Four More Facts About Asperger Syndrome
· It's a form of autism, which means the person would have impaired communication and emotional detachment.
· Even though it's a form of autism it does not share all the same characteristics. For example:
o It would not include speech delay. They actually have strong language skills, but they may not be able to pick up subtleties, such as humor or sarcasm.
o What separates Asperger's from many other forms of Autistic Spectrum Disorders is that individuals often demonstrate normal or above-normal levels of intelligence, and often perform well academically.
o Individuals growing up with Asperger's often shy away from human contact, so they often self-alienate.
o The connection between Asperger's syndrome and violence is misleading. They have a lot of problems with anxiety and they have problems with relationships with other people too but that doesn't translate into violence. When they are little kids, they have tantrums because they don't know what to do and they feel adults don’t understand them.
Since Christopher is diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome those four facts stated above can relate to him easily. – The first point mainly states that a person diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome would have difficulty not in simply just communication with people, but understanding what they say "between the lines." Like: jokes, sarcasm, or emotional feelings. They may understand logically, but cannot relate to how normal people would think about it. That's how Christopher is. It was once mentioned that he tried to understand the happy, sad, and other faces from his teacher. He would hold up a paper with doodles beside a person's face to see which one was he/she feeling. Christopher himself even states that he doesn't get jokes. – The second point states that people with Asperger Syndrome usually are highly intelligent. Which is true since Christopher actually views himself to the readers as a smart kid and very logical. He does really well in his studies in school. – The third point talks about how children growing up with Asperger Syndrome self-alienate. Christopher takes more than a week to warm up to new people and it didn't matter if it was an adult or child. – The third paragraph talks about violence in Asperger Syndrome and actually states that children with Asperger Syndrome are not violent. As children they have trouble expressing themselves to adults, and generally people of all ages. It does not always lead to violence. It depends on the situation they're out it, as we can infer that from the part where Christopher was taken by the police for hitting one of the police officers. Christopher hit him because he was uncomfortable with the way he's holding him, he's a child and didn't know how to act even though he knew the consequences of his actions. – Those points relate a lot to how Christopher acts and thinks which gives a better idea of why he acts that way.
