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"Asperger's Syndrome
Characteristics"
by Roger Meyer
Below is a list of Asperger’s Syndrome
characteristics. Most have been extracted from medical diagnostic criteria,
descriptions offered by medical and counseling professionals, articles by
educators and from employment biographies of approximately a dozen
independent-living, medically or self-diagnosed AS adults over the age of
25. While every adult occasionally manifests these characteristics, what
distinguishes adults with AS is their consistency of appearance, their
intensity, and the sheer number of them appearing simultaneously. Some
characteristics do not apply to everyone, so persons consulting this list
should not feel compelled to find them all. Adults with AS who wish to
compose employment biographies for their own enlightenment and/or as
contributions to research should weigh the significance of the ones they
share, and have their compositions accurately reflect that impact.
Social Characteristics
 | Difficulty in accepting criticism or
correction |
| Difficulty in offering correction or
criticism without appearing harsh, pedantic or insensitive |
| Difficulty in perceiving and applying
unwritten social rules or protocols |
| "Immature" manners
|
| Failure to distinguish between private and
public personal care habits: i.e., brushing, public attention to skin
problems, nose picking, teeth picking, ear canal cleaning, clothing
arrangement |
| Naïve trust in others |
| Shyness |
| Low or no conversational participation in
group meetings or conferences |
| Constant anxiety about performance and
acceptance, despite recognition and commendation |
| Scrupulous honesty, often expressed in an
apparently disarming or inappropriate manner or setting |
| Bluntness in emotional expression
|
| "Flat affect" |
| Discomfort manipulating or "playing games"
with others |
| Unmodulated reaction in being manipulated,
patronized, or "handled" by others |
| Low to medium level of paranoia
|
| Low to no apparent sense of humor; bizarre
sense of humor (often stemming from a "private" internal thread of humor
being inserted in public conversation without preparation or warming
others up to the reason for the "punchline") |
| Difficulty with reciprocal displays of
pleasantries and greetings |
| Problems expressing empathy or comfort
to/with others: sadness, condolence, congratulations, etc. |
| Pouting,, ruminating, fixating on bad
experiences with people or events for an inordinate length of time
|
| Difficulty with adopting a social mask to
obscure real feelings, moods, reactions |
| Using social masks inappropriately (you
are "xv" while everyone else is ????) |
| Abrupt and strong expression of likes and
dislikes |
| Rigid adherence to rules and social
conventions where flexibility is desirable |
| Apparent absence of relaxation,
recreational, or "time out" activities |
| "Serious" all the time
|
| Known for single-mindedness |
| Flash temper |
| Tantrums |
| Excessive talk |
| Difficulty in forming friendships and
intimate relationships; difficulty in distinguishing between acquaintance
and friendship |
| Social isolation and intense concern for
privacy |
| Limited clothing preference; discomfort
with formal attire or uniforms |
| Preference for bland or bare environments
in living arrangements |
| Difficulty judging others’ personal space
|
| Limited by intensely pursued interests
|
| Often perceived as "being in their own
world" |
Physical Manifestations
| Strong sensory sensitivities: touch and
tactile sensations, sounds, lighting and colors, odors, taste |
| Clumsiness |
| Balance difficulties |
| Difficulty in judging distances, height,
depth |
| Difficulty in recognizing others’ faces (prosopagnosia)
|
| Stims (self-stimulatory behavior serving
to reduce anxiety, stress, or to express pleasure) |
| Self-injurious or disfiguring behaviors
|
| Nail-biting |
| Unusual gait, stance, posture
|
| Gross or fine motor coordination problems
|
| Low apparent sexual interest
|
| Depression |
| Anxiety |
| Sleep difficulties |
| Verbosity |
| Difficulty expressing anger (excessive or
"bottled up") |
| Flat or monotone vocal expression; limited
range of inflection |
| Difficulty with initiating or maintaining
eye contact |
| Elevated voice volume during periods of
stress and frustration |
| Strong food preferences and aversions
|
| Unusual and rigidly adhered to eating
behaviors |
| Bad or unusual personal hygiene
|
Morbid (shared, dual, multiple) Diagnostic
Conditions
| Learning Disability |
| Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
|
| Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
|
| Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)
|
| Hyperlexia |
| Depression |
| Anxiety |
| Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)
|
| Hypertension |
| Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder
|
| Tourette’s Syndrome |
| Dysthymia |
Cognitive Characteristics
| Susceptibility to distraction
|
| Difficulty in expressing emotions
|
| Resistance to or failure to respond to
talk therapy |
