There really are no standardized Aspergers symptoms that can be enumerated since technically, the Asperger Syndrome is not considered a medical illness. Rather, it is classified as an autism spectrum disorder or ASD; and hence, a pattern of symptoms to watch out for is the norm.

As of late, there has been no solid medical research to back the exact cause of Aspergers symptoms in infants other than the supposition that it is a genetic malformation of the brain cells. Additionally, there is also a lack of established statistical count of just how many people (both children and adults alike) have Aspergers symptoms on a global scale, because this condition is very often mistaken for HFA or high functioning autism.

Like most autism spectrum disorders or ASD, these patterns of Aspergers symptoms are usually first detected in infancy or early childhood. One of the most apparent (but often times overlooked) Aspergers symptoms is the constant wakefulness and sleeping problems early on in the child’s development. According to studies, many children with Aspergers symptoms have difficulty falling asleep; and / or wake up too early in the morning; and / or has frequent nocturnal awakenings and difficulty returning to sleep afterwards.

These may simply be due to the fact that children with Aspergers symptoms (and most other children with ASD) have high sensory sensitivity. They are extremely sensitive to light, pain, sound, smell, temperature, texture, touch and other stimuli. Any change in the immediate environment (like a light opening in the hallway, or the patter of footsteps out in the street heard through the window, or even a drop in the room’s temperature) can make the child alert and restless.

Children with Aspergers symptoms also exhibit symptoms of high cognitive prowess, often evoking unusually sophisticated vocabularies at the most tender of ages. Often times, these children can carry on conversations even in scientific and technical matters. However, their language is pretty much confined to literal meanings and straightforward interpretations.

The figurative speech is literally lost upon them, as with irony or any form of verbal teasing. However, unlike children with HFA, children with Aspergers symptoms are pretty much sociable. They can and will approach other people in order to carry on (more or less, one-sided) conversations that are interesting to them.

Their interests are also likewise hyper-specific to only one subject. Shifting conversations is not an option when it comes to these children. They tend to focus on the most intricate of discussions, but only in regards to one subject. A child with Aspergers symptoms can “discuss” everything he knows about dinosaurs (for example) for a long period of time – regardless of whether or not his “listeners” are still interested in the topic. The child is also not bound to change or stray into other topics any time soon; nor is he liable to ask his “listener” what their opinions are.

When it comes to physical symptoms, a child with Aspergers symptoms almost always exhibit the same physical difficulties of children with ASD. The clumsiness, the inability to control bodily movements during excitable times (jerking and flapping about,) and the inability to focus on any person’s face during conversations are but some of the most obvious signs.

The Asperger Syndrome can be detected early on in infancy and childhood, but only if parents or guardians are aware of the fact that there is a condition like so. Very often, especially in developing countries, the Asperger Syndrome goes both undiagnosed and untreated.

The reason for this seeming apathy is that children with Asperger Syndrome do not exhibit overt unusual physical manifestations (unlike children with Down syndrome) or cognitive manifestations (like delay in their language skills.) In many cases, children with Asperger Syndrome even exhibit superior vocabularies at a very young age; and show in-depth knowledge of a particular subject. As compared with children with high-functioning autism, a child with Asperger Syndrome is often times sociable and friendly.

However, things do change as they grow. One of the most prominent Aspergers symptom is the lack of muscle coordination. This is often times referred to as clumsiness or even the inability to focus on the task at hand. Unless the child is given proper instructions on how to handle muscle coordination, Aspergers symptoms in adults can be seen in the erratic movement of limbs in excitable times, and the apparent inability to perform “regular” tasks without mishaps. Some adults who underwent training in this area of development as a child often lead almost normal lives. They are able to control their actions more easily than those who were not taught how to coordinate their actions.

Also, like most adults with any form of autism (from mild to severe) adults with Aspergers syndrome cannot focus face-to-face with the person they are conversing with. Their shifty eye movements and what seems to be a lack of interest in what other people are saying are due to the fact that they are easily influenced by any form of stimuli. This is another one of the more prominent Aspergers symptoms – the hypersensitivity to outside forces like light and sounds. They are easily distracted especially if the topic or task at hand is something that they are not particularly keen on. On the other end of the spectrum, when they are interested in a particular topic, they will carry on discussions about it until they literally exhaust themselves. Adults with Aspergers syndrome will approach people they know or even complete strangers in an effort to make conversations, as a way of extending friendship. Unfortunately, they tend to discuss topics at length without regard as to whether or not the listener is still interested.

There are two prevailing misconceptions about adults with Asperger Syndrome. One: that they take things too literal and most of them are not prone to the intricacies of humor and irony. Children with Asperger Syndrome often exhibit these symptoms, but recent studies show that adults with Asperger Syndrome can grasp both humor and irony just as easily as anyone else can.

Two: the misconception that adults with Asperger Syndrome are prone to violence is something that is both unfounded and uncalled for. Very often, adults with Asperger Syndrome are subject to ridicule and even discrimination simply because they do not “fit” in with the normal crowd. Nonetheless, there have been no recorded incidences of adults with Asperger Syndrome (or even children with Asperger Syndrome) becoming violent when unprovoked at any point of their lives.

