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Asperger's syndrome (AS, or the more common shorthand Asperger's), is characterized as one of the five pervasive developmental disorders, and is commonly referred to as a form of high functioning autism. In very broad terms, individuals with Asperger's are considered to have at least normal intellectual capacity and an atypical social capacity.
The term "Asperger's syndrome" was coined by Lorna Wing in a 1981 medical paper. She named the syndrome after Hans Asperger, an Austrian psychiatrist and pediatrician.
Prevalence
A 1993 total population study carried out in Sweden found that, at a minimum, 3.6 per 1000 school-aged children definitely meet the criteria for Asperger's syndrome. If merely suspected cases are included, the prevalence becomes approximately 7.1 per 1000 (Ehlers & Gillberg). Data for the adult population is not available.
Like other conditions classified as autism spectrum disorders, Asperger's syndrome appears somewhat more prevalent among males than females, with males comprising approximately 75-80 percent of diagnoses. Many clinicians believe that this may not reflect the actual incidence among females; well-known Asperger's syndrome expert Tony Attwood suggests that females learn to better compensate for their impairments due to differences in socialization (Attwood, pp 151-2). Some preliminary evidence for this is found in the Ehlers & Gillberg study, which found a 4:1 male to female ratio in the cases they felt definitely had Asperger's, but a much less lopsided 2.3 to 1 ratio when merely suspected or otherwise borderline cases were included.
The overwhelming majority of the available information on Asperger's syndrome relates to children; there is currently more conjecture than hard evidence on how it affects adults. It is thought that most people with Asperger's syndrome learn to better cope with their symptoms later in life, but there is no "cure" as such and many, including prominent clinicians such as Attwood as well as many of those diagnosed with Asperger's, would strenuously argue that a cure is neither possible nor desirable (see "A Gift and a Curse" and "Culture", below). Organizations such as Cure Autism Now disagree; this remains a highly controversial area.
Characteristics
The most common and important characteristics of Asperger's syndrome can be divided into several broad categories — social impairments, narrow but intense interests, and speech and language peculiarities. There are also other features commonly associated with this syndrome, but not always held to be necessary for diagnosis. It should be noted that this section reflects mainly Attwood, Gillberg and Wing's thinking on what the most important characteristics of Asperger's are; the DSM-IV criteria (see below) represent a slightly different view.
Social impairments
Though there is no single feature that all people with Asperger's syndrome share, difficulties with social behaviour are nearly universal and are perhaps the most important criteria that define the condition. People with Asperger's syndrome lack the natural ability to see the subtexts of social interaction and equally lack the ability to broadcast their own emotional state.
Non-autistics are able to gather a whole host of information about other people's cognitive and emotional states based on clues gleaned from the environment and the other person's facial expression and body language, but people with Asperger's syndrome have an impairment in this ability, sometimes referred to as mind-blindness. To be mind-blind is to find it difficult or even impossible to figure out things a person implies but does not say directly (more colloquially, to "read between the lines"). This is not because they cannot imagine the answer, but because they cannot choose among the possibilities — the mind-blind individual cannot reliably gather enough information to do so, or does not know how to interpret the information he or she does gather.
Along with this difficulty in "reading" the non-verbal communication of others, most individuals with Asperger's have difficulty expressing their own emotional state via body language, facial expression, and nuance in the way that most people do. Such people have emotional responses as strong as, or perhaps stronger than, most people, though what generates an emotional response might not always be the same; the difficulty is with expressing these feelings, though it sometimes comes across as lacking them. For example, many people with Asperger's syndrome have difficulty with eye contact. Some make very little eye contact because they find it overwhelming, while others have unmodulated, staring eye contact that can cause discomfort to other people. Similarly, the use of gestures may be almost nonexistent, or may seem exaggerated and differ from what would normally be considered appropriate for a situation.
It is worth noting that since it is classified as a spectrum disorder, some people with Asperger's syndrome are nearly normal in their ability to read and use facial expressions and other relatively subtle forms of communication. However this does not come naturally to most people with Asperger's syndrome. Such people must learn social skills intellectually, delaying social development.
