids as we can with the skills we've been lucky enough to learn as actors."

Asperger Syndrome how it feels

2005-12-20T09:22:00.000-06:00

How Autism FeelsDecember 20, 2005 Kate Goldfield

When I was a freshman in college, someone asked a friend of mine if I was autistic. Having almost no knowledge about what autism was other than a dim memory of a "Rain Man"-like character rocking in the corner and nonverbal, I was appalled. How could anyone possibly think I was like that? Two years later, I rediscovered the subject of autism after seeing a Lifetime movie about it. I was intrigued by some of the concepts in it and began reading everything I could find about autism, purely out of intellectual interest.

I awakened to the notion that a lot of what I was reading sounded like me. I learned that autism is actually a spectrum disorder, which means that there are people who are affected by it on different levels. I discovered something called Asperger's Syndrome, which is high-functioning autism and markedly different in its presentation from what we could call classic autism. People with Asperger's Syndrome, or AS, I learned, have trouble reading social cues and understanding nonverbal language. They have trouble knowing what to say in conversations, when to start speaking and when to stop speaking. They fail to notice subtle conversational cues like change in tone of voice or body posture. In fact, they have trouble with social language in general. They are often highly intelligent, especially with special interests that they pursue, but have trouble conversing. Because of this, they have trouble making friends and many will go through all of high school and college without having ever really made a good friend. Sensory issues are very prevalent in people with AS. They can hear the sound of a person tapping their pencil from across the room. The smell of cigarette smoke or cleaning agents will drive them crazy. Lights are either too bright or too dim and they often have a difficult time finding clothes that they can bear wearing because of the way they feel on their skin. Often, they will have sensory overloads and need some time out from an activity to process all that is happening to them. For this reason, eye contact can hurt. Social interactions for someone with AS can be like trying to put together a 500-piece puzzle before the time is up. We even speak differently; our conversational manner tends to be quite genuine. We say what we're thinking. It is this genuineness, though, that endears us to many people. We don't play guessing games with people; we say what we mean. As employees and friends, we are loyal. We have the ability to focus completely on tasks of interest for hours at a time and also to remember huge amounts of facts related to our interests quite easily. When I was diagnosed with AS last summer, it came as an enormous relief. I finally knew why I had always hovered on the outside of social life, always wanting to join in but somehow never being able to figure out quite how. I could find other people who understood me and were like me. Unfortunately, many people are not as fortunate as I was to gain this understanding about myself. There is comparatively little information available about AS. It was put into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders (the official handbook of what is and what is not a psychological disorder) in 1994. There are many people out there who wonder why they are different, who are desperate to find the missing piece, but have never heard of AS. I explain all of this just to give the average person an idea of what it is like to live on the autistic spectrum. I feel that it is only by learning about others' struggles and truly trying to understand them that we can build a world that is safe for everyone - a world where we can grow and improve because we are taking advantage of everyone's strengths, not just the strengths of a selective few. That's the kind of world I want to live in. It's the kind of world we all want to live in.Kate Goldfield is a senior at Goucher College in Towson. She wrote this for the Baltimore Sun.