Many people are having some confusion regarding Autism and Asperger’s disease. Other people would usually say that both of these are acceptable and they can be usedinterchangeably with one another. But there are those who would usually disagree that these two terms are synonymous with one another, especially those who are in the medical and health care profession.

The first things to scrutinize are the words “disease” and “syndrome”. When we say “disease” it is usually something that has signs and symptoms. To put it in a more concise manner, “disease” according to Wikipedia, “is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific signs and symptoms.

So what are examples of a disease? One example is Intestinal Malignant Tumor that affects the gastrointestinal system. Its signs and symptoms include intestinal bleeding, weight loss, anorexia, anemia, vomiting and pain. Another example is Pulmonary Tuberculosis, in which the person’s respiratory tract and system are affected. The signs and symptoms of this disease include cough, sputum production, difficulty in breathing, abnormal lung sounds and pain.

Whereas a “syndrome” can be defined as “A set of signs and symptoms that tend to occur together and are clinically indicative of a particular disease state”. Through this definition, it can be deduced that a syndrome is not a disease itself; it is only a condition that predisposes a certain illness or complication.

An example of a syndrome is the Nephrotic Syndrome, which is usually seen or indicative of any faulty renal condition that has damaged glomerular capillary membrane. The set of signs and symptoms for this kind of syndrome include edema, presence of protein in the urine, hypertension, pallor, anorexia, and lethargy.

Another best example is Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. This condition is indicative of chronic conditions that severely damage the entire body system cause by the Human immunodeficiency Virus or HIV. The signs of AIDS are infections in the pulmonary and gastrointestinal tract, tumors and malignancies, and other neurological and psychological involvement. If a person has AIDS, he is predisposed to acquire diseases that can damage his body systems, and even end his life.

Autism and Asperger’s disease are entirely different from one another. In fact, “Asperger Disease” is not usually a universally accepted term in the medical dictionary, and the appropriate term would usually be “Asperger Syndrome”, because it is a condition that has a set of signs and symptoms that occur together, such as deficiencies in social skills, abnormalities in communication skills, and impairment in flexible thinking.

This condition, when it progresses to a more severe status, is an indication of a more serious state, which is Autism, and it is evidenced by a withdrawal of a person from reality, abnormalities in language development, and a withdrawal to an “inner world.”

It is very helpful to get some clarifications regarding the terms Autism and Asperger’s disease. Knowing the appropriate term to be used will aid the health care provider in giving proper medical help to the patient, and would also facilitate a better understanding among the client and his family.

Adult Asperger Symptoms are markedly different. This article highlights the more common ones.

Most of the literature available for information on Asperger’s is for kids. This may happen as the origin of the DSM-IV criteria for the diagnosis of this disorder is comparatively very recent.

Hence this disorder was identified in 1990’s, even though it was reported by an Austrian paediatrician much earlier in the year 1944.

The paediatrician originally referred it as autistic psychopathy. In the end this disorder is very rightly named after him subsequent to his death. If we consider the ratio, more males experience this disease as compared to the females.

However, there are various symptoms that differ from person to person. Some of the most prominent characteristics in males include:

1). Typical fields of interest or complete absorption in hobbies, more often than not involving numbers, special patterns and strict rules.

2). Normal to high intelligence. It would be astonishing to know that a few sufferers are mathematicians.

3). Problems in understanding others’ mood swings or may possibly not empathize with others.

4). They may not be able to comfort others or communicate with them due to the lack of empathy.

5). They might also have problems in agreeing with others point of view.

6). They do not understand abstract concepts very well and a typical Asperger sufferer does not take all the conversations literally.

7). They also cannot understand the intellectual forms of humor such as puns or sarcastic comments.

8). They have extreme difficulty in maintaining normal conversations.

9). Dealing with intimate solutions is almost impossible for the Asperger patients. For that mere reason the average divorce rate amongst such patients is around 80%.

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Asperger’s syndrome is a lifelong situation, even though it tends to stabilize over a period of time and improvements are seen in a lot of cases. Adults have an ability to assess their own strengths and weaknesses. They are able to understand social cues and can also learn the social skills. A majority of the Asperger’s patients marry and do have children.

A few of the characteristics associated with this syndrome, for instance paying a lot of attention to the details and focusing interest on any one aspect can increase the chances of academic success and they may even turn out to be very successful in their life.

Most of the people diagnosed with Asperger’s seem to love technology and their natural career choice is engineering. However, it is not necessary that all these patients may excel in scientific areas only. A lot of Asperger’s patients include famous historians and scientists such as Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Mozart and Thomas Jefferson.

Many adults with Asperger’s syndrome also have other conditions and may possibly have symptoms of these conditions as well. They consist of:

•    Anxiety disorders,
•    Depression, especially during the teen years,
•    Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD,
•    Non-verbal learning disorder,
•    Social anxiety disorder.

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