ASPERGER'S SYNDROME

Observed a Child with Asperger's Syndrome

Abstract

In this study I try to explore the concept of “Asperger's Syndrome” in a holistic context. In order to understand the Asperger's Syndrome in children, I personally observed a child “Bryan” in the play ground. I analyzed his different repetitive and restrictive behavior from different contexts that are, communication, social function, and other secondary characteristics.

Asperger's Syndrome

Introduction

Asperger syndrome (AS) is the term applied to the mildest and highest functioning end of the autistic (or pervasive developmental disorder [PDD]) spectrum, which ranges from AS to classic autism. People with AS typically display impairments in three areas: social difficulties (i.e., reading social cues, social awkwardness, and poor social skills), subtle communication problems (i.e. pedantic tone of voice and rate of speech, lack of fluidity in speech, difficulty understanding linguistic humor such as sarcasm and irony), and repetitive, rigid, or restricted behaviors (i.e. extreme interest in a topic or activity, insistence on particular behavioral routines) (Bashe & Kirby 2005). The rate of Asperger's Syndrome is 90 over the 10,000 children. The children that are diagnosed with the Asperger's Syndrome have a feature of repetitiveness of action. This repetitive behavior creates some unique skills in a particular task. The syndrome is recognized among children in early age. In this paper, I am sharing an observation of a child, named Bryan. Bryan is 8 years old child, in the age of 3 years; he is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (Klin 2000).

Diagnostic Criteria

Asperger syndrome first appears as a clinical disorder in both the World Health Organization's International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) in 1993 and in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) in 1994.

On both the ICD and DSM systems, the core features of Asperger syndrome are as follows:

1.Impairment in social interaction

2.Restricted, repetitive behavior and interests

3.No “clinically significant” delay in language

4.No “clinically significant” cognitive impairment

5.Does not meet criteria for other problems such as schizophrenia

The above given features are general symptoms that are commonly found in Asperger's Syndrome children (Myles & Southwick 2005)

Case Report

Bryan was born in marry land, and he brought to the surgery at the age of 3 years by his dad. The concern of his dad was that Bryan was being teased and bullied at Montessori School. Her mom gave a birth him by Caesarean Section after 11 hours of trial at labor. His early two years of life were unremarkable. In the age of three years or may be earlier, his parents found some unusual preoccupations that was owned by the Bryan. He was not good to communicate with other children as well as he always liked to be stand alone at one corner. He also got angry without reasons. These some characteristics that I came to know by his mom, she informed me during the conversation with her. My interest was created in Bryan because of his weird behavior in the play ground. This interest brought me near to Bryan's mom, in order to know the reasons of his isolated behavior (Bashe ...