Parents guide to Asperger Syndrome and Definition

2005-12-01T09:38:00.000-06:00

Two decades ago there was little hope when a child was diagnosed with autism. Parents were often told their child couldn't succeed in school and would have to be institutionalized. Much has changed in the intervening years, particularly in how science understands what today is considered to be a spectrum of autism disorders and how well many children respond to treatment.
However, it still can be a numbing and confusing experience for parents who receive a diagnosis that their child has autism and then must sort through the wide variety of treatment approaches available. Helping parents deal with this experience is why two leading researchers, Sally Ozonoff and Geraldine Dawson, have written "A Parent's Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism," which has just been published.
Ozonoff is an associate professor of psychiatry at the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California, Davis, and Dawson is a psychology professor and founding director of the University of Washington's Autism Center. Co-author of the book is James McPartland, a UW doctoral student working with Dawson.
The book is designed to be a road map to help parents of children with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome through trying times, starting with diagnosis progressing through childhood and into adulthood.
Researchers now know that there is a spectrum of autism disorders affecting people in varying degrees of severity. People with the most severe form, or what is termed classic autism, are often very handicapped and may be mentally retarded. In its most severe form such children are nonverbal, aloof from other people and exhibit very restricted and repetitive behavior.
People with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome are not as severely affected. A child with high-functioning autism fits the definition of autism but has such better cognitive and learning abilities. These children have initial difficulty acquiring language but eventually are able to speak at a level appropriate for their age. Children with Asperger syndrome are similar to those with high-functioning autism but have fewer symptoms and have little or no difficulty developing language at the appropriate age.
Dawson and Ozonoff estimate that autism spectrum disorders affect up to 0.6 percent of the U.S. population, upwards of 500,000 people. Two-thirds of those appear to have high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome.
"We are seeing an increasing number of these children in our clinic, and more cases of Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism are being diagnosed at a younger age," said Dawson. "The prognosis for many of these children can be quite positive compared to 20 years ago. Today 25 percent to 30 percent of them finish high school and a quarter of those go on to college."
The book's guiding principle is to focus on a child's strengths, not weaknesses, and to have parents channel their child's unusual behaviors and ways of thinking into positive achievements.
"There are many examples of children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism who grew up to be successful adults. The key was their being able to use their strengths," said Dawson. "There is a tendency to focus on children's problems so they don't get a chance to figure out how to use their strengths. These children have unique ways of learning so it is very important to identify a child's learning style. This can help them blossom rather than flounder."
The book takes parents through the diagnostic process, outlines the various treatments available and discusses the impact of Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism at home, at school and in the social world of children. It also prepares parents to help their children as they enter late adolescence and adulthood. The authors discuss what issues parents are likely to face, what their options are and what is scientifically known so they can make the best decision for their child.
"Autism is a test of unconditional love for parents because in the beginning many children don't give any emotional feedback. The parents' love carries the relationship for a long time," said Dawson.
"Most parents are devastated and the impact on the family is great. Divorce is very common and other siblings sometimes can be neglected. But many parents rally and are able to start on this journey to find their child. They need to know this process is a distance race, not a sprint, and that eventually their child can lead an extremely satisfying and productive life.
"There is no reason why many people with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism can't get married, go to college, get a job and give to society. All are reasonable goals that can be reached, but usually with a lot of work," she said.###
For more information, contact Dawson at (206) 543-1051 or dawson@u.washington.edu or Ozonoff at (916) 734-6068 or sally.ozonoff@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

Asperger Syndrome and Definition from a Asper

2005-11-08T10:07:00.000-06:00

When it's hard to fit in
By Bryce Hubbard
20Below News Team
Published: Monday, November 7, 2005
People can become social outcasts for lots of reasons. Such as, people get labeled as geeks or nerds when they're smart or good at something.
Doesn't seem fair, but that's reality.
Have you ever heard of someone being a social disaster because of too much imagination? There is such a thing.
It's called Asperger's syndrome.
This form of high-functioning autism causes social problems that can't entirely be overcome, because the problem is not with the individual's personality. It's in the wiring of the brain.
I should know. I suffer from this disorder.
Here's an example of the difference between a neurotypical (among the 99.9 percent of the people on the planet without Asperger's) and an Asper: Person A and Person B look up and see the same cloud. Person A sees a bunny rabbit. Person B has AS and sees a geometric shape, and several other things as well.
Person A begins to talk about the rabbit, thinking that Person B sees the same thing. Person B is puzzled and unable to follow the conversation, because he doesn't see the rabbit.

That's a little idea of what it feels like to have Asperger's.
I say "little" because the only real way to understand Asperger's is to be afflicted with it. Sometimes, those of us with Asperger's have other disorders. I have dysgraphia and dyscalculia, which means I haven't the ability to organize or calculate numbers very well.
The worst part of having Asperger's is the lack of peer bonding.
When I got to high school, my social disabilities really made themselves apparent. It was difficult to fit in - not that I wanted to be a part of a clichéd stereotype of any group (I'm of the opinion that stereotypes are one of humanity's worst habits).
Often, Aspers are unable to cope with the casual cruelties that other less understanding students inflict upon them. I know one easily agitated student with Asperger's who is routinely picked on by others who just want to set him off.
And these cruel students wouldn't be described as your typical bullies.
High school is a difficult place for Aspers. I have maybe one or two good friends with whom I can be myself. The rest of the time I must put on a social face to at least pretend I fit other students' definition of normal.
At least that's what I used to do. Now, after years of pretending to be a neurotypical, I rarely hide how fundamentally different I am.
History has shown that creativity, unusual thinking and imagination can lead to incredible success.
In fact, people with Asperger's typically have normal to high IQs. Many significant figures throughout history have been suggested as possibly having the disorder, including Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.
For some reason, however, people would rather label others as social outcasts than appreciate their potential.
I've been told that I started using several words when I was less than a year old, and I began speaking in sentences shortly after that. I have heard of many Aspers with extraordinary abilities, including one who could recall the details of her birth.
But most people don't know anything about or understand Asperger's, which makes progression through our education system difficult for those with the disorder. It makes you wonder how some of us get by. The truth is, some of us don't.
Only through the support of my family and few friends do I manage in high school. I am constantly reminded of my social dysfunction when someone asks my opinion on a subject, and I offer a view that is almost completely different from everyone else's.
But that doesn't mean I hate being different - not at all. I enjoy it. A lot of people talk about not wanting to be stereotyped, yet they seek acceptance by being a part of a larger group.
I know I'm actually a unique individual, unlike so many who claim to be.
Bryce Hubbard is a senior at South Eugene High. He can be reached at 20Below@guardnet.com.