Narrow, intense interests
Asperger's syndrome can involve an intense and obsessive level of focus on things of interest. For example, one person might be obsessed with 1950's professional wrestling, another with national anthems of African dictatorships, and another with building models out of matchsticks. Particularly common interests are means of transport (such as trains), computers, and dinosaurs. Sometimes these interests are lifelong; in other cases, they change at unpredictable intervals. In either case, there are normally one or two at any given time. In pursuit of these interests, the individual with Asperger's often manifests extremely sophisticated reason, an almost obsessive focus, and eidetic memory. Hans Asperger called his young patients "little professors", based on the fact that he thought his thirteen-year-old patients had as comprehensive and nuanced an understanding of their field of interest as university professors.
However, people with Asperger's syndrome often have little patience for things outside these areas of interest. During the school years, many are perceived as highly intelligent underachievers, clearly capable of massively outperforming their peers in their field of interest yet seemingly impossible to motivate to do regular day-to-day homework assignments (sometimes even in their areas of interest). Additionally, in more serious cases, the combination of social impairments and intense interests can lead to peculiar behaviour, such as greeting a stranger by launching into a lengthy monologue about a special interest rather than by saying "hello" and introducing oneself.
Some clinicians would not entirely agree with this description; Wing and Gillberg, for example, both argue that there is often more rote memorization than real understanding of these areas of interest, despite occasional appearances to the contrary. It may be worth pointing out, however, that such a limitation is not required for diagnosis, even under Gillberg's criteria.
Speech and language peculiarities
People with Asperger's syndrome are often noted for having a highly pedantic way of speaking, using language far more formal and structured than the situation would normally be thought to call for. A five-year-old child with this condition may regularly speak in language that could easily have come from a university textbook, especially on their special areas of interest.
Literal interpretation is another common, though not universal, hallmark of this condition. Attwood gives the example of a girl with Asperger's syndrome who answered the telephone one day and was asked "Is Paul there?". Though the Paul in question was in the house, he was not in the room with her, so after looking around to ascertain this, she simply said "no" and hung up. The person on the other end had to call back and explain to her that he meant for her to find him and get him to pick up the telephone (Attwood, 78).
Many people with Asperger's syndrome also make idiosyncratic use of words, including new coinages as well as unusual juxtapositions. This can develop into a rare gift for humour (especially puns, wordplay, doggerel, satire) or writing. (Another potential source of humour is the eventual realization that their literal interpretations can be used to amuse others.) Some are so proficient with written language as to qualify as hyperlexic. Tony Attwood refers to a particular child's skill at inventing expressions, e.g. "tidying down" (the opposite of tidying up) or "broken" (when referring to a baby brother who cannot walk or talk) (Attwood, 82).
Other characteristics
Those affected by Asperger's may also manifest a range of other sensory, developmental, and physiological anomalies. It is common for Asperger's children to evidence a marked delay in the development of fine motor skills. They may display a distinctive "waddling" or "mincing" gait when they walk and may walk with their arms held out in an unusual manner. Compulsive finger, hand, or arm movements, such as flapping, are also observed.
In general, orderly things have appeal to individuals with Asperger's. Some researchers mention the imposition of rigid routines (on self or others) as a criterion for diagnosing this condition. It appears that changes to their routines cause inordinate levels of anxiety for at least some people with this condition (Attwood 100).
Some people with Asperger's suffer from varying degrees of sensory overload, and may be pathologically sensitive to loud noises or strong smells or dislike being touched — for example, certain Asperger's children exhibit a strong dislike of having their head touched or their hair disturbed. Such sensory overload may exacerbate problems faced by Asperger's children at school, where levels of noise in the classroom can become intolerable for them. Some are also unable to block out certain repetitive stimuli, such as the constant ticking of a clock. Whereas most children will stop registering this sound after a short time and can only hear it if they consciously listen for it, the child with Asperger's can become distracted, agitated, or even (in rare cases) violent if the sound is not removed.
There seems to be a strong correlation between those with Asperger's syndrome or high functioning autism (HFA), and the INTP type of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): description 1, description 2. Another theory states that Asperger's correlates to the INTJ personality type, whereas high functioning autism correlates to the INFJ personality type.
