Symptoms of Asperger syndrome

List of symptoms of Asperger syndrome:

The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for Asperger syndrome includes the 27 symptoms listed below:

• Impaired social interaction
• Clumsiness
• Uncoordinated motor movements
• Limited interests
• Unusual preoccupations
• Repetitive routines or rituals
• Speech and language peculiarities
• Non-verbal communication problems
• Word repetition
• Few facial expressions - apart from anger or misery
• Excellent rote memory
• Musical ability
• Intense focus on one or two subjects
• Being "in their own world"
• Preoccupied with their own agenda
• Lack of empathy
• Deviant verbal communication
• Deviant nonverbal communication
• Idiosyncratic attachment to inanimate objects
• Eccentric personality
• Socially unadapted personality
• Particular aptitude e.g. arithmetic
• Flat, cheerless demeanor
• Single-mindedness
• Social withdrawal
• Lack of interest in other people
• Poor coordination

Note that Asperger syndrome symptoms usually refers to various symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Asperger syndrome signs may refer to those signs only noticable by a doctor.

More ways to research these symptoms: To research other symptoms use the symptom center, or to research causes of more than one symptom in combination, try our multi-symptom search.

Research More About Asperger syndrome

Do I have Asperger syndrome?

• Asperger syndrome: Introduction
• Asperger syndrome: Diagnostic Testing to confirm diagnosis
• Home Diagnostic Testing
• Alternative diagnoses and misdiagnosis for Asperger syndrome
• How serious is it?
• Treatments for Asperger syndrome
• More about Asperger syndrome

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical tests related to Asperger syndrome:

• Cold & Flu: Home Testing:
  • Home Fever Tests
  • Home Ear Infection Tests
  • Home Flu Tests

Wrongly Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome?

The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for Asperger syndrome includes:

• Autism - Asperger syndrome is similar to autism with good language function.

• Autism
• Schizoid Personality Disorder
• Schizotypal Personality Disorder

See the full list of 4 alternative diagnoses for Asperger syndrome

More about symptoms of Asperger syndrome:

More information about symptoms of Asperger syndrome and related conditions:

• Other diseases with similar symptoms and common misdiagnoses
• Tests to determine if these are the symptoms of Asperger syndrome
• Symptoms that may be caused by complications of Asperger syndrome

Other Possible Causes of these Symptoms

Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.

• Being "in their own world" - see all causes of Behavioral symptoms
• Clumsiness - see all causes of Clumsiness
• Excellent rote memory - see all causes of Special abilities
• Few facial expressions - see all causes of Lack of facial expression
• Impaired social interaction - see all causes of Social problems
• Intense focus on one or two subjects - see all causes of Developmental problems
• Limited interests - see all causes of Society problems
• Musical ability - see all causes of Special abilities
• Non-verbal communication problems - see all causes of Developmental problems
• Poor coordination - see all causes of Coordination problems
• Preoccupied with their own agenda - see all causes of Society problems
• Repetitive routines or rituals - see all causes of Repetition
• Social withdrawal - see all causes of Social withdrawal
• Speech and language peculiarities - see all causes of Speech symptoms
• Uncoordinated motor movements - see all causes of Coordination problems
• Unusual preoccupations - see all causes of Society problems
• Word repetition - see all causes of Language problems

Medical Books Online about Asperger syndrome

Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to Asperger syndrome are available from published medical books for more detailed information about Asperger syndrome.

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

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Symptoms of Asperger syndrome: Online Medical Books

16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the symptoms of Asperger syndrome.

Autistic disorder: Signs and symptoms
(Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition))

A primary characteristic of infantile autistic disorder is unresponsiveness to people. Infants with this disorder won’t cuddle, avoid eye contact and facial expressions, and are indifferent to affection and physical contact. Parents may report that the child becomes rigid or flaccid when held, cries when touched, and shows little or no interest in human contact.

As the infant grows older, his smiling response is delayed or absent. He doesn’t lift his arms in anticipation of being picked up or form an attachment to a specific caregiver. Furthermore, he doesn’t show the anxiety about strangers that’s typical in the 8-month-old infant.

A child who’s autistic fails to learn the usual socialization games (peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, or bye-bye). He’s likely to relate to others only to fill a physical need and then without eye contact or speech. The end result may be mutual withdrawal between parents and child.

