Children with Asperger syndrome have difficulties interacting socially even though they have normal intelligence, as Hessel Willemsen explains
It is sometimes thought that the different types of autism might be on the increase. However, the apparent rise in cases may be related to a greater awareness of these disorders.
An autistic diagnosis may have become 'fashionable', and it may also be that parents, clinicians and even nursery nurses are eager to have a diagnosis - to be given 'an answer' - that will dispel their frustration.
Asperger syndrome is a type of autism. Children with Asperger syndrome usually have normal or even superior intelligence, but like those with classic autism, they have a great deal of social interaction problems and live in their own world. They do not usually have significant language delay, but can show some clumsiness and delay in motor milestones. And the absence of the symbolic function, which creates the possibility to imagine, to fantasise, to create and to think in abstract concepts, leads to many problems both early on and later in life.
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