[Asperger syndrome in childhood: review of four cases]. / Syndrome d'Asperger chez l'enfant: à propos de quatre observations.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Asperger syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder included lately in the international classifications. OBSERVATIONS We report the observations of four children presenting this syndrome. For every patient, we collected antecedents and psychomotor development; we made neuropsychological assessment and video recording. Three patients underwent an EEG and one a cerebral MRI. RESULTS: These patients were between ten- and sixteen-year old. The neuropsychological assessment showed a heterogeneous intellectual functioning with three times out of four a dissociation between high verbal level and low non-verbal level. Their language appeared sophisticated, apragmatic, their comprehension was inflexible. The mean age at diagnosis was ten years. They showed a sociability and autonomy improvement but they were conscious of their difference and suffered from it. CONCLUSION: Our four cases allow to present Asperger syndrome, slightly known in France. Collaborative studies and genetic studies are necessary to improve the knowledge of this syndrome.