Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Asperger's and ADHD are two conditions that are often confused because they have some overlap in symptoms such as social difficulties and impulsiveness.
The Asperger's mind enjoys and focuses on details, while the normal mind is more skilled at assembling whole concepts from details. Some people with Asperger's are visual thinkers and others are math, music, or number thinkers, but all think in specifics.
Despite normal and sometimes superior intelligence, people with Asperger's have difficulty understanding social conventions and reading social cues. As a result, they often seem tactless or rude, and making friends can be hard for them. Complicated feelings tend to confuse them.
ASD often presents early but can be difficult to diagnose in some cases. There are other brain disorders that mimic autism symptoms, like ADHD and anxiety disorders, including selective mutism. Autism can be misdiagnosed as another disorder with some shared symptoms.
One recent study found that up to 50% of children with a genetic disorder called 22q11. 2 deletion syndrome were told they had autism when they didn't. That's because many of the symptoms of 22q11. 2 deletion syndrome, including delayed speech development, can also be signs of autism.
Population-based studies have found that, in addition to the individuals with ASD, many others exhibit subthreshold autistic or autisticlike traits (ALTs), that is, problems or peculiarities in sociocommunicative behavior, perception of others and self, and adaptation to the environment that do not meet formal criteria ...
In some forms of autism, there are language difficulties. Those with Asperger's know how to communicate but might have trouble with jokes, sarcasm, and abstract concepts. Some people with Asperger's speak in a formal manner and with less voice inflection.
People with this condition may be socially awkward and have an all-absorbing interest in specific topics, characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.
Some people with Asperger syndrome also have mental health issues or other conditions, meaning people need different levels and types of support. People with Asperger syndrome see, hear and feel the world differently to other people.
Stumbling across awkward situations and getting embarrassed now and again is something that people learn from a young age, but for individuals with Asperger's disorder, this can be a real challenge.
A child who has Asperger's syndrome will generally begin to present with noticeable symptoms around the age of three but, in many instances, those with Asperger's are not diagnosed until much later due to limited social demands and support from parents and caregivers early in life.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Although MRI is not required for diagnosing Asperger syndrome, it can be helpful for identifying cortical defects in the right-central perisylvian area and incomplete formation of the posterior-inferior frontal gyrus (ie, pars opercularis and pars triangularis).
Signs and symptoms of Asperger's syndrome
People with mild autism tend to have difficulty with social interactions. This can show itself as difficulty understanding others' feelings, expressing your own feelings, understanding gestures, and making eye contact.
Many biological conditions can lead to social difficulties, including autism. However, not all autistic individuals will display social awkwardness (though they may struggle inwardly). Moreover, not everyone who is socially awkward is autistic. And, in fact, they don't necessarily have a diagnosable condition.
When it comes to Asperger's vs. autism, Asperger's generally features less severe symptoms and more higher functioning. Despite no longer being a separate diagnosis, Asperger's remains an accurate description of the symptoms and characteristics of some people on the Autism Spectrum.
Children with AS tend to miss much of the information conveyed by non-verbal social cues (body language, tone of voice, etc.). They may simply not attend to this information, and the cues that they do notice are often misinterpreted.
Because they cannot read social or emotional cues well, they come off as insensitive, pushy, or strange, yet have very little insight into how they are perceived.
Masking may involve suppressing certain behaviours we find soothing but that others think are 'weird', such as stimming or intense interests. It can also mean mimicking the behaviour of those around us, such as copying non-verbal behaviours, and developing complex social scripts to get by in social situations.
Many people with autism spectrum disorder have unusual speech patterns. Monotonic, a sing-song voice, and machine-like are some of the ways in which atypical speech patterns in people with autism are described (Bonneh et al., 2011).
Social Skills: Individuals with Asperger's may appear to be 'loners' or come across as being shy and quiet. They may have difficulty holding eye contact, engaging with others of the same age and they may not know what to say to others to start or maintain a conversation.
Level 1 is the mildest, or “highest functioning” form of autism, which includes those who would have previously been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Individuals with ASD level 1 may have difficulty understanding social cues and may struggle to form and maintain personal relationships.
It is a spectrum disorder, meaning there is a broad variation in the types and severity of symptoms. No two people with ASD have the same symptoms. Borderline autism is not an official term or diagnosis. Instead, it is an informal term referring to less severe ASD symptoms.
1 While it is possible to be mildly autistic, it takes more than a few quirks to warrant the diagnosis. If this describes you or someone you know, you may wonder if this is the same as having autism, and if it's possible that many people are "a little autistic." The quick and simple answer to this question is "no."