Autism/Asperger’s

Estimates in the field of clinical child psychology and social psychology suggest that at least 10% of school-aged individuals have some form of significant social challenge, including the experience of frequent bullying and reporting not having any friends. More and more children are retreating into their bedrooms and finding comfort in electronics of one kind or another, which only makes matters worse. Of the 10% mentioned above, 1 in 5 socially despondent children will have a bona fide neurological issue that is driving their social developmental challenges. Neurologically-based social challenges include Autistic-Spectrum Disorders (Autism, Asperger’s, and PDD-NOS), Regulatory Disorders, and Nonverbal Learning Disorders.

Autistic-Spectrum Disorders (ASD’s) are among the most recognized as well as serious neurologically-based disorders of social development. Yet, they are likely the least frequent out of all of the syndromes discussed in this section. A distinguishing characteristic of ASD’s is a child’s innate, or natural relative lack of interest in social stimuli (i.e., people). Neuropsychological Testing can help clarify if a child truly falls on the Autistic-Spectrum, and if so, what specific diagnosis is present (i.e., Autism, Asperger’s, or PDD-NOS). And yes, many diagnosticians are going back to using subtypes of ASD’s as it is so useful (i.e., those with Autism have right-brain strengths and left-brain weaknesses, which is the opposite profile for those with Asperger’s Disorder; those with relatively even right- and left-brain functioning are best diagnosed as PDD-NOS, of which many individuals with the latter profile isolate themselves to a substantial degree and develop an “avoidant lifestyle” overall).

Regulatory Disorders (RD) are characterized by the presence of subtle cognitive, sensory, and motor processing issues (similar to ASD’s neurological components) that converge to affect a child’s capacity to comfortably participate in the social milieu, thereby affecting their social development due to less participation. Regulatory Disorders are not known to many child psychologists or pediatric neuropsychologists, though they have been established as a distinct category, apart from ASD’s, by infant and toddler specialists. Regulatory Disorders can be misdiagnosed as an ASD and, at times, as “atypical” ADD/ADHD or Sensory Processing Disorder “plus.” A big difference between RD and ASD is those with RD since early childhood tend to have stronger interests in connecting with others – it’s just their neurological make-up makes it difficult for them to do so.