Asperger's Syndrome | The Encyclopedia Of Neurops... - Credo Reference

Asperger's syndrome was first described by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician, in 1944, who published a clinical description of a group of children who shared an unusual combination of developmental weakness and strengths. These children had severe social and communication abnormalities, restricted interests, motor delays, and clumsiness. Asperger initially named this syndrome autistic psychopathy (Miller & Ozonoff, 2000). However, although he noted the aforementioned deficits, this group of children acquired language at normal or earlier age and had normal intelligence and some specific strong abilities such as visuospatial skills and verbal abstraction abilities. In 1943, the child psychiatrist Leo Kanner published a description of a group of children with similar characteristics but with no mention of motor deficits as a core symptom of the syndrome.