My ASD Child

It is very common for a youngster with Aspergers to become fascinated by a special interest that dominates his time. It is important to recognize what the fascination may provide for this youngster before attempting to eliminate it or control access to it. The fascination or obsession may provide the order and consistency he craves. It may also provide a method of relaxation. Rather than try to eliminate these altogether (which is almost impossible), create a plan that uses these unusual interests as a reward for completed tasks. For example, if you ask the youngster to complete a task that he is familiar with and in which he can be successful. Then give him time on the interest as a reward. This way your kid will learn to manage and control the obsession better.

The many patterns of abnormal behavior that cause diagnostic confusion include one originally described by the Austrian psychiatrist, Hans Asperger (1944, 1968, 1979). The name he chose for this pattern was 'autistic psychopathy' using the latter word in the technical sense of an abnormality of personality. This has led to misunderstanding because of the popular tendency to equate psychopathy with sociopathic behavior. For this reason, the neutral term Aspergers is to be preferred and will be used here. Not long before Aspergers original paper on this subject appeared in 1944, Kanner (1943) published his first account of the syndrome he called early infantile autism. The two conditions are, in many ways, similar, and the argument still continues as to whether they are varieties of the same underlying abnormality or are separate entities. Whereas Kanner's work is widely known internationally, Aspergers contribution is considerably less familiar outside the German litera