Living with Asperger's Syndrome
Asperger's syndrome almost always leads to problems with normal social interaction between peers. These can be severe, especially in childhood and adolescence; children with Asperger's syndrome are often the target of bullying at school because of their idiosyncratic behaviour, language, and interests, and because of their lower or delayed ability to perceive and respond in socially expected ways to non-verbal cues, particularly in situations of interpersonal conflict. A child or teen with Asperger's syndrome is frequently puzzled as to the source of this mistreatment, unaware of what has been done "wrong". The social alienation of children with Asperger's syndrome can in some cases be so intense that they create imaginary friends for companionship (although this is certainly not specific to Asperger's syndrome as non-autistics may do the same as well). Even later in life, many people with Asperger's report a feeling of being unwillingly detached from the world around them.
Children with Asperger's syndrome often display advanced abilities for their age in language, reading, mathematics, spatial skills, or music, sometimes into the "gifted" range, but as noted above, this may be counterbalanced by appreciable delays in other developmental areas. This combination of traits can create problems with teachers and other authority figures. (It may be relevant here that one of the social conventions many people with AS ignore is respect for authority. Attwood notes a tendency to feel that everyone should be treated much the same regardless of what social position they may occupy; the student with AS may not give respect until he or she feels it has been earned, an attitude many teachers will either not understand or take strong exception to.) As with many gifted children, a child with Asperger’s might be regarded by teachers as a "problem child" or a "poor performer". The child’s extremely low tolerance and motivation for what they perceive to be mundane and mediocre tasks (such as typical homework assignments) can easily become frustrating; the teacher may well consider the child arrogant, spiteful, and insubordinate. Meanwhile, the child sits there mutely, feeling frustrated and wronged – and often having no idea how to express these feelings.
Asperger's syndrome hardly guarantees a miserable life. The intense focus and tendency to work things out logically, a characteristic of Asperger's syndrome, often grants people with the syndrome a high level of ability in their field of interest. When these special interests coincide with a materially or socially useful task, the individual with Asperger's can often lead a profitable life. The child obsessed with naval architecture may grow up to be an accomplished shipwright, for instance.
On the other hand, many people with Asperger’s syndrome may experience inordinate levels of distress at having their routines disrupted or being denied the opportunity to express their special interests. For example, a child with Asperger’s Syndrome may be a gifted writer for her age, and may be happiest when spending class time working on her stories. The teacher may insist that the student instead pay attention to the lesson or work on assigned homework assignments. A non-autistic child in such circumstances may be mildly upset, but would probably reluctantly go along with the teacher; for a child with Asperger’s Syndrome, on the other hand, such an experience can be extremely traumatic and leave the teacher and the rest of the class wondering why the normally withdrawn child is suddenly angry or upset seemingly out of proportion to the situation. Dismissing the child’s concerns at such a juncture – perhaps by characterizing the concerns as immature or disrespectful in a moment of weakness – can be a serious blow to the child’s self-esteem which often is already somewhat fragile.
While many people with Asperger's will not have lives that are considered a social success by common standards - and there are many who will remain alone their entire lives - it is certainly possible for them to find understanding people with whom they can have close relationships. Many autistics have children, in which case their children may or may not have an autism spectrum disorder.
Significant others and family members of people with Asperger's are often more prone to depression than the general population because people with Asperger's may not spontaneously show affection, and can be very literal and hard to communicate with in an emotional way. However, not showing affection (or not doing so in conventional ways) does not necessarily mean that he or she does not feel it. Understanding this can lead the significant other to feel less rejected and be more understanding. There are usually ways to work around the problems; for example, by being more explicit about their needs. For instance, when describing emotions, it can be helpful to be direct and to avoid vague terms like "upset" when the emotion being described is "anger". It is often effective to lay out in clear language what the problem is and to ask the partner with Asperger's to describe what emotions are being felt or ask why a certain emotion was being felt. It is very helpful if the family member or significant other reads as much as he or she can about Asperger’s syndrome and any comorbid disorders that may exist (such as the references in this article).
Definitions & Diagnostic Criteria
Asperger's is defined in section 299.80 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as:
- Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
- Marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction.
- Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level.
- A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people).
- A lack of social or emotional reciprocity.
- Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
- Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus.
- Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals.
- Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements).
- Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.
- The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
- There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
- There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills or adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
- Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.
