This flies in the face of most autism charities that have active fundraising efforts with a light on spending at good share of the money on genetic research. This of course gives rise to the fear that – much like Down syndrome – a genetic test that could positively identify the presence of autism or Asperger’s Syndrome in an unborn child would lead to a large number of elective abortions. Just like many prospective parents choose to terminate a pregnancy when a child is considered likely to suffer from Down syndrome, Aspies believe that such tests will reduce the number of autistic and Asperger’s Syndrome children being born.

What makes this a dangerous proposition is the fact that many Aspies find that with proper adaptations, the quality of life that may be enjoyed by them is similar to that of those unaffected by the disorders. To this end, Aspies for Freedom argue that instead of funding genetic research, monies donated to autism foundations and charities should be used for finding and implementing the proper modifications and adaptations for current learning tools and utensils.

This of course brings up an excellent point: should Asperger’s Syndrome and autism be approached as diseases which may be eradicated via the genetic selection process, or should they be incorporated into mainstream consciousness as conditions which simply demand a different approach to everyday common tasks? Aspies would argue vociferously for the latter, while a good many scientists would like to approach the entire situation from a different angle and prevent or cure the conditions.

Curing autism or Asperger’s Syndrome is of course not possible at this point, and many Aspies point to an inadequate support system as being unpardonable in light of so many fundraisers and assistance drives that have resulted in a lot of monetary support for the cause. In addition to the foregoing, the search for prevention – via genetic testing – or a cure with the help of questionable method that many Aspies believe to do more harm than good is resulting in a wrong approach to the condition as a whole, focusing on future generations instead of current sufferers.

It is unlikely that Aspies for Freedom and those in search for autism or Asperger’s Syndrome cures will every see eye to eye. Moreover, there is little reason to believe that foundations and fundraisers will be swayed by their arguments. Although not considered a fringe group, Aspies have failed, thus far, to commandeer its fair share of support that is usually offered to the autism charities and overall community at large, most likely deepening the rift between those who would like to see modernized support and those who would want to see more genetic and medical research done.

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A child with Asperger’s Syndrome is well known for the intelligence with which she or he can converse on a topic that is of interest to the youngster. Dr. Asperger himself used to call them the little professors he would work with. At the same time, such children may display an extraordinary reticence at shifting gears in between different activities, leading teachers to sometimes experience something like exasperation.

It is important for a teacher to understand what it is like teaching a child with Asperger’s Syndrome and if you follow this guide, you are well on your way to integrating this child into your classroom and teaching.

* Recognize that simple acts, like forgetting homework, is not an affront toward you, but simply might be an expression of the child’s inability to remember a routine task.

* Behavioral skills are not transferable. If your science minded Asperger’s Syndrome student is able to go ahead and do the research on a complex science matter, it does not automatically mean that he is able to transfer this research ability to a much simpler social studies project. If the topic does not appeal to the student, he will not know how to do the same things he did for science.

* Positive reinforcement is a must with your student. While many students may do well with negative consequences and actually learn from their mistakes, the Asperger’s Syndrome student will get frustrated. Work hard to notice the good behaviors, and gently work with the parents to correct the bad choices the student makes.

* Asperger’s Syndrome children will have meltdowns. The younger the student, the more prone to meltdowns he will be. Even older children will still showcase this behavior, although in many cases they will have learned how to handle the frustrations that set them off a bit better. If you have younger kids in your classroom, offer a safe spot away from the other children where the child may cool off. During such a meltdown there is little you can do for the child other than acknowledging his feelings and giving him some time to regroup.

* Understand that an Asperger’s Syndrome child is considered odd by his classmates. If you do the group approach to teaching, assigning the groups rather than letting the kids do the picking is crucial. Otherwise you will end up with the child consistently being the odd man out.

* The child has parents. Do not fall into the trap of trying to parent the child during school hours. Work together with the parents to help him during class time and make yourself available for help within the confines of your schedule, but do not try to correct or undo what the parents do at home.

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The top six reasons why Asperger’s Syndrome is not a disability gives an inside glimpse at the workings of the condition and also the struggles individuals facing it have to endure on a daily basis.

1. The mere fact that children are seen paying attention to those things for which they have a general interest, as opposed to those that teachers and behaviorists believe they should notice, does not make Asperger’s Syndrome a disability. Instead, it may be viewed as a tacit nod to absolute honesty in one’s desires and therefore is simply an ability to overcome social conditioning.

2. What has been referred to as latent anti social behavior so often exhibited in young children diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome – characterized by their inability or unwillingness to interact with parents or caregivers extensively – is found to be an expression of their desires to pay more attention to the world of objects as opposed to subjects. This may be attributed to a simply matter of preference, not a disability.

