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  Glossary

  Auditory Discrimination: The brain’s ability to separate important sounds (speaking voices) from extraneous sounds (traffic noise); locate where sounds are coming from (the front of the classroom or the rear of the classroom); maintain focus on essential tasks (studying) while ignoring outside noises that might interfere with concentration (music in the background). An inability to discriminate between sounds typically results in weak study skills.

  Auditory Sensitivity: A disorder that interferes with an individual’s ability to analyze or make sense of sound information taken in through the ears. Persons affected by auditory sensitivity can find certain noises and sounds frightening, painful, distorted, confusing, and overwhelming to the point where everyday activities are impossible to enjoy and/or engage in.

  Bilateral Coordination: The body’s ability to use its two sides cohesively and in coordination. Without bilateral coordination, a person is likely to experience difficulties in both fine motor movement activities such as using eating utensils, dressing or writing; and gross motor movement activities such as running, throwing, dancing or skipping. Poor reading skills are also often correlated with inadequate bilateral coordination.

  Echolalia: A uniquely proficient and often remarkably sophisticated ability to parrot or mimic someone else’s voice, speaking pattern, words and/or mannerisms.

  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A confused perception of reality which causes an individual to obsess on a perceived worry or thought (is the iron turned off, is the door locked. There are too many germs on this doorknob, etc.) that causes great anxiety and concern. The anxieties and concerns are only elevated for the person if they perform certain compulsive activities or mental acts (checking and rechecking a dozen times to be certain the iron is off and the door locked, or repetitive hand washing for sixty minutes, counting to ten over and over again, for example). In order for these patterns to be a true disorder, they must occur frequently enough to interfere with normal daily living and routines.

  Olfactory Sensitivity: A disorder that interferes with an individual’s ability to cope with the sense of smell. Persons affected by olfactory sensitivity can find certain smells stressful, physically sickening, and completely repulsing. This can often make it difficult, if not impossible for the person to eat certain foods and/or concentrate in certain environments.

  Pedantic Speech: Overly formal speech characterized by limited and literal interpretations of words.

  Prosody: The vocal tone and qualities of speech. The «it’s not what you said, but how you said it» characteristics of spoken language that often leave people with Asperger’s Syndrome unable to accurately discern the meaning behind other individuals’ words, and unable to adequately express their own intended thoughts.

  Sensory Integration: The process by which the brain organizes sensory input so one can interact with one’s environment effectively and meaningfully.

  Sensory Integration Dysfunction: A marked inability to properly integrate sensory input, usually as a result of a neurological disorder or irregularity. Persons who experience sensory integration dysfunction often experience anxiety attacks, headaches, disorientation, confusion and problems in learning.

  Spatial relation: A visual processing disorder that makes it difficult to position and coordinate objects in space.

  Stim: A self-stimulating behavior (flapping hands, licking, spinning, rocking, etc.) designed to calm or de-stress.

  Tactile Sensitivity: A condition that occurs when nerves under the surface of the skin miscommunicate information to the brain. As a result, an individual either overreacts or underreacts to any number of sensations including light and firm pressure, pain and temperature. A dysfunction in this ability can lead to an aversion to certain types of textures (wet, rough, sandy, slick, slimy, etc.) and certain behaviors (hair washing, hand shaking, craft making, pencil holding, etc.). Dysfunction can also expose an individual to stress, irritability, distractibility, and a desire for isolation.

  Ticking: An involuntary set of small or large muscle movements or vocal utterances that result in a habitual and uncontrollable action such as blinking, teeth clicking, nose scrunching, coughing, grunting, etc. Ticking often causes anxiety, embarrassment and feelings of shame in the individual affected. Should the individual try too hard to control the action, they will likely face nervous tension and an inability to concentrate on other matters.

  Visual Sensitivity: A visual processing disorder that weakens an individual’s ability to understand, interpret and process information gathered through the eyes. This can result in poor reading and writing skills, an inability to judge objects in space in relation to one another properly and disorientation in following directions and finding one’s way.

  References

  Attwood, T. (1998) Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and. Professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

  Frith, U. (ed) (1991) Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Gillberg, C. and Gillberg, C. (1989) «Asperger Syndrome — Some epidemiological considerations: A research not t». Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 30, 631–638.

  Rimland, B. (1990) «Sound sensitivity in autism». Autism Research Review International 4, 1 and 6.

  Wing, L. and Attwood, A. (1987) «Syndromes of autism and atypical development». In D. Cohen and A. Donnellan (eds) Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

  Wing, L. (1981) «Asperger’s Syndrome: A clinical account». Psychological Medicine 11, 115–130.