Asperger's Syndrome is often called high functioning Autism.  It is a neurological impairment that affects social interaction.  Diagnosis is made based on an individual's social, behavioral and language development.  Individual's with Asperger's Syndrome often have difficulty reading non-verbal cues in social situations.

Trends:  Asperger's Syndrome was first considered an official diagnosis in 1990.  There has been a huge increase in diagnosis of Asperger's (870%) from 1993-2003.  Many individual's were mis-diagnosed and there is some speculation that environmental factors have contributed to the increase in diagnosis.  Research has shown there is some abnormal growth (huge increase) in the brain size between the ages of 1 and 3 in children with Asperger's.  At the college level, parents often continue to be involved with their child's education due to the individual's difficulty with executive functions (time management, organization, difficulty with assertiveness/initiative...etc.)

Commonalities Among Students with Asperger's:

-Like Predictability and Structure

-Often Very Bright-particularly in one area such as computers or music

-Often Think Very Concretely-things appear black and white to them

-Strong Narrow Interests-computers, collections..etc.