3. What earned children the description of little professors during the experiments that convinced Dr. Asperger of his theories, may not be a disability but could be much more aptly described as a strong interest in a given field of study. This causes the individual to notice nuances others do not and thus renders her or him differently able and perhaps even superior in perception.

4. The systematic organization of things and items may be of unique interest in a child diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. It does not really matter if this is the means of taking a picture with a camera by holding down a button, turning on and off a light, or delving into the intricacies of a physics equation. The problem arises when the system in which the child shows interest is simple, and soon has some clamoring at needing to be outgrown.

5. Routines are another symptom of Asperger’s Syndrome and it has been documented that children have the hardest time functioning in a classroom setting where such order is frequently interrupted or even missing. This may be seen as a disability to some, but others simply believe it to be a sign that the child has a very serious affection for that which it can control versus the unknown.

6. Perhaps the most convincing fact used by those suggesting that Asperger’s Syndrome is not a disability rests in the fact that the mere decision to value one trait or situation more than another is one of personal preference, not one born from a lack of ability. Therefore, a person who does not interact well with others but instead finds it far more important to invest time in physics and other subjects she deems important, may be considered eccentric, but it does not render her disabled.

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First and foremost of course is the seeming inability to establish and maintain meaningful two way interactions. This pertains to playing together, talking, and also cooperating. Even for the child who would like to interact with peers, the problem lies in the inability to actually understand and follow the regulations of such interactions.

Ideas of letting someone else finish talking, sharing a toy, taking turns, or simply communicating with body language as well as words are alien to the Asperger’s Syndrome child. Before long, such a child is shunned by others, made fun of, and also intentionally not included in game play, class project groupings, and other such pairings where interaction is a must.

If the child does attempt to partake in the social interactions, the attempts are short lived simply because they are doomed to fail. Perhaps the biggest part of the problem in this instance is the inborn resistance to change that makes it impossible for the Asperger’s Syndrome schoolchild to adapt an approach or try for a whole new way of engaging peers. Due to a failure to empathize appropriately, there is little hope that the schoolchild will have the social interactions it would need to become fully integrated in the school setting.

It has been noted that in some cases this leads to aggressive acting out by an Asperger’s child. Sometimes it also leads to an almost innate distrust of other people, and being convinced that other people are talking badly behind the child’s back. As the child gets older and becomes a high school student or maybe even attends university, the Asperger’s Syndrome now creates the label of recluse, eccentric, or antisocial individual.

By this point patients by and large have given up trying to fit in and instead embrace the fact that they are different and will have little if any chance of fitting in with their peers. In some cases you will find such an individual seeking to befriend those who are markedly older or those who are a lot younger. Dr. Asperger mentions this in relation to the interactions between the sexes, although it is also true for everyday relationships.

It is interesting to note that the suspicion some Asperger’s’ patients harbor and the seeming naive that accompanies it make them easy prey for those who are seeking to take financial advantage of the friendless youngster. In other cases, it is a setup for those who would look to such a person for their individual gratification of ego, physical needs, or just as a means of tapping into the young student’s apparent genius for personal gain.

Parents, caregivers and counselors will do well to keep their eyes open for sudden friends that appear out of nowhere and seem to be spending a lot of time with such a youngster.

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* Accept your new role. You are no longer just a parent but also an advocate for your child. As an advocate, you are a believer, promoter, backer, activist, negotiator, and clam in the storm. You are the one who will tell the school administrator “no” when it comes to special education, or who will force the administrator to find a special education aide for your child if you believe it necessary.

* You must see your child’s weaknesses and her strengths. Do not get caught on either side. Many parents make the mistake of either focusing solely on their child’s limitations, making the youngster believe that she is disabled, or they only focus on the child’s strengths, making her believe that her limitations are only in her mind. Both extremes are dangerous and of little value to your child. Instead, you need to have a clear, unbiased view of your child’s limitations and also strengths, and then help your child to build on her strengths while learning to overcome and deal with her limitations.

* Join a support group for parents of children with Asperger’s Syndrome. They are plentiful and your doctor or specialist most likely has some information. These groups are an absolute must have for any caregiver. It is there that you can vent your frustration and not walk on egg shells as you might be prone to do at home. There you can give a voice to your anger, your fears, and your ill will toward the gods, the doctors, the school administrators and even your child. Getting it out of your system makes parenting a child with Asperger’s Syndrome a lot easier than trying to eat it all in.

* Recognize that you must be a visible figure on campus. There is no excuse for not being there. Instead, the teachers should know you by name, have you on speed dial, and expect you to be popping in your head now and then for an in between progress report. The teachers need to recognize you as being there to lend your support, help and strength, while being a fount of information for teaching a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. This takes time but if you set up your schedule properly, it can be done.

