Characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome 

Each person is different. An individual might have all or only some of the described behaviors to have a diagnosis of AS. These behaviors include the following:

• Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as: eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction.
• Extreme difficulty in developing age-appropriate peer relationships. (e.g. AS children may be more comfortable with adults than with other children).
• Inflexible adherence to routines and perseveration.
• Fascination with maps, globes, and routes.
• Superior rote memory.
• Preoccupation with a particular subject to the exclusion of all others. amasses many related facts.
• Difficulty judging personal space, motor clumsiness.
• Sensitivity to the environment, loud noises, clothing and food textures, and odors.
• Speech and language skills impaired in the area of semantics, pragmatics, and prosody (volume, intonation, inflection, and rhythm).
• Difficulty understanding others’ feelings.
• Pedantic, formal style of speaking; often called “ little professor”, verbose.
• Extreme difficulty reading and/or interpreting social cues.
• Socially and emotionally inappropriate responses.
• Literal interpretation of language. difficulty comprehending implied meanings.
• Extensive vocabulary. Reading commences at an early age (hyperlexia).
• Stereotyped or repetitive motor mannerisms.
• Difficulty with “give and take” of conversation.