Asperger Syndrome and Definition a Mother's story

2005-09-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

By RONALD WORLEYThe Herald-Dispatch
When Kim Isaac's only child, Daniel, began showing behavioral problems, she first blamed her parenting skills. Typical childhood activities like birthday parties, fireworks shows and carnivals produced stress and verbally abusive behavior in Daniel rather than delight.
"He couldn't tolerate any of it," Isaacs said of her son, age 13. "I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong."
After numerous visits to physicians, Daniel's list of diagnoses included Attention Deficit Disorder, bipolar syndrome, anxiety and depression. Medications didn't help.
At her wit's end, Isaacs looked to the Internet for answers and discovered that her son's symptoms matched those of a little-understood disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome.
"No one did psychological testing on Daniel until two years ago," Isaacs stated. It was then that the Autism Services of Huntington sent Daniel for the tests that confirmed Isaacs' suspicion of Asperger's Syndrome.
Asperger's Syndrome, often confused with autism, is actually an "autism spectrum disorder," according to Marc Ellison, a counselor at the New Leaf Counseling Center in Huntington. "Asperger's is a neurological disorder that affects the personality. Typically, stimuli such as noise, light and certain tactile stimuli cause anxiety, stress and fear in the sufferer. They have a need for deep physical pressure to relax them when they are exhibiting these symptoms."
When faced with such sensory overloads, Daniel first complains of feeling weak, then tired. Isaacs says that if Daniel remains in the stressful environment, these symptoms may escalate into verbal and even physical aggression.
Even the normally imperceptible flickering of fluorescent lighting can trigger a reaction. This limits her choice of activities with Daniel. "Forget Wal-Mart," Isaacs said. "All that light and sound and activity is just too much for Daniel."
These autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) occur in two to six out of every 1,000 individuals. The U.S. Department of Heath and Human Service's Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that of the 4 million children born each year in the United States, about 24,000 of these children will eventually be diagnosed with ASD. The agency estimates a half million individuals in the United States under age 21 have an ASD.
In addition to sensory sensitivity, Ellison said another prominent feature of Asperger's Syndrome is "mind blindness." In mind blindness, the sufferer "has significant difficulty understanding life from another person's perspective."
This lack of perceptive empathy often manifests itself in antisocial behavior -- the Asperger's child may say or do things that are blatantly offensive to others because he or she is virtually incapable of seeing life through someone else's eyes.
Although otherwise intelligent, animated and witty, Daniel's sensory sensitivities make it impossible for him to attend conventional schools.
"I can't get the funding I need to help Daniel because he is considered too 'high functioning' by most criteria for assistance," Isaacs said. He receives in-home teaching six hours a week from a special instructor hired by Cabell County Board of Education and is making progress. Isaacs is unable to work or attend college because she is Daniel's primary caregiver, and there are no resources available for his care.
Isaacs' difficulties have prompted her into advocacy not only for Daniel's care, but the plight of other parents in her situation. She has contacted West Virginia state and federal officials to raise awareness of Asperger's prevalence as well as request legislation for increased funding.
"There are too many children with Asperger's, not enough awareness, and therefore not enough resources, either for care or for support," Isaac said. She hopes to reach parents who may be raising an Asperger's child and not know it. She urges them to seek psychological testing for children exhibiting Asperger's or ASD symptoms.

Asperger Syndrome and Definition

2005-09-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is a neurobiological disorder named after a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger.
Individuals with AS show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have difficulty reading non-verbal cues (body language) and very often, the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space. It’s important to remember that the person with AS perceives the world very differently. Therefore, behaviours that seem odd or unusual are due to those neurological differences and not the result of intentional rudeness or bad behaviour, and most certainly not the result of “improper parenting”. By definition, those with AS have a normal IQ and many individuals (although not all), exhibit exceptional skill or talent in a specific area. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naivete, those with AS are often viewed as eccentric or odd and can easily become victims of teasing and bullying. While language development seems, on the surface, normal, individuals with AS often have deficits in pragmatics and prosody. Vocabularies may be extraordinarily rich and some children sound like “little professors.”

