• Difficulty choosing a topic of conversation,

• Engaging in one-sided, long-winded conversations,

• The inability to recognize that other people think and feel differently than they do,

• The inability to understand nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, or body language, or to understand humor,

• Appearing not to understand, empathize with, or to be sensitive to others, feelings,

• Speaking in a voice that is monotonous, rigid, or unusually fast,

• Moving clumsily, with poor coordination,

• Displaying unusual nonverbal communication, such as lack of eye contact, few facial expressions, or awkward body postures and gestures,

• Showing an intense obsession with one or two specific, narrow subjects, such as baseball statistics, train schedules, or weather.

It is very difficult for AS individuals to develop normal friendships. They frequently remain dependent upon their parents or family members and suffer from separation anxiety and insecurity when they try to live on their own.

If they have not had social skills and language skills training called social "scripts" through special training and repetition as children or adolescents, it is unlikely that they would be able to become successful in the workforce. This is said with a caveat in that every individual is unique. The severity of Asperger's syndrome and other conditions that may be present, and the signs the individual presents will determine what steps can be taken to move this person into a work setting. There are those who have successfully completed training for advanced degrees and are now teaching in university settings. This shows that with the right kind of physical and speech therapy some individuals with AS can become productive members of society.

Individuals with AS may be able to learn the unwritten rules of socialization and communication when taught in an explicit and rote fashion, much like learning a foreign language. They may also learn how to speak in a more natural rhythm and to interpret communication techniques, such as gestures, eye contact, tone of voice, humor, and sarcasm.

The individual with AS may also need cognitive behavioral therapy to help curb interrupting, obsessions, meltdowns or angry outbursts, and develop skills in recognizing feelings and coping with anxiety. They will need to learn to recognize and deal with new places or events with lots of social demands and then select a strategy to cope with the situation. Individuals with AS like routine, so if you need to change their schedule do so gradually.