Asperger's syndrome and aberrant neurofunctional organization--a case report

Asperger's Syndrome(AS) is a severe developmental disorder characterized primarily by marked and sustained difficulties in social interaction and unusual patterns of circumscribed interests and behavioral peculiarities. AS differs from autism primarily in that there is no general delay or retardation in language. A 3. 5 year-old boy with AS was referred for psychological assessment and treatment. When the boy was 23 months old, he was assessed with Bayley Scales of Infant Development (2nd ed.). Both MDI and PDI were within normal limits. After the referral, this boy was assessed with WPPSI-R and then prescribed 5 weekly intervention sessions consisting of communication skills training. At a one week's follow-up the boy was reassessed with Leiter-R. The results of WPPSI-R and Leiter-R showed the boy was in the normal intelligence range. From the second session to the fifth session, the boy's mother recorded 526 of his utterances. According to the analysis of these speech data, the language development for this boy was at Stage V, which indicated that his language development was in the superior range for his age. After 5 intervention sessions, the improvements in the child's communication skills were such that no further sessions were warranted. This boy might represent a case of aberrant neurofunctional organization. He has defects in perceptual organization but has good pattern recognition, which is based on features. It is theorized that his excellent verbal ability competed with the perceptual organization, so that he compensated for perceptual organization with verbal ability. An intervention designed to inhibit verbal compensation and facilitate configural processing is recommended.