天才儿童的“亚斯普杰氏症候群”之路

标签： 天才儿童 症候群 | 发表时间：2011-08-25 21:41 | 作者：Shophen 岩飞松

出处：http://www.yeeyan.org

原作者：
来源Autistic or just brilliant?
译者Shophen

Plenty of opinion pieces have been published in recent years on the autistic spectrum condition known as Asperger's syndrome.

近几年来，人们对自闭症谱系发表了不同的看法，自闭症谱系指的是亚斯普杰氏症候群(常发生在小学低年级学生中的精神紊乱, 症状为社交能力差和重复性的行为模式)。

It has been interesting to see the proliferation of an Asperger's diagnosis of both adults and children throughout this decade, but it has raised serious questions for me when Asperger's is confused with giftedness.

看到近十年来越来越多的大人、小孩被诊断为亚斯普杰氏症候群是件有意思的事，但是当亚斯普杰氏症候群和天才被混为一谈时，它却引发我一阵忧思。

Diagnosis of any psychological, emotional or social condition is made on the basis of the behaviours of individuals and their reporting of their thoughts and feelings. When the same behaviours, thoughts and feelings can be attributed to more than one condition, it can be difficult to determine the cause.

对心理、情感、社交状况进行诊断的依据是个体的行为举止，以及个体自身所陈述的思想和感受。当同一行为、思想和感受可以发生在不同的情景下的时候，病因就很难诊断。

When one significant condition is not well understood, the chances are that the diagnosis will be incomplete. The explanation that is not considered in the case of children and adults of high ability expressing concerns about their social engagement is that they may be gifted.

只要一个有效条件不明确，这个诊断就不完整。高才能的成年人、小孩对他们的社交感到焦虑的言下之意也许就是：他们是天赋异禀的人。

This is generally because being gifted and its attendant difficulties are not well understood within the medical or educational communities.

而这通常是因为在医学界和教育界，成为天才及其所伴随而来的困难并没有很好地被了解。

For centuries, writers and researchers have observed and recorded how very high ability, particularly in the cognitive domain, leads to asynchronous development in the emotional, social and physical domains.

几世纪以来，作家及研究学者们已经观察并记录高才能——特别是在认知领域——是怎么造成情感、社交和心理方面的不同步发展。

Long before Dr Asperger identified behaviours related to an inability to relate to others and social difficulties, many gifted individuals had spoken of how their intellectual drive made it difficult to connect with the mundane aspects of life.

与别人相处和处理社交问题方面的无力感会引发的一些行为，而早在亚斯普杰氏鉴定这些行为以前，就有很多天赋异禀的人谈及他们在智力方面的干劲是如何把拥有一个平凡的生活变成一件艰难的事。

They found that connecting to people with whom there was little in common, or sharing ideas which were new, complicated and demanding in a way that others could follow was problematic and made communication awkward.

他们发现，和共同点少的人交往，或者分享一些新颖、复杂、高难度的想法时对方跟不上，这就成了问题，会让谈话变得尴尬。

Gifted children can appear to have the same behaviours as those with Asperger's. They have good language skills and great memories. They have areas of deep interest, and can have great imaginations so are often dreamy and out of tune with what's around them or be so logical and straightforward in their thinking that imagination and pretence are a mystery to them.

天才儿童会出现一些与亚斯普杰氏症候群相同的行为。他们有很高的语言技巧、极强的记忆力，他们对一些领域有极深的兴趣，他们有超高的想象力，想象一些空幻的、与周遭环境格格不入的事物，或者，他们的思维很有逻辑、很直接，幻想和作假对他们来说是件难以理解的事。

Many gifted children fidget, since it can help keep the brain occupied and allow them to organise their thoughts more easily, while others may hum, sing or talk to themselves to achieve the same effect.

很多天才儿童都会出现焦躁不安的行为现象，因为这样做可以帮助他们的大脑保持忙碌，让他们可以更好地整理思绪，也有一些天才儿童通过发出声响、唱歌和自言自语来达到相同的效果。

They need time to engage in the activities that they are most satisfied by. If there are other children who also enjoy those activities, they will play with them, but most often there are not.

