Causes of Asperger syndrome

Asperger (or Asperger’s) syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder, characterized by abnormal social interactions and communication. Patients suffering from this syndrome experience very restricted interests, repetitive behavior and physical clumsiness, but they are able to talk and develop. Some consider this disease as the “highly functioning autism”.

The exact cause of this disease is not known, and there is no treatment for it. The only thing that brings some results is behavioral therapy, which main goal is to improve symptoms and functioning of these patients in the normal life. Patients don’t show any empathy nor have any non-verbal skills. They don’t know how and what to do with the eye contact, postures, gestures or facial expression and that’s where behavioral therapy mighthelp.

There is a prejudice about the parents of these children. It roots from the early days of the diagnosing this condition, when they thought that Asperger syndrome was caused by a distant and cold mother, without any love or affection for her child. Even though this an outdated theory, many people still believe in it and call these parents “refrigerator mothers”.

Causes

Researchers compared the brains and brain activity of children with and without this syndrome. They concluded that there is a significant difference, especially in the part of the brain responsible for the structure of the brain and thinking processes. Asperger syndrome seems to be caused by some genetic problem that changed the brain. Additionally, many children suffering from this syndrome had someone in the family with the symptoms similar (but not exactly the same) as Asperger’s syndrome.

There is a belief, not proved so far, that several genetic mistakes caused this syndrome, rather than just one gene responsible for theillness.

So far, scientists know that boys are more likely to suffer from this syndrome and there are 4 times more boys than girls manifestingAsperger's.

Parents of Asperger Syndrome Children

As we already mentioned, the way parents raised their children doesn’t affect the Asperger syndrome. There is nothing more or less they could do to prevent it and it is not their fault their child is suffering from this disease. Next time when you see a child that acts differently and seem bad mannered and bad tempered, think if there is any possibility that the child is suffering from this disease. These kids are not rude because they know it and want to be like that, but more because they need to learn how to do something else.