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Can ADD, or ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome Occur Together?

© Barbara Fowler

When my son was in Kindergarten a parent suggested that he might have Attention Deficit Disorder. I took that suggestion seriously because I knew that my child was having severe difficulty coping in our environment, but I didn't know why. After researching ADD and ADHD to death, I realized that only a few characteristics fit. My child certainly wasn't one who wouldn't sit still - if anything, we had the complete opposite problem - he would sit still for hours if he was interested in a topic. His Kindergarten teacher drove him crazy when she changed the subject every 15 minutes or so. Just as he got going on the subject of dinosaurs, soaking up every fact she could tell him, she would change it to an art project much to his dismay.

I had always assumed that the reason my son doesn't hear me call his name is because he is over focused on the topic or interest that he is playing with or working on and cannot drag his attention away from it. I have to touch my son on the arm in order to gain his attention. He has great difficulty organizing his school work and is forever losing his eraser, pencil, etc. In fact, one of the biggest problems we have in our house is when my son loses something - it drives him crazy and we all pitch in and hunt for the item before he has a meltdown. He used to have great difficulty waiting his turn and interrupted us all the time until he reached the age of 11 -either our constant negative reactions finally reached him or he outgrew this behavior.

It wasn't until we became foster parents for a year when my son was 7 that I really discounted the suggested of ADD as a possible reason for his behavior. We had a young boy, aged 9 who was diagnosed ADD and another young boy, aged 7 who was diagnosed ADHD. After an exhausting weekend with the 7 year old and 6 weeks with the 9 year old, I realized that my son didn't have either of these two conditions.

ADD and ADHD are neurological disorders with a possible genetic inheritance with lack of attention, or difficulty paying attention as a core symptom. Asperger Syndrome is also a neurological disorder with various suspected causes, including genetic inheritance, but the symptom of lack of attention is usually attributed to the child paying too much attention to a special interest. It is entirely possible for a child to have both ADD or ADHD and Asperger Syndrome but somewhat difficult to diagnose.

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