Asperger Syndrome Symptoms

An individual's symptoms can range from mild to severe. An individual may have all or only some of the described characteristics, and they may exhibit more problems in unstructured social settings or new situations that involve social problem-solving skills.

Social problems

• Although these children may express an interest in friendships, they have difficulty in making friends and may be rejected by peers; often these children are loving and affectionate with their immediate family
  
  
• Socially inappropriate behavior
  
  
• Lack of understanding social cues
  
  
• Difficulty judging personal space
  
  
• Difficulty understanding others' feelings
  
  
• Rigid social behavior due to an inability to spontaneously adapt to variations in social situations

Abnormal communication patterns

• Awkward or inappropriate body language, including limited use of gestures and absent or inappropriate facial expressions
  
  
• Unusual, formal style of speaking
  
  
• Difficulty understanding nonliteral and implied communication
  
  
• Impairments in the modulation of volume, intonation, inflection, rate, and rhythm of speech
  
  
• Speech may be tangential and circumstantial, often with irrelevant comments 
  
  
• Conversation style characterized by marked wordiness
  
  
• Difficulty with "give and take" of conversation
  
  
• Lack of sensitivity about interrupting others 

Activities

• Intense interest in a particular, often very restricted, subject that dominates the individual's attention
  
  
• Inflexible adherence to routines; has repetitive routines or rituals
  
  
• Apprehensive about change, may have difficulty transitioning from one activity to another

Sensory sensitivity

• Sensitivity to sound, touch, taste, light, sight, smell, pain, and/or temperature
  
  
• Sensitivity to the texture of foods 

Motor skill delays

• History of delayed development of motor skills
  
  
• Visible clumsiness and poor coordination
  
  
• Deficits in visual-motor and visual-perceptual skills, including problems with balance, manual dexterity, handwriting, rapid movements, rhythm, and imitation of movements