(…) Finally, they found out what made Jessie so different: She had Asperger’s syndrome, a neurobiological disorder that most researchers consider a form of autism.

Asperger’s is classified in the medical journals as a disability, but Jessie has the structures she needs to cope. She has wise, attentive parents and an unusually supportive school environment.

As with other forms of autism, Asperger’s diagnoses have been on the increase in recent years. (…)

Although the syndrome was identified in the mid-1940s by Viennese pediatrician Hans Asperger, too many kids, until recently, were written off with cruel dismission as odd, incorrigible or mentally deficient.

Early diagnosis is critical, so children can start learning specific strategies for dealing with the people around them. Too often, people with Asperger’s suffer from depression and frustration as a consequence of the social isolation they feel.

In his highly readable memoir about living with Asperger’s, author John Elder Robison describes the anger his behavior used to inspire in the people around him. Its title is Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, a refrain that echoes back to his earliest memories. A key trait of Asperger’s is difficulty looking other people directly in the eyes.

Mr. Robison, who worked creating technical effects for the rock band Kiss and today is a businessman in Massachusetts, recounts a painful childhood of feeling like a misfit. His condition was finally diagnosed at age 40.

“Asperger’s is not a disease,” he writes. “It’s a way of being. There is no cure, nor is there a need for one.”

People with Asperger’s stand out as “odd” because they’re different. Their behavior seems unusual to most people because their brains work differently. The easy social cues that most of us take for granted – the chitchat, the appearance of interest or concern – don’t make instinctive sense to a person with Asperger’s.

“Those just aren’t automatic responses for these kids,” said Dr. Michael McLane, a Dallas pediatric psychologist whose practice includes many children with Asperger’s. “The good news is that these are concrete behaviors someone can learn.” (…)

The other key aspect of Asperger’s is an intense, laserlike focus on a narrow range of interests. Most of us are generalists in the things we think about; people with Asperger’s tend to be super-specialists. (…)

If people with Asperger’s, as a group, lack the natural social skills most of us use every day, they also tend to lack some of our darker social habits too: artifice, manipulation, spite. Not, on balance, a bad trade-off.

“It’s a misperception that there’s no positive outlook for these kids,” Dr. McLane said. “It’s not true that they’re not going to be able to go to college or get married or hold a job. They can do it if they’re taught the right skills.” (…)

Source: Dallas Morning News, TX
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