Asperger syndrome and definition from an aspie

2005-08-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

The following article givens a feeling of what it is like from an Aspie's point of view.

Ever since the MMR jab was linked by some to autism we have become increasingly aware of the disorder and its prevalence in children. But what happens when those children grow up into adults? Health Editor Madeleine Brindley meets the undiscovered workforce
THE walls of Mark Annis's home are covered in brightly coloured canvases depicting everyday objects in extraordinary settings.
The bold splashes of the three primary colours reveal a Dali-esque influence which runs through many of the massive works of art.
In every square foot of whitewashed wall there hangs one of his masterpieces, with more stacked carefully against the wall and behind the sofa in his modest sitting room.
At 43, Mark is a professional artist hoping to win fans with his bright creations, pouring out his thoughts on large slabs of canvas; interpreting the world around him in oils.
Mark, who lives in Penarth, turned professional in the late 1990s, finally realising his dream after working a nine-to-five job in which he found few people who had the time to understand him.
He says simply, "I have found seeking and keeping employment the single most difficult thing to achieve in my life."
Now, he uses his art as a means of expression - a way of communicating his thoughts and feelings without the constraints of words and the social nuances the vast majority of us rely on to convey our point.
Mark has Asperger syndrome - one of the more commonly known autism spectrum disorders.
"Asperger syndrome for me means that I have serious difficulties in communicating," he says, "even though my language is good and I speak really good English and a smattering of other languages.
"But when it comes to social interactions I can't read the social cues, the non-verbal communication. I've had to train myself to have empathy.
"I now try to put myself in their shoes. I have to try to fit in but I feel isolated and excluded.
"It is difficult and increasingly people with autism are taking their lives because they are being told that their behaviour is inappropriate."
Before he decided to pursue his dream of working full-time as an artist, he held many jobs, including his last at the BBC.
Mark, who has won an Art Council grant to help develop his career as an artist, says, "I could do the job fantastically well but when it came to interacting with people, it was the social cues that I struggled with.
"Throughout my life I have applied for various jobs and found the process extremely difficult.
"As a person with Asperger syndrome, if you do manage to get an interview, it can be very challenging. The concept of selling yourself is very confusing for a person with Asperger syndrome. I explain myself as honestly as possible, in a very direct way, and this is not always suitable in an interview situation.
"When I did get a job I found it hard as people did not understand my disability and I felt quite a lot of hostility from them.
"I think this was simply because they did not know what having Asperger syndrome involves, and didn't know how to support me.
"I take my art seriously, it gives me a sense of creativity but it is also a representation of what I have to offer. It also gives me self-esteem as well as being my profession and talent."
IT IS estimated that more than 26,000 people in Wales have autism and yet just 6% of adults with an autistic spectrum disorder are currently in full-time employment.
Some of the most common reasons why people with autism find it hard to get a job include the fact that employers believe that there are no suitable vacancies.
But the whole process of getting a job, from application to interview can be stacked against people with autism.
The National Autistic Society Cymru, which is launching a campaign to help get more people with autism into employment, said other possible barriers include difficulty in communication and even managing breaks and lunchtime, because of the social interaction with other colleagues.
And because some people with autism can be very honest with their views and opinions, the society suggests that employers train staff about autistic spectrum disorders as well as giving an employees with autism guidelines about inappropriate topics of information.
Chris Peach, national director of the National Autistic Society Cymru, said, "The number of adults with autism in full-time employment is appallingly low, given the skills they can bring to the workplace, such as attention to detail, accuracy, focus, reliance and motivation.
"It is crucial that we educate employers on the benefits of employing a person with autism, and demonstrate how reasonable adjustments can be implemented in a simple and straightforward way to ensure people with autism are able to take advantage of work opportunities."

