Why is it called Asperger syndrome?
In 1944, an Austrian pediatrician named Hans Asperger observed four children in his practice who had difficulty integrating socially. Although their intelligence appeared normal, the children lacked nonverbal communication skills, failed to demonstrate empathy with their peers, and were physically clumsy. Their way of speaking was either disjointed or overly formal, and their all-absorbing interest in a single topic dominated their conversations. Dr. Asperger called the condition ‘autistic psychopathy’ and described it as a personality disorder primarily marked by social isolation. Asperger’s observations, published in German, were not widely known until 1981, when an English doctor named Lorna Wing published a series of case studies of children showing similar symptoms, which she called ‘Asperger’s’ syndrome. Wing’s writings were widely published and popularized. Asperger syndrome became a distinct disease and diagnosis in 1992, when it was included in the tenth published edition of t