Severe language impairment and lack of imaginative play are characteristic. The child may be mute or may use immature speech patterns. For example, he may use a single word to express a series of activities; he may say “ground” when referring to any step in using a playground slide.

His speech commonly shows echolalia (meaningless repetition of words or phrases addressed to him) and pronoun reversal (“you go walk” when he means, “I want to go for a walk”). When answering a question, he may simply repeat the question to mean yes and remain silent to mean no.

He shows little imagination, seldom acting out adult roles or engaging in fantasy play. In fact, he may insist on lining up an exact number of toys in the same manner over and over or repetitively mimic the actions of someone else.

A child who’s autistic shows characteristically bizarre behavior patterns, such as screaming fits, rituals, rhythmic rocking, arm flapping, crying without tears, and disturbed sleeping and eating patterns. His behavior may be self-destructive (hand biting, eye gouging, hair pulling, or head banging) or self-stimulating (playing with his own saliva, feces, and urine). His bizarre responses to his environment include an extreme compulsion for sameness.

In response to sensory stimuli, he may underreact or overreact and he may ignore objects — dropping those he’s given or not looking at them — or he may become excessively absorbed in them — continually watching the objects or the movement of his own fingers over the objects. He commonly responds to stimuli by head banging, rocking, whirling, and hand flapping. He tends to avoid using sight and hearing to interact with the environment.

A child who’s autistic may exhibit additional behavioral abnormalities, such as:

❑ cognitive impairment (most have an IQ of 35 to 49)

❑ eating, drinking, and sleeping problems, for example, limiting his diet to just a few foods, excessive drinking, or repeatedly waking during the night and rocking

❑ mood disorders, including labile mood, giggling or crying without reason, lack of emotional responses, no fear of real danger but excessive fear of harmless objects, and generalized anxiety.

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Autistic disorder: Signs and symptoms
(Handbook of Diseases)

Typical features of infantile autistic disorder include unresponsiveness to people, language impairment, lack of imaginative play, bizarre behavior patterns, and abnormal reactions to sensory stimuli.

Unresponsiveness to people

Infants with this disorder avoid eye contact, have little or no facial expression, and are indifferent to affection and physical contact. Parents may report that the child becomes rigid or flaccid when held, cries when touched, and shows little or no interest in human contact.

As the infant grows older, his smiling response is delayed or absent. He doesn’t lift his arms in anticipation of being picked up or form an attachment to a specific caregiver. Nor does he show the anxiety about strangers that’s typical in the 8-month-old infant.

The autistic child fails to learn the usual socialization games (peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, or bye-bye). He’s likely to relate to others only to fill a physical need and then without eye contact or speech. The end result may be mutual withdrawal between parents and child.

Severe language impairment

The child may be mute or may use immature speech patterns. For example, he may use a single word to express a series of activities; he may say “ground” when referring to any step in using a playground slide.

His speech commonly shows echolalia (meaningless repetition of words or phrases addressed to him) and pronoun reversal (“you go walk” when he means “I want to go for a walk”). When answering a question, he may simply repeat the question to mean yes and remain silent to mean no.

Lack of imaginative play

The child shows little imagination, seldom acting out adult roles or engaging in fantasy play. In fact, he may insist on lining up an exact number of toys in the same manner over and over or repetitively mimic the actions of someone else.

Bizarre behavior

The autistic child shows characteristically bizarre behavior patterns, such as screaming fits, rituals, rhythmic rocking, arm flapping, crying without tears, and disturbed sleeping and eating patterns. His behavior may be self-destructive (hand biting, eye gouging, hair pulling, or head banging) or self-stimulating (playing with his own saliva, stool, and urine).

His bizarre responses to his environment include an extreme compulsion for sameness.

Abnormal response
to sensory stimuli

The autistic child may underreact or overreact to sensory stimuli; he may ignore objects — dropping those he’s given or not looking at them — or he may become excessively absorbed in them — continually watching the objects or the movement of his own fingers over the objects. He commonly responds to stimuli by head banging, rocking, whirling, and hand flapping. He tends to avoid using sight and hearing to interact with the environment.

Other behavioral abnormalities

Other characteristics of an autistic child include: