How to Identify Aspergers in Children

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Dr. Amber Brooks is a specialist in pediatric chiropractic and today she shares the signs and symptoms of diagnosing aspergers in your practice.

Although there are many possible symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome, the main symptom is significant trouble with social situations. Your child may have mild to severe symptoms or have a few or many of these symptoms. Because of the wide variety of symptoms, no two children with Asperger’s are alike.

Parents often first notice the symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome when their child starts preschool and begins to interact with other children. Children with Asperger’s syndrome may:

  • Not pick up on social cues and may lack inborn social skills, such as being able to read others’ body language, start or maintain a conversation, and take turns talking.
  • Dislike any changes in routines.
  • Appear to lack empathy.
  • Be unable to recognize subtle differences in speech tone, pitch, and accent that alter the meaning of others’ speech. So your child may not understand a joke or may take a sarcastic comment literally. And his or her speech may be flat and hard to understand because it lacks tone, pitch, and accent.
  • Have a formal style of speaking that is advanced for his or her age. For example, the child may use the word “beckon” instead of “call” or the word “return” instead of “come back.”
  • Talk a lot, usually about a favorite subject. One-sided conversations are common. Internal thoughts are often verbalized.
  • Avoid eye contact or stare at others.
  • Have unusual facial expressions or postures.
  • Be preoccupied with only one or few interests, which he or she may be very knowledgeable about. Many children with Asperger’s syndrome are overly interested in parts of a whole or in unusual activities, such as designing houses, drawing highly detailed scenes, or studying astronomy. They may show an unusual interest in certain topics such as snakes, names of stars, or dinosaurs.
  • Have delayed motor development. Your child may be late in learning to use a fork or spoon, ride a bike, or catch a ball. He or she may have an awkward walk. Handwriting is often poor.
  • Have heightened sensitivity and become overstimulated by loud noises, lights, or strong tastes or textures.

Dr Amber Brooks Pediatric ChiropractorDr. Amber Brooks, DC, CACCP is the author of 15 Things Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Your Child and founded Whole Child Wellness to bridge alternative and traditional medicine by providing individualized and comprehensive approaches to pediatric wellness. She is a Board Certified Pediatric Chiropractor, specializing in CranioSacral Therapy (CST) and has a love and passion for treating children of all ages. She assists her patients in achieving optimal health by utilizing nutrition, chiropractic, biomechanical, integrative and functional methods to help support their growing bodies. She is experienced in addressing the challenges associated with biomechanical issues, birth trauma, nutritional and behavioral problems, as well as those children on “the autism spectrum.” Using an integrative approach, she successfully cares for children with challenges using nutritional supplements, dietary changes, CST, chiropractic adjustments, lab testing/evaluation and together with your other clinicians will assist your child with the various steps in the pursuit to health and wellness. Dr. Amber Brooks, DC, CACCP has seen remarkable results on a variety of issues and looks forward to caring for your child too!