What is Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and Autism Spectrum Disorder?

The National Autistic Society explains: People with autism have said that the world, to them, is a mass of people, places and events which they struggle to make sense of, and which can cause them considerable anxiety. In particular, understanding and relating to other people, and taking part in everyday family and social life may be harder for them. Other people appear to know, intuitively, how to communicate and interact with each other, and some people with autism may wonder why they are 'different'.

What is Asperger syndrome?

As soon as we meet a person we make judgments about them. From their facial expression, tone of voice and body language we can usually tell whether they are happy, angry or sad and respond accordingly.

People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others, which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people. Autism is often described as a 'spectrum disorder' because the condition affects people in many different ways and to varying degrees.

Information about autism reproduced with kind permission of The National Autistic Society, 2010


Triad of Impairments

This term Triad of impairments was coined by Lorna Wing and is widely used to describe the aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD).

People with ASD experience difficulties with social interaction, social communication and social imagination. These are known as the Triad of Impairments (Wing 1981).

Social Interaction Problems with social interaction may show as: not paying attention to others being aloof, distant and uninterested being alone and withdrawn a lack of social skills inappropriate social behaviour a lack of understanding about friendship or strangers difficulties in making and sustaining friendships.

Social Communication There is a wide variation in the extent of difficulties in communicating. These may be verbal and non-verbal, for example: not fully understanding the meaning of common gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice unusual patterns of verbal communication Echolalia (repetition of what has been said to a person) making up words difficulty with ‘I’ and ‘you’ inappropriate tone of voice a lack of facial expressions and gestures.

Social Imagination This may show as: difficulty in understanding how others think, feel and react problems with imagination difficulty in the development of imaginative play having a literal understanding of language, for example having difficulties with expressions like “it’s raining cats and dogs” or “pull your socks up” problems with predicting events or actions.

Patterns of behaviour, interests or activities
Some common patterns of behaviour, interests or activities in people with ASD include:

Characteristics

The List of Possible Characteristics of a Person with Asperger Syndrome (AS), High Functioning Autism (HFA) or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is explained and illustrated by the book, TAP DANCING in the night (copyright 2001 by Martha Kate Downey, currently published by Books by MK but originally published by Phat Art 4 Publishing). It was compiled of characteristics the members of AS-Support had seen demonstrated by their children or in themselves.