Some useful links re: Asperger Syndrome

[mdlbear]

asperger -- LJ Community, which is where I started earlier this evening. It lead to...

The Wikipedia article -- the informational links at the end are especially useful.

ASPEN -- the ASPerger Syndrome Education Network, with a particularly good recommended reading & viewing list.

Aspergia.com -- site for Aspies with a positive slant on the problem:

Re-branding Asperger's. Asperger's has never been a disability, but because the definitions sit with mental health professionals it is very difficult to see it as anything but a "problem". We ask: Is it possible that the Aspergian Mutation actually has a role to play in the greater scheme of human evolution? Is it possible that rather than a fluke, AS is a positive mutation gaining more gene real estate?

Comments

[obsessivewoman.livejournal.com]

As a note: asperger's syndrome in Amazon.com also came up with a number of books for parents, as well. Which, then might be checked with the recommended reading list. Spoke to Colleen yesterday and she was hoping to find books on adolescents and teens as she said there weren't any. Well, they have them. :)

In a way, it seems like a natural selection of very fine geek qualities from both parents being geeks and/or gamers (highly intelligent, highly focussed, a little to a lot out of the normal social world) and possibly having children a little later than the norm. One expects that engineers and other finely technical people may not have the social skills of folks that are in people-oriented jobs. Again, this could mean that folks with Asperger's are preset for being highly successful in technical positions, especially in a society requiring faster and faster rates of change and expansion in techology - if they can learn how to deal with the expectations of the school and social systems while growing up. We've all had to work with completely arrogant geniouses in technology but, bottom line, some of these folks really do run circles in productivity over more social engineers. Which sucks for team-building but is fine in more results-based environments.

Social conditioning can be done

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

all you have to do is realize they need to be taught it more explicitly.
I would agree that AS is a positive mutation gaining more gene real estate.