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Aspergers = Mistaken Retardation?

There's a true condition of Aspergers. Most of the people diagnosed with it that I've known have definitely had the "mistaken retardation" Aspergers. I think that when rich families get retarded kids for whatever reason, they try to have them labeled Aspergers for a slightly less significant social stigma.
 
Someone with genuine Aspergers does not do well with other people, in general. Aspergers is on the Austism spectrum, and that means that they have difficulty reading and picking up on other peoples' emotions. They have a hard time sensing sarcasm and also have difficulties on picking up the subtleties of normal conversation.

They are often very expressive in other outlets, though some have had noted trouble in writing. People with Aspergers lead a mostly normal life. They can be doctors and lawyers. Having Aspergers doesn't mean they're stupid, just generally socially retarded.
 
I don't know enough about the condition to say whether or not it's real with complete certainty, but I am starting to believe that it may indeed be real and that my ex-wife's 5yo daughter most likely has it. The kid did not even learn to talk until she was like 4, and when she does talk now she often says things that seem kinda...random. Non sequitur and completely out of the blue. And she seems..kind of distracted. And she never sees quite focused on people who are talking to her - never make's eye contact with you. And I have heard that children with Asperger's syndrome behave exactly like that...kind of...off in their own world. And when she was younger she would often arrange her toys (her dolls and her brother's toy cars) into straight lines or simple square-ish geometric patterns, and not just play with them like regular kids. She really prefers to play with things like blocks and Lincoln Logs that she can arrange into lines and patterns and that she can count all of them in a row.

But she's not stupid or anything - not by far - and she's obviously not mentally retarded - in fact, she does quite well in school (which she really really loves to go to) and she's very good at math, she has an excellent memory, and she is a very good artist - she draws quite frequently and enjoys it very much. For Xmas this year I brought her an electronic Leapfrog Leapster handheld and when she's playing it she almost always spends most of the time using the drawing & coloring program as opposed to the games. (So yeah, autistic kids aren't dumb and they have talents...they just seem to have different skill set than most of us.)

So she's actually pretty smart, but just a bit...off. (For example, when the batteries her Leapster ran out, and she overheard me ask my kids if anyone needed anything at the store, she ran over to a drawer and pulled out an old AA battery - the very same kind her Leapster takes - and put it right in my hand and said "Here uncle bryce, buy these at the store with money please." I don't imagine that a mentally retarded kid would likely posess the cognitive skills to understand the connection between a battery and the fact that her electronic toy has stopped working. But at the same time, most regular 5 year-olds would not have to shoe me a battery to explain what she wanted. And also, she calls her Leapster a "DS" because her 1/2 brother and sister's all have Gameboy DS', and so she thinks that she has one too.

She has a step-cousin who is solidly autistic and it's quite obvious when you are with him that he is - I first met him at a Thanksgiving dinner a year ago at my ex's in-laws place, and nobody had told me he was autistic, but I noticed right away that he was - he would sit there watching TV and just often blurt the most odd and non sequitur questions...and he's 12 year's old, but he seemed to have to ask people to explain very basic things that he was seeing on TV, and he often didn't seem to be able to figure out simple social clues in conversations. So I asked my ex later on about it and she said that yes, he is indeed autistic.

But with her 5 year-old, it's no where near that strongly apparent or obvious...and in fact it's kinda hard to put a finger on what exactly is wrong...but if you spend any time with her you quickly realize that while she's a great kid and fairly bright, something about her is just a bit...not quite right. (And her teachers have noticed it too.)

I keep telling her mom to get her checked out so that she can work with her on it. But if she actually does indeed has Asperger's syndrome, I'm going to have to find another name for it...because it just sound's so odd telling people that she has something that really really sounds like it is called "ass burgers". :rofl:

(Ha, that was a wee bit long, LOL, and I imagine almost nobody read it - and Petey's friends/duals will be along very shortly to point that out and call me a "cuckold" for the 900th time - speaking of retarded kids -:rofl: but if anyone here does know someone with Aspergers or have it themselves, I would love to hear their stories...and any tips or suggestions for working with a person with the condition.)
 
Oh, I forgot to mention that Aspergers is quite possibly one of the most misdiagnosed syndromes out there. It's right up there with ADD.

A lot of the "problems" arise from the parents' inability to care for their children, and instead of seeing that as a fault in themselves, they blame it on the kid. So your kid is hyper, take him outside instead of throwing him in front of the TV for days at a time.

Also, I'm very surprised that the Autistic boy could talk. It's something like 50% of those with Autism don't speak/only speak one or two words. Autism isn't only a severe mental disability, it's a severe social disability and really limits what people can do. Because of popular culture and the number of films out there about this, many people think that the majority of Autistics are Savants - meaning that they inexplicably have an impressive talent for something, be it painting, music, or numbers. Think Rain Man - most people that I've had conversations with about this think that he's the norm. He's not, and it's something like .05% of people with Autism are Savants (though other people with different problems can also be a savant).

I don't know why I'm rambling. I guess it always piqued my interest.
 
Ass Burgers Syndrome, on the other hand, is frequently encountered in old age homes, usually in the case of residents who must wear Depends.
 
Autism. It's when the brain becomes overly developed before birth. For some reason, persons with developed brains, are not recognized as the same species as the mother, and the mother's immunity attacks. Since it is so rare, it is unknown what would happen if an autistic were incubated by another.

Any, they are born with enhanced brains. They are emotionally detatched and all their senses are enhanced, making everything a source of annoyance. Actually, their emotional detatchment might not be such a problem, but Mom must have her cuddles and kisses.
 
Read the book, Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self, by Rita Carter. Fascinating stuff.
 
Yeah, if you like clinical dissections of sexual encounters. Kinda ruins the mood. Unless you've got a fetish for psychologists...
 
Cacophony and Bryce hit the mark pretty well about Asperger's. I should add that like Autism, there's an entire spectrum for Asperger's. Sounds like your ex's daughter is a very-high functioning Aspie, Bryce.
 
People with Asperger's aren't mistaken for retarded, they're mistaken for jerks. Doesn't help that a lot of them really are jerks on top of it.
 
I should read up more about this subject-also about Savants. I met someone who said they are this, or could be this, or have been called a Savant, and I sort of thought they were just saying that. This person also comes across as a jerk at times. They also act like they are perfect at everything they do.
This probably has nothing to do with anything. Thanks for the good read.
 
Ahhh, savant can be used in a few different ways. There are some people that are just good or knowledgeable in a particular subject that are referred to as savants, or the ones that I was talking about, which is more commonly called savant syndrome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savant_syndrome
^That's a pretty decent overview of the savantism that some Autistics have.

Just reading through that article, I notice that there are differing statistics on the amount of people on the autism spectrum with savantism. The number I've always heard was the .5-1% of people on the Autism spectrum have it (I was mistaken above, but it's been a few years since I've intensively read anything about it). The 10% also listed there seem awfully high to me, and I'll I've ever read has indicated the .5-1%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek <- That's the article on the savant that inspired the movie Rain Man. Interestingly enough, a study last year concluded that he likely doesn't have Autism as was originally thought, he has something called FG syndrome.
 
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