Please read the DSM cautionary statement. The diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is criticized for being vague and subjective; a condition which one psychologist might define as a "significant impairment" might be defined by another psychologist as merely insignificant.
Christopher Gillberg in A Guide to Asperger Syndrome (Cambridge: Cambrige University Press, 2002), also criticizes the "no significant delay" clauses of the DSM, and to a lesser extent some of the others as well, and argues the clauses represent a misunderstanding or oversimplification of the syndrome. He states that while there may well be significant delay in some areas of language development, it is often combined with exceptionally high functioning in other language-related areas, and argues that this combination superficially resembles, but is in reality very different from, normal development in language and adaptive behaviour.
Partly due to Asperger's Syndrome's relatively recent appearance in the DSM, and partly due to differences of opinion such as Gillberg's, there are at least three other, slightly different sets of diagnostic criteria used in the field besides the DSM-IV definition above. One is due to Gillberg himself and his wife, and is also endorsed by Attwood; among other differences, this definition emphasizes the linguistic peculiarities which go unmentioned in the DSM-IV criteria. Another definition is due to a team of Canadian researchers, and is often referred to as the Szatmari definition, after the first listed author of the paper in which these criteria first appeared. Both of these definitions were first published in 1989. The third is the ICD-10 definition; this one is similar to the DSM-IV version, and Gillberg criticizes it in much the same manner as he does the DSM-IV version.
Relationship to autism
Experts today generally agree that there is no single mental condition called autism. Rather, there is a spectrum of autistic disorders, with different forms of autism taking different positions on this spectrum. But within certain circles of the autism community, this concept of a "spectrum" is being severely questioned. If differences in development are purely a function of differential acquisition of skills, then attempting to distinguish between "degrees of severity" may be dangerously misleading. A person may be subjected to unrealistic expectations, or even denied life-saving services, solely on the basis of very superficial observations made by others in the community.
In the 1940s, Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, working independently in the United States and Austria, identified essentially the same population, though Asperger's group was perhaps more "socially functional" than Kanner's as a whole. Some of Kanner's originally identified autistic children might today get an Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, and vice versa. It is a mistake to say that a "Kanner autistic" is a child who sits and rocks and does not communicate. Kanner's study subjects were all along the spectrum.
Traditionally, Kannerian autism is characterized by significant cognitive and communicative deficiencies, including delays in or lack of language. Often it will be clear that these people do not function normally. An individual with Asperger's on the other hand will not show delays in language. It is a more subtle disorder and affected individuals will often only appear to be eccentric.
Researchers are grappling with the problem of how to divide up the spectrum. There are many potential divisions, such as autistics who speak versus those who do not; autistics with seizures versus those without, autistics with more "stereotypical behaviors" versus those with fewer, and so forth. Some researchers continue to try and identify genes associated with these traits as a way to make logical groupings. Eventually, one may hear autistics described as being with or without the HOXA 1 gene, with or without changes to chromosome 15, etc.
Some clinicians believe that communicative and/or cognitive deficiencies are so essential to the concept of autism that they prefer to consider Asperger's as a separate condition altogether from autism. This opinion is a minority one. Uta Frith (an early researcher of Kannerian autism) has written that people with Asperger's seem to have more than a touch of autism to them. Others, such as Lorna Wing and Tony Attwood, share in Frith's assessment. Dr. Sally Ozonoff, of the University of California at Davis's MIND institute, argues that there should be no dividing line between "high-functioning" autism and Asperger's, and that the fact that some individuals do not start to produce speech until a later age is no reason to divide the two groups, as they are identical in the way they need to be treated.
Possible causes and origins
Main article: autismThe causes and origins of Asperger's syndrome are an area of considerable debate and controversy. Current thought among most stipulates that the causes of Asperger's syndrome are the same as those of autism. Some disagree with this, however, and argue that Asperger's syndrome and autism are caused by different things. All of this happens while the broader debate over whether or not Asperger's and other conditions (such as ADHD) are part of the so-called autism spectrum continues.
Amongst many competing theories for the cause of autism (and thus as many believe, Asperger's syndrome) are the underconnectivity theory developed by cognitive scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, the extreme male brain theory by Simon Baron-Cohen, the pre-operational autism theory, the social construct theory, and genetics.
