Susan Boyle gave the British weekly The Observer an interview in which she reveals her disease, Asperger’s syndrome.
This syndrome was discovered by the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger who described in 1943 children with a deficit of non-verbal communication, a decrease in empathy, and physical awkwardness. It was revealed in 1981 by Lorna Wing, an English psychiatrist.
Different social behavior
This handicap close to autism creates in patients an inability to relate to others, understand them or even know how to behave in everyday situations. They are indeed closed to non-verbal language and do not understand the emotions of others. Instinctively, they do not decode the feelings of the people around them and do not adapt to the rules of the social game. They are able to talk for hours on end about a topic that nobody interests anyone and to “unintentionally hurt” those around them with true but unfiltered words.
People who have this syndrome have a repetitive behavior, are very attached to their habits and to the rules they impose on themselves. They often have specific and eccentric interests and activities (train schedules, construction of scale models, etc.).
Another form of intelligence
While people with Asperger’s syndrome have difficulty communicating and socializing, they have developed other qualities. These patients are perfectionists, ultra sensitive to details, respectful of the rules, unable to lie. Of an undeniable logic, with an extraordinary memory, they have built an analytical thinking and develop impressive peaks of skills. By devoting themselves to their particular interests, the person with Asperger’s syndrome often demonstrates extremely sophisticated reasoning, an attention bordering on obsession, a memory focused on visual images and details. Hans Asperger called his patients “little teachers”. Indeed, these young children have a background of knowledge in their specific field of interest equivalent, if not superior to that of university professors.
The first signs of Asperger’s syndrome
A child who is too wise or too agitated who makes few attempts to communicate, who does not react to noises, even seems deaf, who does not follow with his eyes, who seems indifferent to people, who does not or little smile, who does not not interested in toys and instead plays with his body, which eats poorly and has major sleep problems may have Asperger’s syndrome.
These telltale signs appear from birth and during the child’s first three years.
Asperger’s syndrome affects 400,000 people in France.
More information on this disease on the website of the association Aide France: www.aspergeraide.com
