Asperger's Syndrome and Autism: Differences in Behavior, Cognition, and Adaptive Functioning

Understanding Agency in Interactions Between ChildrenWith Autism and Socially Assistive Robots

“…Some differences seen between typically developing children and children with ASD include reduced vocal expressions, anticipatory gestures, social reciprocity, facial expressions, affection, and eye contact (American Psychiatric Association, 2013;Szatmari, Archer, Fisman, Streiner, & Wilson, 1995). Common therapeutic interventions aimed at helping children with autism to navigate the social world include many hours of intensive practice of social skills and related foundational behaviors (e.g., applied behavior analysis (Anderson & Romanczyk, 1999;Foxx, 2008), pivotal response training (Pierce & Schreibman, 1995), or the Early Start Denver Model (Dawson et al, 2010)).…”

Executive Functioning in Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder: Can We Differentiate Within the Spectrum?

“…Children with AS exhibit fewer repetitive behaviors (e.g., insistence on sameness, stereotypies, rituals), but more abnormal preoccupations, all-absorbing interests, and higher rates of motor problems (e.g., clumsiness, manual speed, dexterity, coordination and balance problems) and anxiety (e.g., Gillberg, 1989;Klin & Volkmar, 1997;McLaughlin-Cheng, 1998;Szatmari, Bartolucci, & Bremner, 1989). Szatmari, Archer, Fisman, Streiner, and Wilson (1995) found that subjects with HFA scored worse than subjects with AS on many PDD symptoms (e.g., reciprocal social interaction, rituals, and resistance to change), adaptive behaviors, and cognitive measures of language competence, but not on aspects of nonverbal communication and cognition, or motor development. However, other researchers found no or little differences between children with HFA and AS (Ghaziudinn, Butler, Tsai, & Ghaziuddin, 1994;Manjiviona & Prior, 1995Ozonoff, Rogers, & Pennington, 1991).…”

“…Furthermore, inconsistencies across studies may be the result of circularity. In some studies children with HFA and AS are compared on measures that are dependent on the diagnostic features used to distinguish both disorders, such as measures of intelligence (Szatmari et al, 1995;Volkmar & Lord, 1998). Although, currently, there is little indication of differential EF profiles within the autistic spectrum, EF measures may provide external discriminant validation, independent of the clinical diagnostic process .…”

Asperger syndrome: an update

“…19 As noted, however, its nosological status remains unclear, in part due to the adoption of varying diagnostic schemes in the research literature. 12 Although the advent of the DSM-IV definition was intended to create a consensual diagnostic starting point for research, it has been consistently criticized as overly narrow, 20,21 rendering the diagnostic assignment of AS improbable or even "virtually impossible". 22,23 The introduction of AS in DSM-IV and ICD-10 13 was prompted by the recognition that autism is a clinically heterogeneous disorder and that the characterization of subtypes of PDD might help behavioral and biological research by allowing the identification of clinically more homogeneous groups.…”

“…37 These findings have been supported by a number of studies focused on IQ profiles, [38][39][40] although several other studies have failed to replicate them. 21,41 However, as noted, direct comparison across studies is not possible since different diagnostic schemes were used in them.…”