Some theories people argue more strongly for Asperger's syndrome than autism. It is sometimes argued that some particular theories play a bigger role in Asperger's syndrome, such as the social construct theory and genetics. However, this is an area of considerable controversy.
A gift and a curse
With the increase of Asperger's syndrome diagnoses, its image continues to shift from a disease to a more complex syndrome with both advantages and disadvantages. In addition, people speculate that many famous people in the past might have had Asperger's syndrome.
Speculation of famous people who might have Asperger's syndrome
Recently, some researchers such as Simon Baron-Cohen and Ioan James have speculated that well-known people, such as Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton have or had Asperger's syndrome, as they showed some Asperger's related tendencies, such as intense interest in one subject, and social problems. A chapter of the aforementioned Gillberg book is devoted to this subject, including a detailed case study of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein concluding that he met the criteria for the disorder. However such diagnoses remain controversial.
People who believe the assertions that many of these people are autistic claim that people had no knowledge of autism at the time these people were alive so the fact that autistic people in that time period were undiagnosed doesn't mean they are not autistic, it simply means their autism was not known. The arguments for each alleged famous autistic person vary from person to person. People claim that that Albert Einstein (the most frequently quoted as alleged to be autistic) was a late speaker, was a loner as a child, and needed his wives to act as parents when he was an adult; factors people claim make him "obviously" (or at least stereotypically) autistic.
Some people claim these people only represent very mild cases. Also believe alleged famous autistics only have a few autistic traits but not enough for an autism diagnosis. Others claim it is simply not possible to diagnose the dead so nothing can be said about speculation over historical figures. Some Einstein biographers such as, Albert Einstein in the World Wide Web say that he actually did well in school and the belief to the contrary is only a myth based on a difference in grading policy.
This speculation may simply be an attempt to create role models for autistics and to show people that autistics can do constructive things and contribute to society. This issue is discussed by autistic rights activists often to convince people that it would be a loss to society if autism were cured. Others in the autistic rights movement, however, dislike this argument, because they feel autistics should be able to value their uniqueness without the desire for a cure even regardless of whether or not people like Einstein were not autistic.
Some autistics value their "being" regardless of what others think, or of how unique it is. They prefer to redress the current diversion from the original clinical meaning. Pointing out the immense contributions of scientists and inventors who might have been autistic may be an attempt of anti-cure advocates to change the viewpoints of pro-cure advocates.
Shift away from view as a disease
The obvious social contributions of such individuals has led to a shift in the perception of Asperger's and autism away from the simple view of a disease needing to be cured towards a more complex view of a syndrome with advantages and disadvantages. There is a semi-jocular theory within science fiction fandom, for example, which argues that many of the distinctive traits of that subculture may be explained by the speculation that a significant portion thereof is composed of people with Asperger's. A Wired magazine article called The Geek Syndrome suggested that Asperger's syndrome is more common in the Silicon Valley, a haven for computer scientists and mathematicians. It created an enduring myth popularized in the media and self-help books that "Geek Syndrome" equals Asperger's syndrome, and precipitated a rash of self-diagnoses. Though these conditions do share traits, there is a consensus that most geeks are arguably "variant normal" and do not exhibit autistic-spectrum behaviors. "Geeks" may exhibit an extreme professional or casual interest in computers, science, engineering and related fields, and may be introverted; however, they do not suffer from impairments per se. This does not imply that there is no overlap between "geeks" and Asperger's patients, but it should be noted that self-diagnosis is a dangerous practice and one prone to error.
Criticisms
Some people, including some people diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, argue that Asperger's syndrome is a social construct. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of the Autism Research Centre has written a book arguing that Asperger's syndrome is an extreme version of the way in which men's brains differ from women's. He says that, in general, men are better at systematizing than women, and that women are better at empathizing than men (Baron-Cohen, 2003). Hans Asperger himself is quoted as saying that his patients have "an extreme version of the male form of intelligence".
