Asperger Syndrome In The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night

Asperger Syndrome in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time “I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward till I was hunched up with my forehead pressed onto the grass. The grass was wet and cold. It was nice” (Haddon 4). These are the words of Christopher Boone as he describes his way of coping with stressful social situation. Christopher is the main character in the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In this book, Christopher discovers that his neighbor’s dog has been killed, and he sets out to find out what really happened, and along the way, uncovers secrets about his own life. Christopher is a very unique individual, who thinks and reacts in unique ways. Christopher displays the characteristics of a person with Asperger’s syndrome.

It was first described in the 1940s by Hans Asperger, a Viennese pediatrician who observed autism-like behaviors in some children. These behaviors included difficulties with social and communication skills in individuals with normal intelligence and language development. Many professionals consider it a milder form of autism or “high-functioning autism.” In 1994, Asperger’s Disorder was added to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), as a separate disorder from autism. The major difference, between Asperger’s Disorder and autism is that there is no speech delay in Asperger’s. Also, individuals with autism are often aloof and uninterested in others, while those with Asperger’s usually want to have interactions, but they just do not know how (Asperger’s). This was the case with Christopher, because he did lacked the skills needed to always interact in appropriate