1. Understand the Role of Language Development
One very important difference between autism and Asperger's syndrome is that autistic children usually have a significant delay in developing language skills. An autistic child may be a toddler before he begins to talk. In some cases, a child with autism may be well into childhood before the first speech appears. Children with Asperger's normally have no significant delays in the development of speech and language skills. In many cases, they actually develop large and complex vocabularies at very young ages and may often speak as if they were much older.
2. Understand the Role of Social Interaction
Autistic children normally have no outward interest in socializing with others. Sometimes, this desire to be left alone even extends to their parents. A child with autism will be difficult to engage in conversation and may take a lot of prodding to acknowledge another person's presence. Instead of socializing, autistic children may spend their time engaging in a favored activity, engaging in self-stimulating activities (such as head slapping or hand biting) or may simply stare off into space, seemingly daydreaming. Children with Asperger's are capable of interaction with others and usually want to do so. However, their social skills are weak, which leads them to have trouble relating to others. They may lack empathy, they may not pick up on body language and verbal cues from others in a conversation, and they may say things that are inadvertently rude. A child with Asperger's may become frustrated at his lack of ability to socialize properly with his peers.
3. Understand Differences in Intelligence
Many children with autism have mild retardation, or they may be savants (highly intelligent in one area, but lacking in learning ability in all other areas). In any case, they are rarely able to be in regular classes at school and often require special education services. Children with Asperger's are usually very intelligent, with high IQs, and often do well in academic subjects in school. However, they may have trouble with more abstract classes that require imagination and creativity, such as drama, art and music.
