Recently (1994) a new disorder called "Asperger's Syndrome" has made its way into the DSM-IV. Named after Viennese Psychiatrist Hans Asperger who discovered it (Freud was also a Viennese Psychiatrist — maybe it's something in the water), Asperger's Syndrome is a neuro-biological disorder found predominantly in young boys and shares many traits with autism , but tends not to be as severe. For example, Asperger sufferers may have trouble interpreting nuances of communication. They often have difficulty with body language (they might have trouble telling when someone is annoyed or in a hurry unless the person were to tell them directly) and are frequently seen by peers as "weird" because of a failure to develop adequate social skills, even though they are likely to have normal IQs. They can also have heightened sensory experiences and be bothered by sights and sounds no one else can detect.
Only in the past few years has Asperger's Syndrome (AS) been recognized by professionals and parents.
Some experts have described AS individuals as "having a dash of Autism". (It falls within the category of "autism spectrum disorder.") Others simply interpret it as mild autism or a "high functioning autism" (HFA)
See DSM-IV Definition
The description of these disorders typify what I think is a major problem for psychology as a science. To me the definitions are tergiversation and psychobabble. Furthermore, the tendency to put these things into acronyms that have no intuitive meaning serves only to obfuscate things further. But — it does allow psychologists to use alphabetic jargon to make themselves seem more knowledgeable than they are. I mean, doesn't it sound more professional to say a child has "ADD" than to say "the kid has a short attention span"? The beauty of course is that the common uneducated person would have no idea what "ADD" was or how to distinguish it from "ADHD" but would immediately recognize "short attention span"(ADD) or an "overactive kid who can't pay attention very long" (ADHD). In this way the psychologist keeps intruders out of their exclusive domain and preserves the impression of being a skilled professional.
The tendency to use highly technical terminology to cover up inadequate understanding is characteristic of disciplines that have weak science foundations — they invent big words to cover up their ignorance and then throw them around as evidence of their training and expertise. Even trained professionals have difficulty separating out the disorders in this "spectrum of autism" and one could argue that, even if they could, it would have little practical significance. It just seems to me to be a way of affecting a high level of expertise — if no one else knows enough to understand it — why, it must be pretty sophisticated. This I think is common in the DSM-IV and the diagnostic areas of psychology in general. See the links below to see what I mean about tergiversation and obfuscation.
Hyperlexia
ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
SPD (Semantic Pragmatic Disorder)