Parenting a child with Asperger’s Syndrome is frightening and there is no nice way of putting it in perspective. Take heart in the fact that other parents have gone before you and done spectacular jobs at preparing their youngsters for successful scholastic careers. On the flipside, plenty of parents who decided to leave their child’s education process to third parties lived to regret their decision when their child experienced frustrating episodes on a virtually daily basis.

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Misdiagnosis of mental illness plays a huge role in these discussions. It has already been established that peer rejection of the Asperger’s Syndrome child will lead to a general distrust of peers and therefore a withdrawal from interactions. Clinical psychologists may misdiagnose this behavior as paranoia or paranoid psychosis, when it truly is little more than a self imposed defense mechanism against taunts and negative peer interactions. This of course is hard to prove and even harder to dispute.

In the same vein, the child with Asperger’s Syndrome whose primary hobby is a love of all things having to do with a bus may be diagnosed – mistakenly – as having delusions with respect to the immense of a bus stopping at a particular locale, when in reality he or she is simply reciting a bus schedule. Diagnosis of mental illness in conjunction with Asperger’s Syndrome should not be attempted until the full extent of the Asperger’s symptoms has been charted. On the other hand, there is a very fine line in Asperger’s patients where a preoccupation with an idea turns into wishful thinking. It is then that the rudiments of mental illness may well take hold.

Another condition that has given rise to much speculation is the repetitive nature of many movements and verbalizations of Asperger’s patients. It is most difficult to differentiate these from those brought on obsessive compulsive disorders. Withdrawal and introversion have been considered part and parcel of a depressive illness as well, but at times they are the simple protective mechanisms against a group of peers that would not readily accept the patient as a child. Once again, diagnosis cannot be reached conclusively unless a complete history of the illness and the patient’s life is available.

Quite possibly the best course of action is a watchfulness with respect to signs and symptoms of mental illness and consultation of a psychiatrist familiar with Asperger’s Syndrome and the workings of the disorder. Whenever possible, a copy of medical records should be provided as part of the interview. This might not completely prevent false diagnoses, but it will greatly curtail those mental illness claims that are not entirely grounded in clinical reality and are more an expression of a behavioral coping mechanism.

The latter are the workings of a sound mind seeking to protect itself and the body it inhabits from harm brought to it by peer groups, while actual mental illness does not usually have this kind of foundation and instead seems to be almost random.

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* Listen carefully when someone introduces themselves. You may learn something about their background, their interests, and also their hobbies. This might help you later to get a conversation started. In the alternative, it might go a long ways to keeping a topic of conversation going and chiming in.

* Practice your facial expressions in front of a mirror. Since this is your single weakest portion of adequate communication, you want to practice often and carefully. When you think you have it down, practice with a trusted friend or family member. This will prevent any awkwardness later and also minimize any anxiety you might feel.

* Be open to criticism. Although strangers and those to whom you are newly introduced are most likely not gentle and kind about the way they approach you – it matters little if they know that you have Asperger’s Syndrome – they might still offer you some important clues about the way you come across. Take this information back to friends or family members and ask them about it. Your acquaintances may be on to something.

* Pay close attention to the way you are dressed. Even though it sounds like a trite statement, but clothes do make the man. Clothes that you might simply appreciate for their material, color, or even feel could be construed by others as part of an image you are cultivating. This might not be the image you intend to give off, and in some cases it might actually hinder conversation! Ask friends and family members periodically about your image. Additionally, if you wear clothes with pictures on them, ask friends or family members what they mean and how they come across.

* Learn how to pace yourself in a conversation. It is tempting for anyone to monopolize a conversation by talking about themselves and their own interests. The same holds true for a patient with Asperger’s Syndrome. Yet for the latter it is easy to misunderstand an open question geared at getting a conversation flowing for a bona fide request to give an in depth analysis about a certain topic or issue. Be careful not to hog a conversation and ease into conversations, making sure the other party also has a lot of time to converse about the things that are important to them.

Even as the conversation tips and tricks will not completely make up for the shortcomings inherent to the condition known as Asperger’s Syndrome, they do help to make conversation possible and take a lot of the anxiety out of the process.

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There are 10l conditions which Hans Asperger recognized:

1. More often than not, boys were affected with the condition while girls made up the minority of cases. In addition, a true diagnosis is not possible to form until about age three, when several other ailments or behavioral idiosyncrasies have been ruled out.

2. Developmental delays were not common in the area of language development, but children suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome appeared to be delayed walkers.

3. Later on the development of gross motor skills also appears to lag behind. Children appear clumsy, fail to make coordinated moves, and as a general rule will greatly fail in games that require motor skills. The same is also true for artistic skills, such as drawing or writing.

4. As language development progresses, children exhibit problems with the use of pronouns and instead of accurately using the first person singular, the second or third person is chosen.

