Quotes about AS

Simon Baron-Cohen:

In Asperger the “cognitive” component of empathy is impaired but the “affective” component is intact.

People with autism struggle with empathy but they have a mind that is highly tuned to spot patterns (rules) in the world: “systemizing”. Good when trying to figure out how a system works but leads to disability when applied to the world of people and emotions.

Empathy can be increased. For some people it is simply a matter of waiting for development and gaining experience.  For others it may be a matter of either education or therapy. Imaginative approaches are being taken in many fields to facilitate empathy, and I do believe in the idea that people can change. Because the evidence support this.

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American Psychiatric Association is currently revising its diagnostic manual. Where it's listed every psychiatric disorder and their symptoms.

Instead of using the current terms of autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder, chilhood desintegrative disorder and PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder nor otherwise specified), people will given an umbrella diagnosis of “autism spectrum disorder”.

And their impairments will be reduced to two main areas, social communication/ interaction and restricted, repeetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities.

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In addition, they often have difficulty with cognitive flexibility—their thinking tends to be rigid. Students with Asperger’s syndrome often have considerable difficulty adapting to change or accepting failure. They do not readily learn from their mistakes.

Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (2003, Alberta, Canada).

http://education.alberta.ca/media/511995/autism.pdf