“What are some of the social problems that children with high functioning autism have? I’d like to share them with my child’s (age 7) teacher to help her understand him better. Currently, she thinks he ‘just needs to be more cooperative and attentive’. I wish it were that easy!”   High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger’s (AS) is first and foremost a social disorder. Young people on the autism spectrum are not only socially isolated, but also demonstrate an abnormal type of social interaction that can’t be explained by other factors (e.g., shyness, short attention span, defiance, aggressive behavior, etc.).   Children with HFA and AS are known to lack the motivation to interact with others. But their social difficulties frequently stem from a lack of knowledge in initiating and responding in various situations and under variable conditions (e.g., the child may appear odd because of his continuous insistence on sharing with peers an obsessive interest in vacuum cleaners, despite th...