他们需要时间去进行一些他们最感兴趣的活动。如果有其他小孩刚好也喜欢这些活动，他们就会同这些小孩一起玩，但是，多数情况下这样的小孩几乎不存在。

Gifted children will often share, at length, their interests and ideas before recognising the lack of understanding others have in the topic, so seem to be talking at, rather than with, them. They are often difficult to manage when their needs clash with the expectations and needs of others. They are protective of their time and resist being organised into joining in with children or activities they don't relate to.

天才儿童常常会兴致勃勃地和别人分享他们的兴趣和主意，但最终发现别人对这个话题并不了解，所以，他似乎只是在对他人喋喋不休，而不是与他们交流。当自身的需求与别人的期望和需要相抵触时，他们会变得令人难以招架。他们很重视自己的私人时间，会抵制别人安排他们加入自己不感兴趣的孩群或活动。

They are often lost in thought, lost in a book or an activity to the point where they do not register their surroundings.

他们常常会陷入沉思、沉浸在一本书或一个活动里，以至于忘却了周围的其他事物。

As their social development progresses, children become aware of others and their own position in the groups in which they move.

当在社交发展方面有进展时，孩子们会意识到他人的存在关系，以及自己在群体当中的位置。

Difficulty finding others similar to themselves leads to feelings of isolation. School and family life can be very difficult for these children.

而当发现很难找到跟自己相似的伙伴时，他们就会感到孤立。所以，学校和家庭生活会让他们因缺少知己而感到憋屈。

During the 1990s, this unmanageable or inattentive behaviour was diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and many gifted children were unnecessarily medicated to control it, with all the attendant side effects.

20世纪90年代，这种难以招架、注意力涣散的行为被确诊为注意缺陷多动障碍（简称ADHD），以至于这些天才儿童要通过服用不必要的药物来进行控制，不可避免地带来了很多副作用。

Where the diagnostic confusion comes is a lack of understanding of how highly asynchronous intellectual and social development impacts on a person's sense of themselves and their place.

高度异步的智力发展和社交发展是如何对人的自我感觉和自身的定位感造成影响的？正是因为缺乏对此的了解，才造成了这种混乱的诊断。

Adults with late diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, who are writing about their experiences, have stretched the range of what constitutes the condition. When they write of their childhoods, it could be a description of a gifted child's life - confused about social cues, self-conscious and out of kilter with the interests and language of their peers. It is my concern that, in the diagnosis of Asperger's in children, there is too little awareness of how giftedness may affect social interactions and the two conditions require different approaches for remediation.

一些到后期才被确诊为亚斯普杰氏症候群的成年人，他们正在写他们的一些经历感受，而他们写的这些证明了还存在着更多造成亚斯普杰氏症候群的因素。当他们写到自己的儿童时期时，这些描述可能就成为了一个天才童年生活的写照——对社会暗示、自我意识的迷惑，跟同龄人的兴趣、言语完全不搭调。我关心的是，在确诊某个孩子为亚斯普杰氏症候群时，人们往往没有察觉到天赋也会对人的社交产生影响，而这两种情况的补救方法是不同的。

One way to help determine whether it is a child's advanced intellectual development that is making social interactions difficult is to see how satisfying they find the company of other gifted children.

确定一个孩子超前的智力发展是否就是造成社交困难的原因的一个方法是要看他们在与同样身为天才的伙伴相处时的社交情况。

Social difficulties are often the result of placement with age peers rather than intellectual peers.

造成社交困难通常是因为把天才儿童放置在同龄人群中，而不是和他们一样的天才同伴中间。

Early interactions set the child's beliefs about themselves as a social being and these encounters can create a self- consciousness that may lead to anxiety disorders and social phobia.

早期的人际交往是天才儿童树立作为一个社会人的观念的时候，而这些交际障碍则会形成导致焦虑性障碍和社交焦虑症的自我意识。

In many gifted individuals, there is a strong perfectionist streak and they want to feel successful in all they do.

很多天赋异禀的人都有完美主义的倾向，他们做任何事都一定要取得成就感。

Unfortunately, social interactions can be difficult to manage, so getting it right all the time is harder. Gifted individuals dwell on this and this makes them more cautious, less spontaneous and harder for others to relate to.

