The pervasive development disorders are a group of conditions, containing: autism, Asperger’s syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder and pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified.

Children with autism have problems in communicating and relating to other people, they have problems with the imagination and with the understanding of reality. In many cases, there can appear some degree of mental retardation.

The children with Asperger’s syndrome have average or above average intelligence, they develop normally in the areas of language and cognition, but they have problems with social interaction and communication, a narrow range of interests and often have difficulty concentrating and poor coordination.

The children with Rett’s syndrome have the symptoms mentioned before, but the also suffer the loss of many motor or movement skills. This condition affects usually girls, because it is linked to a defect on the X chromosome.

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Maybe you’ve heard a lot about child Asperger’s syndrome lately. Child asperger’s syndrome is a form of autism known as high functioning autism on the autistic spectrum and is characterized by obsessions, poor social interaction, and odd speech and mannerisms. Like other autistic children, child Asperger’s syndrome creates extreme difficulty with social interactions. They have a difficult, if not impossible, time forming friendships or other relationships with their peers.

Child Asperger’s syndrome does not create any obvious delay with the child’s language development; in fact, they often have vocabularies larger than their peers and can seem more advanced than other children in their age group. (Despite their advanced language skills, they make take language and words very literally; figurative language, slang, and phrases like “the apple of his eye” make no sense to them.)

Although there is no cure for child Asperger’s syndrome, children with the disorder can be helped remarkably through various social treatments and therapies. They may be prescribed medication to help them with the social interaction aspect of their condition so that their feelings of intense anxiety are significantly lessened. Other psychosocial interventions, such as social skills training, behavior modification, and parental training and education can contribute to the quality of life of a child diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

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Aspergers Syndrome is a type of Autism, however, the symptoms are usually much milder and less distressing to those people around them. However, it is still a serious condition which affects 1-2 people in 2000, of which, more tend to be boys than girls.

Aspergers Syndrome wasn’t widely recognized by parents and professionals as recently as in the 1990′s. Autism itself was first diagnosed in 1943.

Despite what could be seen as a significant problem for the sufferers of Aspergers Syndrome, many people with this condition lead very successful and productive lives.

Autism is a neurological disorder. Nobody knows exactly what causes it although there does seem to be a high degree of evidence which suggests that it may be genetic. In many cases, where one child in a family has autism or Aspergers Syndrome, there is a significant chance that any other children will also have this condition either to a lesser or greater degree.

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