New Asperger Syndrome Defininition book launched

2005-05-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

A book aimed at giving employers of people with Asperger syndrome the tools to support them in the workplace was launched today.
The National Autistic Society said its new publication gives details on the condition and emphasised supporting someone with the disability can be easier than many companies expect.
An estimated 211,700 people in the UK have Asperger syndrome, or high-functioning autism, but figures show that only around 12% are in full-time work.
Gill Spence, manager of NAS employment consultancy Prospects London, said: “The number of adults with Asperger syndrome and autism in full-time employment is appallingly low given the many skills they can bring to the workplace such as accuracy, focus, attention to detail and motivation.
“This book provides employers with a wealth of information on how to employ and best support someone with Asperger syndrome.
“Reasonable adjustments are more focused on working structure than physical changes, such as providing clear, structured tasks and explicit instructions and information.”
Artist David Downes, who has Asperger syndrome and works in a London art shop supported by Prospects, said: “For a person with Asperger syndrome, finding and maintaining employment can be incredibly difficult.
“As Asperger syndrome affects a person’s social and communication skills the interview process can be highly challenging. The concept of ‘selling yourself’ is very confusing. I explain myself as honestly as possible, in a very direct way, and this is not always suitable in an interview situation.
“If you do find a job then having employers and colleagues who understand Asperger syndrome will make all the difference.”
The book is available to buy from the NAS online shop at www.autism.org.uk/pubs and is part of the charity’s ongoing employment campaign, The Undiscovered Workforce.
The campaign focuses on raising awareness among employers, government and employment professionals to recognise the skills that people with autism can bring to the UK workplace.
The NAS is the UK’s leading charity for people with autistic spectrum disorders and their families. Founded in 1962, it continues to spearhead national and international initiatives and provide a strong voice for all people with autism.

Asperger Syndrome star makes return

2005-05-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Vines went back in the studio yesterday to start work on their third album.
Wayne Connolly (You Am I) has been recruited as producer and has started recording and mixing demos for the next album.
The Vines have 13 new songs ready to demo.
This is the first time the band has regrouped since the disastrous Annandale pub gig in Sydney in May 2004. Bass player Patrick Matthews stormed off stage during the performance and singer Craig Nichols started abusing the crowd.
The Vines have not performed since.
In November 2004, The Vines management issued a statement admitting Nichols was suffering from Asperger's Syndrome, a neurobiological disorder which is a mild form of autism.
In a new statement, management says "The band are genuinely excited about being back together in the studio and can't wait to see what comes out. Thanks so much to each every Vines fan who has been patient and understanding above and beyond the call of duty".

Asperger's Syndrome

2005-03-28T09:10:00.000-06:00

People that are affected by Asperger's Syndrome are often misunderstood by other people because of their lack of knowledge toward this syndrome. Because of this, people exclude them from social interactions which is the opposite of what people with Asperger's Syndrome really need.

Asperger Definition

2005-01-19T21:05:00.000-06:00

Asperger Syndrome is part of Autism Spectrum Disorder. For a Definition of Autism please click on
http://www.autism-spectrum.blogspot.com

What is the definition of Asperger Syndrome?

2005-01-10T20:14:00.000-06:00

By definition, people affected by Asperger Syndrome have a normal IQ and some may even display impressive knowledge on a favourite topic often sounding like "a little professor". Although someone with this condition might sound rude, odd, eccentric and clumsy at times, both physically and in social interactions, this is based mostly on the lack of tools and a difficulty in observing and understanding body language, facial expressions, feelings and even language in a social context. Often, you can observe an extremely literal understanding of language which may contribute to distress when the meaning of the message is lost or misunderstood. Routines, patterns, certain movements and a lack of empathy can also be noticed in a child or adult affected by Asperger Syndrome.

What is Asperger Syndrome?

2005-01-10T15:14:00.000-06:00

Asperger Syndrome is a condition where a child or an adult seems to be awkward in social interactions, appears to be clumsy at times and often struggles with learning new concepts unless it concerns a topic of interest.

Until a few years ago, a person affected by Asperger Syndrome was considered odd, brilliant, absent minded and showing some difficulty with certain physical activities. Now, it is considered being on the upper scale of the Autism Spectrum.

A person affected by this condition may display impressive abilities, an excellent vocabulary and a lot of knowledge, especially in a favourite subject but there are challenges that are just around the corner and affect life every day. What seems so obvious or simple for some people can be quite challenging for someone who is affected by Asperger Syndrome. For example, body language, feelings and expressions appear to be difficult to analyze and understand, a bit like a foreign language. Such important informations contribute to the difficulty in building and even keeping a relationship. Often, this person seems to be a poor listener but a very good speaker. It is based not based on a lack on interest about others but mostly on the lack of social skills necessary to interact with people.

You may also recognize this condition by observing a few behaviours such as: a lack of empathy, understanding informations literally, rigidly following routines, observing a great level of distress when changes arise without warnings, repetitive movements, lack of eye contact and a difficulty to interact with others.

Despite the challenges of Asperger Syndrome, someone may very well have a career, a romantic relationship and a family. Services such as Occupational Therapy, counselling, Speech Therapy and even Physiotherapy have contributed to help someone affected by this condition to lead a happy and successful life.