As a category claimed to have a clearly defined neuro-biological basis, Asperger's syndrome probably has the same degree of validity as a whole host of other psychiatric labels such as ADHD, widely criticised by leading psychiatrists such as Peter Breggin and Sami Timimi, obsessive compulsive disorder (see OCD) and clinical depression, much promoted by the growing mental health sector and pharmaceutical industry. All the behavioural traits associated with this condition occur to varying degrees within the general population. People diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome vary considerably in terms of intellectual, professional and social performance, range of interests, loquacity, conformism, hypersensitivity etc.. While a small minority may be genuine high-functioning autistics (with a communication and attachment deficit noticeable from early infancy) and much diagnostic confusion reigns among autism experts, no scientific proof exists of a link between severe Kanner's type autism and the geekish and slightly quirkish attributes of so many within our society. Subtle environmental, somatic and neurological differences can shape the development of our personality and our socialisation strategies. Among those diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a large number have some form of dyspraxia leading to a childhood predilection for solitary activities over group activities. Much is made of the central role played by the theory of mind in the categorisation of the autistic spectrum, yet clearly within the general population there is a huge variation in relative levels of social naivety and self-centredness. Many of our social skills are acquired in early infancy through bonding with our mother-figure and then through play with peers. Environmental factors interfering with these formative experiences may have lifelong repercussions leading some to withdraw into their own world.
Another objection which has been put forward to this view is that, although Asperger's syndrome is more common among males than females, females with Asperger's syndrome do not necessarily come across as particularly masculine personalities, and some of them can show an exceptional interest in activities such as dancing. Yet again, what is perceived as a "masculine personality" may not be what Baron-Cohen had in mind by male intelligence, and dancing may be considered feminine only by certain social conventions. That dancing is considered a feminine pursuit clearly does not mean that a patient's interest in it must be motivated or directed by a non-systematic (presumably "female" in Baron-Cohen's work) brain structure.
Culture
Main article: autistic cultureMany people with Asperger's syndrome generally refer to themselves in casual conversation as the more affectionate "aspie", or "aspy". Others prefer "Aspergian", "Asperger's autistic" or no name at all. Many who feel there is no significant difference between Asperger's syndrome and autism due to the spectrum analogous variances in autism may prefer the term "autie" or just "autistic" as a more general term.
To refer to themselves as a group, many people with Asperger's syndrome use the term "neurodivergent", which comes from the fact that Asperger's syndrome is thought of as a neurological disorder by professionals. To refer to people who are non-autistic many of them will use the term "neurotypical", or the abbreviation NT. In addition, people who seek a cure for autism are sometimes referred to as "curebies" (which is usually meant in a derogatory way).
Further reading
- . ISBN 0-306-45746-6.
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References
- . ISBN 1853025771.
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- . ISBN 1578564980.
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See also
- General
- Groups
- Lists
External links
- In the media
- Organizations
- ASPECT Australia - 'Autism Spectrum Australia, for people on the autism spectrum and their families'
- ASPEN Asperger Syndrome Education Network - 'New Jersey non-profit organization that provides education, support, and advocacy for families and individuals for people with Asperger's syndrome'
- Autism Society of America - 'ASA is dedicated to increasing public awareness about autism and the day-to-day issues faced by individuals with autism, their families and the professionals with whom they interact (one of the oldest and well-known organizations)'
- National Autistic Society, UK - 'The National Autistic Society exists to champion the rights and interests of all people with autism and to ensure that they and their families receive quality services appropriate to their needs'
- Informational
- Online Asperger Syndrome Information and Support - 'Rather large collection of links of pretty much anything to do with Asperger's syndrome'
- Dallas Asperger Network for Information, Support and Help - 'D.A.N.I.S.H. is a support group for families struggling with Asperger Syndrome'
- Autism Research Center - 'Collaboration of scientists at Cambridge University and elsewhere to find new and validated methods for assessment and intervention of autism spectrum conditions'
- Autistics.org - 'Resources by and for those on the autistic spectrum' (Contains images that some may find offensive)
- Humor
- Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical - 'Well-known parody of non-autistics by some people from the autism spectrum'
- Schools
- Franklin Academy - 'Connecticut boarding school for students in grades 8-12 geared specifically for students with Asperger's syndrome and non-verbal learning disabilities'
- Hampshire Country School - 'New Hampshire boarding school for middle school students specializing in students with ADHD and Asperger's syndrome that believes in "close interaction between students and faculty living together in a well-preserved rural environment"'
