December 26, 2012

Asperger's Syndrome

With the recent shooting incident in Connecticut which kills 20 innocent angels, the shooter, Adam Lanza, was found to have Asperger’s syndrome which some linked it to the said incident.  I haven’t heard of this disorder before so I researched on the net and here's what I got.

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Asperger’s Syndrome is named after an Austrian psychiatrist and pediatrician Hans Asperger. It is often linked with autism but it is different. This is considered as “high-functioning” autism because a person having this condition has an IQ level of above normal thus, performing academic excellence.  People having this kind of disorder were found to have extreme interest in difficult subjects like algebra, train timetables etc.

The main reason for having this kind of condition is not yet clear but others suggests that it is associated with brain structure’s early development caused by abnormal migration of embryonic cells during fetal development.

Furthermore, people with this condition are found to have lack of understanding and social impairment skills. They have difficulty in having social relationship with others and tend to alienate themselves from others because they got easily bored in social world.

They also possess incomprehensive speech or communication difficulties but not speech delay. In fact, they have a great skill when it comes to language. They are also restrictive, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior making others think of them as “weird”.

There are some personalities found to have this condition like James Durbin (American Idol Finalist Season 10), Paddy Cosidine (an actor), Satoshi Tajiri (Pokemon creator and designer), Travis Meeks (lead singer, Days of the New).

Also, there are some known individuals that are being speculated to have the same condition. Some of them are in the field of politics (Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Al Gore), entertainment (Marilyn Monroe, Robin Williams, James Taylor, Crispin Clover), music and arts (James Taylor,  Beethoven, Michaelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Emily Dickinson, Charles Disckinson, Mark Twain, and Mozart), science (Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison) and others (Bobby Fischer – Chess, Bill Gates – entrepreneur)

In my own opinion, anybody's condition can be linked with violence, although person having Asperger's Syndrome have the axiety and difficulty in human realtionship, it will not resulted into violence. As a parent, it will be our responsbility to guide our kids in a good behavior and lead them away to violence. What happened in Sandy Hook shooting is not a clear result of Asperger's Syndrome by Adam  Lanza but might have other deeper reason.

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