How similar to these children were you?

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Here is Kanner's paper "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact": PDF

How similar to these children were you?

I read a translation, partial, of Asperger's paper "Autistic Psychopathy in Childhood" in Uta Frith's book "Autism and Asperger Syndrome", but I don't have the book in print. Does anyone have a copy of the paper in English?

If you have read both papers, did you notice much of a difference between Kanner's description and Asperger's description of autism?

Not much. I did notice odd quirks they had that I share, but I'm a lot more social than Kanner's kids.



Not nearly as much as you'd think from reviews of it. They were clearly describing the same basic condition. Asperger only described high functioning kids, though, while Kanner described the whole range. But his higher functioning cases (eg Donald T) wouldn't have stood out much among Asperger's cases.

The one thing that really surprised me was that Asperger's cases did not at all fit the stereotype of the 'compliant Aspie kid'. I wrote a blog entry about it here. Several of them were extremely defiant and uncooperative in school - not just misunderstanding stuff, but actively resenting attempts to control them. Fritz V was extremely hard to test because he'd give deliberately wrong answers or say 'I won't tell you'.

That's the impression I got as well. It seemed like they were both describing what is now considered HFA. By today's standards, it seems like all of Kanner's kids would be considered HFA.

I'm tired of putting myself under a microscope. I don't really care to read all that.

I've yet to read Kanner's paper but I read Asperger's (in German).

I made several short references to the children's language, self-help and adaptive skills here once to point out they wouldn't simply be diagnosed with AS today.

I really should read what Kanner wrote, I guess. 34 pages!

The paper is long, but it's a really fast read, because it's like storytime about a bunch of kids. Kanner has a nice clear writing style.

I tried to read Asperger's paper in German, based on my sh***y high school German, but I was not very successful.

Not only were the two descriptions very similar, but I could have fit into either group as a child.

I enjoyed Kanner's emphasis on the children ignoring people and disliking external interference.

I think I'll start reading it tomorrow.

Is there even a full English translation of Asperger's paper? I did a quick search but didn't find anything.

The only that I saw some similarities was with Elaine C., and even in that case not much. However, much of the age span covered in the paper were the time where I lived alone with my grandma in the countryside, then is very difficult to say how my social behavior was (basically, it was limited to one person).

But I recognize myself in the descriptions of some fathers (specially Donald's father).

I don't resemble any of the children specifically... more like bits and pieces of all of them, throwing in a lot of myself. I was very quiet, but I had a huge vocabulary in my mind. I could read by 2 or 3. I ignored people and went straight to objects, and I was highly routine oriented. I stimmed constantly. I had no friends and wouldn't go near other children... I physically clung to my mom. So, yeah, I would have fit in, to some degree.

I see traits of myself in them, but I don't identify with any of them. What I identify most with is probably Alfred's overly descriptive answers to questions, but I also see traits I share with other ones of them. I'm curious to read Asperger's work as well if I can find any translations into English.

I believe an English copy of Asperger's paper can be found in a book by Uta Frith and Lorna Wing.

As far as it goes, I don't relate to any of the children, but I would have probably fit into either group on the basis of symptoms alone.

I was the sterotypical "little professor" as a kid.

I had my quirks, but I wasn't like any of those children.

Could be interesting to compare "Donald T." at the time of the paper with Donald Triplett today:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... hild/8227/

Between Kanner's paper and Asperger's, I figured I'd try translating the case studies (some? interesting parts? all?). I don't know how far into the text I'll get because I'm clumsy at translating/language while Asperger' writing is really eloquent. (From what I know of him I can't help but think he had traits of the disorder he described...)

The German paper is freely available which I hope means it's fine to go ahead and translate some of it.