Re: Speaking of tests..

From: 14tonks (mail.2.14tonks_at_recursor.net)
Date: 07/22/04 

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 21:53:54 -0400

"Joi Cardinal" <joicardinal@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:c2107c77.0407211458.500de8af@posting.google.com...

> I'm not sure what your point is. I don't know much about Asperger's,
> but what little I have read suggests it is part of the autism
> continuum. Is autism not a disease? The online Asperger info and
> support site I took a quick look at calls it a neurobiological
> disorder. Is that not a disease? Obviously I'm not up on the PC ways
> to discuss such syndromes, since I've never had to deal with any of
> them with my 2 exceptionally smart but otherwise delightfully "normal"
> children........
>
> Asperger's, a syndrome which I believe involves severe social
> dysfunction, difficulty in reading social cues, obsessive behaviors,
> and often oversensitivity to sights, the feeling of clothes on skin,
> etc. I guess she's never seen Mean Girls or read any of the recent
> spate of books and news articles on the topic of school bullying.
>
>

Just for the record, no one is quite sure what autism is or is caused by,
and there has long been heated debate whether Asperger's is part of the
autistic spectrum or not, a form of high-functioning autism or not, a form
of NLD (non-verbal learning disability) or not, and whether it is actually
much more frequent in males, or just more likely to produce noticeable
pathology in males. Try a dozen websites related to the disorder, and you
will get twelve different viewpoints.

Your capsule summary is a fair description of boys with a severe form of
whatever it is. It can, however, result in simply social awkwardness, a
problem understanding what makes other people tick, an intense desire for
doing things according to strict routines; difficulty switching focus from a
task of interest or yielding to another speaker or changing a topic in a
conversation; and a tendency to get sidetracked by aspects of the whole and
to have attention diverted by external stimulation. (In milder forms, it
sometimes gets diagnosed as ADD, or even ADHD in boys.)

Other traits that may show up are a certain degree of physical clumsiness,
and any of various peculiarities of verbal expression, including a
monotonous tone or a pedantic form of expression. Very often the person will
acquire extensive knowledge about an odd topic or topics. For some the
interest may lead to a university career in the related field; others may
simply have a tendency to bore people to death who don't share their
particular obsessive interest in whatever it is.

It is generally considered pathology, or a "disease" if you insist, when the
traits are marked enough to cause difficulty in life. Sometimes
less-affected people simply get classified as "nerds", "typical engineers",
or even "men are just like that". 

-- 
Sheila
To reply to me, add the prefix real. to my address.

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