Asperger Syndrome is a autism spectrum disorder which is very hard to diagnose. The symptoms are many and varied. It's a neurobiological disorder that affects the brain and the people who have it seem very "normal" a good share of the time. A rough guesstimate is that 1 in every 500 people in the US have this dysfunction which can include everything from language disabilities to sensory problems and physical awkwardness. These people are very intelligent, extremely structured and have no social awareness — they are very literal - tell my son he needs something the way he needs "a hole in the head" and he literally will interpret it as he doesn't need any holes in his head so he doesn't want that; what he's picturing is you trying to actually put a hole in his head - this can cause alarm bells to ring all over the place for the child (can we say "panic"?) and what seemed a moment of small consequence could get out of hand in a big hurry. Ask him if the television can be any louder, and he'll tell you yes - he's not being "smart"; you asked a question and he answered it to the best of his ability. Sarcasm, like other behaviors we as a general public don't think about, is a learned social behavior.
Why you should care?
Because every social behavior we don't think about — sarcasm, inuendo, exageration, metaphors, and similies that we use every day — is a learned behavior. We learn it not from books, but from those around us as we grow and develop every day. If you are in any sort of public service, if you work with people, from teaching to running a cash register to customer service at Walmart, it may help you understand some of the people you may meet and/or have to work with. It will help you explain procedures to people if you stop and think carefully about what you are saying to them, and it may help your patience factor.
In the beginning....
Up until the year 2000, I had never heard of Asperger Syndrome. All I ever really knew was that my child was different - he knew it too. But we adapted as the problems arose and tried to explain behaviors to any care givers he might be faced with. Then possibility of looking into Asperger as a possible explanation was brought to my attention. At that time there was practically no information available to me either through my local library, the local college or the internet. Now there is tons of information available out there. This directory will attempt to list as many as possible — including (but not limited to!) links for personal pages, books, articles and support groups.
My son was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome in April 2000 (he was 9 at the time) — it's a story of luck and of finding good people, no — special people, people of patience and good reasoning though without complete understanding, and feeling very, very blessed as a result. A story of people that acted on intuition and faith with some very wonderful results. It's a story that will last the rest of my son's life though the places and people will continue to change as the days extend to weeks, the weeks roll into months and the months evolve into years.
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