10 Signs of Asperger's in Children

1. The Little Professor syndrome:  These children tend to develop focused, specialized interests and, very often, become experts in these areas.
2. High verbal abilities:  While vocabulary may be advanced, they may display poor conversational skill, odd prosody of speech, and seem a bit pedantic.  
3. Delayed social skills: Aspie children typically exhibit difficulty interpreting social cues and use black and white thinking.
4. Immature friendships:  Making friends may be a challenge or they may choose younger friends due to their own delayed maturity level.
5. Unusual learning style:  Aspie children may excel in some academic areas, but be surprisingly weak in others, such as writing.
6. Organization and attention deficits:  Difficulty organizing school work or daily living activities is common.  Also, attention deficits may be observed, specifically to task that are of little interest to them.
7. Anxiety, rigidity, and poor problem-solving skills:  Children with Aspie may exhibit high anxiety, rigidity, poor transitioning, and difficulty generating solutions to problems.
8. Emotional regulation:  There may be problems regulating emotions such as anger and frustration.
9. Sensory issues:  These children may experience sensory issues related to certain textures, smells, tastes, or sounds. 
10. Gross motor delays:  There may be gross motor delays in early development that progress into overall clumsiness or awkward gait.

Atwood, Tony (2007).  The complete guide to Asperger’s Syndrome.  London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.    

Dr. Molly Wittig - Southeast Psych