Expert: James Michael Roan - 2/6/2009

Question
I have a question regarding the possibility of an 11 year old boy having aspergers syndrome.  He has not been diagnosed as of now.  This child is highly intelligent and gets good grades.  Throughout his life he has generally been a loner but sometimes has 1 or 2 good friends that he spends a lot of time with, mostly walking around during recess and talking.  He doesn't engage in play activities: games, sports, etc with other children.  He spends hours in solitary time at the library looking at books on airplanes and space stations.  He collects airline schedules and books about airplanes and spends hours looking at them over and over.  He is somewhat clumsy and has problems with social interactions, especially with other children.  He is confused by jokes and doesn't seem to understand what the other children are doing, and he has a tendency to take things literally.  He has very poor eye contact with other people.  But this child is very creative.  He pretends to be a talk show host and acts out scenes in front of a mirror.  He engages in pretend play that he is a character in a tv show, or a soldier (usually by himself but sometimes with other children).  He has a tape recorder and records himself for hours on end pretending to be a radio dj.  Or he does other role playing games (usually by himself) with his tape recorder.  He will play through the same scenerio over and over again, but these are long scenerios that may go on for an hour or more. For example, he pretends to be an airline pilot and he improvises the dialog of all the characters.  He plays the part of the pilot, the stewardess, air traffic control, even some of the passengers.  He uses different voices for each character, and he has the ability to improvise.  Once he banged his knee into the desk and yelled out "ouch" and then he incorporated that into his story line ("the man in the seat in front of me pushed his suitcase into my leg").  So many of his behaviours are very similar to the description of aspergers, but his ability to engage in pretend play and improvise dialog makes me question if that is really a correct diagnoses for him.  He has never gone through any formal diagnoses process.  Can you give your opinion on the possibily of aspergers?

Answer
Hi Jeff;

I think the possibility of Asperger's syndrome (AS) is very high. All children with AS are different and most do have excellent pretend play skills. Many are extremely creative while others are much less so. He sounds like he is very bright and will do well in adulthood in an area similar to what he is interested in now.

Kind regards,
James






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Bio

James Roan is a certified school psychologist who has been consulting in the areas of autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and learning difficulties in the United States and in Ireland for over ten years (http://www.jamesroan.com). James earned his M.Ed. in School Psychology and M. Ed. in Adult Education and receives ongoing post graduate training in autism at the University of Washington’s Autism Center. James Roan has traveled to Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Clare, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and other cities and counties across Ireland assessing children and adults, and consulting with solicitors (lawyers) in defense of children with disabilities. James Roan was the consulting psychologist responsible for many of the autism and AD/HD screening tools and other content for Access Special Needs.Com. James Roan consulted with the graduate department of the Waterford Institute of Technology in Waterford Ireland in the development of their graduate program for the certification of private autism tutors. James has conducted formal assessments of students in the Autism Unit in the Claddagh National School in County Galway Ireland.