| Mental shutdown response to conflicting
demands and multi-tasking |
| Generalized confusion during periods of
stress |
| Low understanding of the reciprocal rules
of conversation: interrupting, dominating, minimum participation,
difficult in shifting topics, problem with initiating or terminating
conversation, subject perseveration |
| Insensitivity to the non-verbal cues of
others (stance, posture, facial expressions) |
| Perseveration best characterized by the
term "bulldog tenacity" |
| Literal interpretation of instructions
(failure to read between the lines) |
| Interpreting words and phrases literally
(problem with colloquialisms, cliches, neologism, turns of phrase, common
humorous expressions) |
| Preference for visually oriented
instruction and training |
| Dependence on step-by-step learning
procedures (disorientation occurs when a step is assumed, deleted, or
otherwise overlooked in instruction) |
| Difficulty in generalizing |
| Preference for repetitive, often simple
routines |
| Difficulty in understanding rules for
games of social entertainment |
| Missing or misconstruing others’ agendas,
priorities, preferences |
| Impulsiveness |
| Compelling need to finish one task
completely before starting another |
| Rigid adherence to rules and routines
|
| Difficulty in interpreting meaning to
others’ activities; difficulty in drawing relationships between an
activity or event and ideas |
| Exquisite attention to detail, principally
visual, or details which can be visualized ("Thinking in Pictures") or
cognitive details (often those learned by rote) |
| Concrete thinking |
| Distractibility due to focus on external
or internal sensations, thoughts, and/or sensory input (appearing to be in
a world of one’s own or day-dreaming) |
| Difficulty in assessing relative
importance of details (an aspect o the trees/forest problem) |
| Poor judgment of when a task is finished
(often attributable to perfectionism or an apparent unwillingness to
follow differential standards for quality) |
| Difficulty in imagining others’ thoughts
in a similar or identical event or circumstance that are different from
one’s own ("Theory of Mind" issues) |
| Difficulty with organizing and sequencing
(planning and execution; successful performance of tasks in a logical,
functional order) |
| Difficulty in assessing cause and effect
relationships (behaviors and consequences) |
| An apparent lack of "common sense"
|
| Relaxation techniques and developing
recreational "release" interest may require formal instruction
|
| Rage, tantrum, shutdown, self-isolating
reactions appearing "out of nowhere" |
| Substantial hidden self-anger, anger
towards others, and resentment |
| Difficulty in estimating time to complete
tasks |
| Difficulty in learning self-monitoring
techniques |
| Disinclination to produce expected results
in an orthodox manner |
| Psychometric testing shows great deviance
between verbal and performance results |
| Extreme reaction to changes in routine,
surroundings, people |
| Stilted, pedantic conversational style
("The Professor") |
Work Characteristics
Many of the manifestations found in the
categories above can immediately translate into work behaviors or
preferences. Here are some additional ones:
| Difficulty with "teamwork"
|
| Deliberate withholding of peak performance
due to belief that one’s best efforts may remain unrecognized, unrewarded,
or appropriated by others |
| Intense pride in expertise or performance,
often perceived by others as "flouting behavior" |
| Sarcasm, negativism, criticism
|
| Difficulty in accepting compliments, often
responding with quizzical or self-deprecatory language |
| Tendency to "lose it" during sensory
overload, multitask demands, or when contradictory and confusing
priorities have been set |
| Difficult in starting project
|
| Discomfort with competition, out of scale
reactions to losing |
| Low motivation to perform tasks of no
immediate personal interest |
| Oversight or forgetting of tasks without
formal reminders such as lists or schedules |
| Great concern about order and appearance
of personal work area |
| Slow performance |
| Perfectionism |
| Difficult with unstructured time
|
| Reluctance to ask for help or seek comfort
|
| Excessive questions |
| Low sensitivity to risks in the
environment to self and/or others |
| Difficulty with writing and reports
|
| Reliance on internal speech process to
"talk" oneself through a task or procedure |
| Stress, frustration and anger reaction to
interruptions |
| Difficulty in negotiating either in
conflict situations or as a self-advocate |
| Ver low level of assertiveness
|
| Reluctance to accept positions of
authority or supervision |
| Strong desire to coach or mentor newcomers
|
| Difficulty in handling relationships with
authority figures |
| Often viewed as vulnerable or less able to
resist harassment and badgering by others |
| Punctual and conscientious |
| Avoids socializing, "hanging out," or
small talk on and off the job |
©
Roger N.
Meyer
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Some
are the melody, some are the rhythm, some are the harmony