5. Later on, the topics of conversation are abnormal in content. They tend to center on a specific topic of interest and the children may converse at elaborate length about the one item to anyone who would listen. This tends to happen in younger years, when most children have yet to identify a specific item of interest that captures more than a passing fancy.

6. As the child grows older, their chosen skills surpass that of their peers. Memory in these areas are astounding and it is not unusual to have pint sized patients recite extraordinary and exhaustive details about astronomy, history, or even something as mundane as a time table.

7. Phrase repetition is a common sign of autism and also Asperger’s Syndrome. Moreover, the cadence of language is affected in such a manner that expressive speech or reading is not often observed. Children tend to recite facts in a somewhat monotonous manner.

8. It is noted that those suffering with Asperger’s Syndrome are inept at reading and interpreting body language and facial impressions. Their own non verbal expressions are lacking, unless they are subject to very strong internal upheaval.

9. The repetitive nature of activities mimics the repetition of phrases and words, and children are often absorbed in repetitious activities, such as spinning a top and then watching seemingly mesmerized at the object continues to spin and slows down.

10. Children with this disorder have a hard time transitioning from one activity or locale to the next, and change is a hard reality for them. Anything that is unfamiliar presents huge challenges to the child and great efforts must be made to introduce that which is to have some form of permanence in the child’s life.

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Reasons to join a support group for parents of children with Asperger’s Syndrome are plentiful:

* Network with parents whose children also have received the Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis. They may know great doctors, hospitals, clinics, and other such locales where your child may receive better treatment than the clinics you thought of.

* Find a place to voice your feelings. It would be simple to say that any parent can take the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome in a stride and not have it have some kind of adverse effect. At the same time, how you deal with your knowledge greatly influences the way the children with the condition take their diagnosis. Let it all hang out in the relative safety of the support group, but then return home with a positive attitude and an advocating spirit that will support your child all the way.

* Learn ways in which to support your child. This is done on a trial and error basis, but you can cut down considerably on the amounts of errors you make simply by learning from other parents’ experiences. As a matter of fact, this might actually open the doors to some wonderful learning experiences!

* Advocacy is a learned trade, and as a parent you are your child’s primary advocate in the school system and in other venues as well. Learning how to be an advocate requires finesse and will be greatly sped up by the life experiences of others. While at the onset it might appear a huge task, when broken down into smaller parts and learned from the ground up, advocating for your child in the school system really does not have to be a complicated undertaking.

* Connect with parents who know how you feel. There is strength in numbers and when you can actually see that you are not alone, you are certain to take heart for the task ahead. Socializing with others who are in a similar boat can actually help you look on the positive sides of the condition and you might be able to pass on this kind of experience and knowledge to your child.

Remember that a support group made up of parents who also have children with Asperger’s Syndrome is not a cure all and will not suddenly and magically make it all better. It is, however, a tool that you can use to your and your child’s advantage and to learn how to deal with the condition

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* Apathy may be seen in the adult who simply cannot get out of bed to get ready for work. It is also noticed in the school aged child who does not cooperate with a parent to get ready for school. Eating, toileting, and various other tasks that would normally only take a fraction of an hour suddenly turn into tasks that span the better portion of the walking hours.

* Apathy happens at work or in school. The individual with Asperger’s Syndrome requires a sudden burst of micromanagement to stay on task and even then she or he has a hard time remembering what it is that was supposed to be accomplished. At the same time, supervisors and teachers are thoroughly frustrated at what they might consider a lack of respect, attention, and also obedience.

* Apathy is marked by a sudden inability to communicate adequately. It is not that the individual with Asperger’s Syndrome loses his words, it is more a matter of not being able to find that in which is required to initiate a two sided form of communication. Children do not properly communicate their needs to teachers, leading up to disciplinary measures and even exclusion from certain tasks and planned activities. In the adult setting, this might lead to an employee being put on administrative leave, receiving a write up, or actually being dismissed from the work they are currently assigned to do.

In the home, family members notice this apathy as a way of spacing out. The individual with Asperger’s Syndrome suddenly seems to have retreated into his own little world and it is hard to reach her or him. No amount of verbal sparring seems to be able to counteract this sudden apathy that descended on the individual and onlookers get quite frustrated at the lack of response. In some cases this may lead to harsh words, which do little other than make the patient with AS withdraw even further.

Physicians have theorized that it is a certain form of disconnect between knowing what needs to be done and visualizing the activity necessary to get there that causes the apathy. Adding to this kind of disconnect is the fact that outward pressures on the Asperger’s Syndrome patients lead to a further shutdown. At this time it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy that renders the patient virtually incapable of acting until the spell is broken. As frustrating as it is to the onlooker and family member, apathy of this kind is even worse to the individual who is experiencing it and who feels powerless to overcome the condition and move on with the tasks at hand.

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