Lonely "genius disease"

Do you have such children around you? They are often "little prodigies" when they were young. They can do four arithmetic operations at the age of 3 and recognize more than 800 words at the age of 4. However, as they grow up, they not only have learning disabilities, but also become "problem students" in the class. They are often obsessed with certain things or habits and insist on doing something in the same way, such as taking the same route to school every day and not allowing any changes. When they have conflicts with their classmates, they will not negotiate or compromise, and they don't know when to give in or apologize. At the same time, they are very sensitive to any criticism and suggestions, which often leads to more conflicts. Asperger's syndrome is such a lonely "genius disease".

Asperger's syndrome belongs to autism spectrum disorder or pervasive developmental disorder, which has similar social interaction disorders, limited interests and repetitive and stereotyped activities as autism, but is different from autism in that it has no obvious language and intellectual barriers, and may even have extraordinary intelligence. This also makes it not as easy to notice and identify as autism, and it is often attributed to personality reasons in primary school.

Etiology and epidemiology The cause of this disease is currently unknown. The prevalence is about 3.6‰, much higher than autism. Studies have shown that this disease may be related to genetics, environmental high-risk factors in early pregnancy, and viral infection during pregnancy.

Clinical manifestations

1. Difficulty in interpersonal communication

Unlike children with autism who refuse to socialize, patients with Asperger's syndrome often desire and even try their best to socialize with others, but they lack social skills and find it difficult to integrate with their peers. The communication methods adopted by patients are rigid, stiff, formulaic, and written. At the same time, they are stubborn, lack empathy, and cannot read people's expressions. Therefore, it is difficult for them to form and maintain good interpersonal relationships and they are often isolated by their peers. Children with Asperger's syndrome who show high IQ in the early stage may become arrogant and self-centered, refusing to accept criticism and admit mistakes, but often criticize others. So much so that schools will ask parents to bring their children to consult about behavioral problems.

2. Difficulty in language communication

Although the patient's language development is normal and the expression is fluent, they use more written language in conversation, and they are picky about words, which gives people a stereotyped, stiff, and weird feeling. At the same time, the patient can only understand short, clear and concise sentences, and it is difficult to understand humorous, metaphorical, and pun sentences. In the communication, they do not allow others to interrupt or change the topic, making the conversation self-centered, making it difficult to interact well with others.

3. Learning difficulties

Some children with Asperger's syndrome have better learning ability than their peers when they enter school. However, due to their limited ability to understand language, when they enter higher grades, the content of learning becomes more complicated, and they will have learning difficulties. They are good at understanding logic and mechanical memory, have unique learning methods, memorize and organize facts in a systematic way, and often show extraordinary persistence in things they like, pay attention to details to the point of nitpicking, so they can easily become "experts" in this field. But at the same time, these children are easily distracted during class, and when they solve problems, they often stick to a fixed idea, cannot follow instructions, and are afraid of failure. This leads to very uneven academic performance in their academic performance, with particularly good grades in some subjects, while other subjects require tutoring.

4. Stereotyped behaviors and special hobbies

Specifically, they stubbornly stick to their "schedule", such as taking the same route to school, eating the same food, using the same blanket and pillow, etc. Once these behavioral activities are changed, the patient will show anxiety and irritability. The patient often has some special hobbies such as memorizing train timetables, perpetual calendars, and memorizing dictionaries, which seem rather strange.

5. Poor athletic ability

Asperger's syndrome patients may also show signs of delayed motor skills development during childhood, such as being unable to learn to ride a bicycle, swim, or play soccer, etc. They have significant hand-eye coordination deficits, and teachers in school will also notice their poor writing and scissor-using abilities. At the same time, their upper and lower limbs are not coordinated, their gait is rigid, their posture is odd, their skills are poor, and they often cannot keep up with everyone in physical education classes.

Examination and diagnosis: Children with Asperger's syndrome can be found to have certain abnormalities through routine developmental screening within 30 months. The main complaints of the first visit are hyperactivity, inattention, poor academic performance, disobedience, and persistent memory. The main special behavioral characteristics are narrow interests and hobbies, communication barriers, strong mechanical memory, uncoordinated movements, and early recognition of words in early childhood. For the diagnosis of this disease, some different measurement tools need to be used, including the Asperger's Diagnostic Scale (ASDS), the Autism Spectrum Disorder Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) and the Children's Asperger's Syndrome Test (CAST). It should be differentiated from diseases such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, social communication disorder, and developmental language disorder.

Treatment and rehabilitation

The overall treatment goal of Asperger's syndrome is to develop appropriate intervention measures based on each person's characteristics through a multi-faceted assessment of the patient. The focus is on managing the patient's adverse symptoms, including improving communication skills or stereotyped behavior patterns. Train them to acquire age-appropriate social, communication, and occupational skills. The earlier the treatment, the better the overall prognosis. Treatment measures for Asperger's syndrome include:

(1) Social skills training: Enhance the recognition and use of facial expressions, tone of voice, eye contact and body movements.

(2) Cognitive behavioral training: Reduce inappropriate stereotyped behavioral patterns and encourage and utilize patients’ interests and hobbies for correct cultivation and transformation.

(3) Sensory integration training: Improve sensory integration disorders and motor coordination disorders, and enhance the motor ability of children.

(4) Speech therapy: focuses on improving the patient's written and patterned language and promoting normal conversation and communication.

(5) Guidance for parents: especially behavioral skills that are often used at home. Raise the awareness of the disease among parents of children with the disease, educate parents to understand and tolerate the behavior of their children.

(6) Psychological intervention: Enhance patients’ management of anxiety and explosive emotions, enhance children’s confidence in getting out of trouble or solving problems, relieve anxiety, improve mood, etc.

(7) Drug therapy: auxiliary treatment of behavioral problems and emotional disorders.

Asperger's syndrome is very harmful to children's mental health, and the incidence is increasing year by year. Early diagnosis and early intervention can help children with Asperger's syndrome adapt to society better. For children diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, long-term follow-up is recommended to monitor the development of the disease.

The popular science content of this platform has been funded by the China Association for Science and Technology's Science Popularization Department's 2022 National Science Literacy Action Project "National Society Science Popularization Capacity Improvement Project-Rehabilitation Science Popularization Service Capacity Improvement Action Plan" The popular science content of this platform has been funded by the China Association for Science and Technology's Science Popularization Department's 2022 National Science Literacy Action Project "National Society Science Popularization Capacity Improvement Project-Rehabilitation Science Popularization Service Capacity Improvement Action Plan"