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Luke was actually diagnosed with mild to moderate autism at age 3. He did not talk yet except to occasionally repeat what he'd see on TV or in a video (that he'd ask to watch the same one over and over). He also had many of the other signs of autism (too much to go into here). He got the diagnosis of Asperger's when he was 5 because by that point his verbal skills had exploded, and typically Asperger's is more a diagnosis who is verbal (many autistic children are not or barely are) and who can even sound like "little professors" because they have complex vocabularies but the pragmatics can be "off". They typical have difficulty with sensory issues, for example they can either crave movement and touch like my son, or avoid/fear it, can be highly sensitive to too much sound and/or light, crowds can be upsetting, reading social cues is near impossible without making it obvious to them, but most have above average intelligence and have very strong emotions and are very loving to those they know well and who can understand their unique way of showing it. This is just off the top of my head. Luke is very very bright, has a photographic memory and a unique way of looking at everything around him, but he can also be quite precocious and frustrating to those who don't understand.

These diagnoses came from a pediatric developmental neurologist, as well as a team from the school system of an educational psychologist and others. There are organizations like TEACCH in NC that specialize in screening and diagnosing people with autsim spectrum disorders.

Here are some good links:

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers_pr.html

http://www.parents.com/articles/health/2156.jsp

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Take care,
Michelle
...the greatest of these is LOVE. (I Cor 13)

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