International Asperger Year

This year has been declared International Asperger Year to highlight
and recognise the achievements of people with Asperger Syndrome the
world over.

Interested people are invited to celebrate the centenary of the
birth of Dr Hans Asperger on Saturday 18 February. Dr Asperger's
work with children led him to define common traits shared by some
children. His paper, submitted to the journal in 1943, was based on
investigations of more than 400 children with "autistic psychopathy"

Dr. Asperger's centenary also marks the 25th anniversary of the
publication of Dr. Lorna Wing's article "Asperger's syndrome: a
clinical account" in the journal Psychological Medicine. Dr. Wing's
paper, the first major English-language presentation of Dr.
Asperger's work, helped bring worldwide attention to Asperger's
Syndrome.

Asperger published the first definition of Asperger's Syndrome in
1944. In four boys, he identified a pattern of behavior and
abilities that he called "autistic psychopathy," meaning autism
(self) and psychopathy (personality disease). The pattern
included "a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-
sided conversation, intense absorption in a special interest, and
clumsy movements." Asperger called children with AS "little
professors" because of their ability to talk about their favourite
subject in great detail.

He was convinced that many would use their special talents in
adulthood. He followed one child, Fritz V., into adulthood. V.
became a professor of astronomy and solved an error in Newton's work
he originally noticed as a child. Hans Asperger's positive outlook
contrasts strikingly with Leo Kanner's description of autism, of
which Asperger's is often considered to be a high functioning form.

Ironically, as a child Hans Asperger appears to have exhibited
features of the very condition named after him. He was described as
a remote and lonely child, who had difficulty making friends. He was
talented in language, in particular he was interested in the German
poet Franz Grillparzer whose poetry he would frequently quote to his
uninterested classmates.

Asperger died before his identification of this pattern of behaviour
became widely recognized because his work was mostly in German and
little-translated. The first person to use the term "Asperger's
Syndrome" in a paper was British researcher Lorna Wing. Her paper,
Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account, was published in 1981 and
challenged the previously accepted model of autism presented by Leo
Kanner in 1943.

We invite you to observe International Asperger's Year, to be held
in 2006, the year of these two landmark anniversaries. International
Asperger's Year is an appropriate time to honor Dr. Asperger and
other researchers, encourage people who might have AS to seek
diagnosis, correct misconceptions about AS, improve and expand AS
public services, develop AS mentoring programs, and recognize the
special needs of AS adults.

International Asperger's Year is the first worldwide celebration
dedicated solely to Asperger's Syndrome. Organizations and
individuals may observe IAY as they wish. The initiative was
conceived by the Asperger Adults of Greater Washington, has been
sanctioned by the World Autism Organization, and has been endorsed
by the following specialists and leaders:

• Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental
Psychopathology and Director of the Autism Research Centre at
Cambridge University;
• Professor Uta Frith, Deputy Director, Institute of Cognitive
Neuroscience, University College London;
• Hon. Angela Browning, M.P., Asperger political advocate and mother
of an Asperger adult;
• Stephen Shore, author and consultant;
• Roger N. Meyer, author and advocate;
• Jerry Newport, author, and inspiration for the film Mozart And The
Whale; and
• Michael John Carley, nonprofit executive.

A Committee for International Asperger's Year has establishedan open
listserv for the exchange of IAY-related ideas, information and
announcements: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/asperger-year