不幸的是，社交通常是很难去掌控的，所以想要在所有事上都获得成就感就更难了。天赋异禀的人满脑子想着怎样做才会完美，而这种想法只会让他们变得更加小心翼翼，率性的反应更少了，也让别人觉得更加难以接触。

Managing this sensitivity is a valuable skill we can instil when we recognise the problem in gifted children. Meeting other gifted children, being placed appropriately in an accepting and responsive educational environment, and speech and drama opportunities to rehearse social responses can help develop confidence.

当我们在天才儿童身上发现这种问题时，让他们学会应对这种敏感是我们所能让他们养成的一种有用技巧。让他们接触其他天才儿童，或者适当地将他们安置在一个可接受的、可以得到响应的一个教育环境，提供演讲、戏剧表演的机会，让他们可以通过表演练习社交反应。这些都可以帮助他们建立信心。

CASE STUDY

个案研究

Ezra was a very difficult baby. From the start, he would not sleep. He demanded attention all his waking hours. By six months, he was vocalising real words, and at one year, he was speaking in two and three-word sentences. As a preschooler, he had a fascination with books and a passion for subjects such as the night sky, plumbing and explorers.

埃兹拉是位令人难以招架的孩子。最早的时候，他不睡觉。在醒着的时候他需要别人的全额关注。六个月大的时候，他就能说出单词。一岁的时候，他就已经可以讲两个或三个单词的句子。还是学龄前儿童的时候，他就对书本很痴迷，对天空、管路系统和探测器等物体充满激情。

He would eat only dry, crisp food with any enthusiasm - all meal times were a battle. When playing, he could not be interrupted without a creating a fuss. By five, he could read at a teenage level, spoke like an adult, was worried about peak oil and had been labelled a social isolate.

他只吃干、脆的食物，而且心血来潮的时候就要吃——按时吃饭对他来说就像战争一样。玩耍的时候，如果被打断，他不可能不大吵大闹。5岁的时候，他就能读十几岁水平的读物，讲话像个大人，担心峰值石油，被认为是一个与社会隔离的人。

He adored his nine-year-old neighbour and they played together for hours. At school, his frustration at his inability to make his hands produce the work his head demanded led to tantrums.

他很崇拜他那位9岁的邻居，他们一起玩耍，一玩就是好几个小时。在学校的时候，不能用自己的双说做出他头脑中想象出的事物所带来的挫败感让他变得暴躁。

He talked over the top of others to get his point across, fidgeted and wandered, could tune out and was bluntly honest to children and adults, often causing offence. By 10, he was finished with school.

他盛气冲冲地向别人讲解着，想让他们理解自己的观点，他很焦躁不安，晃荡来晃荡去，举止出格，他也很直率，对大人小孩都很诚实，但常常冒犯到别人。10岁的时候，他就结束的学校的课业。

He was very happy to be alone. He filled every minute of the day thinking, constructing plans, looking things up on the computer and reading.

他很高兴现在可以独处了。他把每一分每一秒都投入到思考、制定计划、上网查资料和阅读当中。

The school was frustrated with him and his parents were desperate. When he was eventually psychologically tested, the report surprised the school but not the parents.

学校方面对他感到很受挫，他的父母也感到绝望。当他最终被带去做心理测试的时候，测试结果震惊了学校，但他父母却不感到惊讶。

Ezra was operating intellectually as a 17-year-old with an IQ above 160. The psychologist found him engaging, quick-witted, deeply knowledgeable and with advanced moral understandings.

测试结果显示，埃兹拉拥有17岁孩子的智力水平，智商超过160.心理学家发现他注意力很集中，反应很快，知识渊博，而且有着超前的道德认知水平。

He had a low tolerance for ambiguity, was unafraid to tell the truth as he saw it and appreciated straight-talking in return. These attributes were setting him apart from his peers. The psychologist understood he was gifted. He could easily have been diagnosed with Asperger's.

他接受不了含糊不清的东西，他不害怕讲出真相，而且欣赏别人以同样直爽的方式回应他。这些特征让他同同龄人区别开来。心理学家知道他是天才。但他很容易就会被确诊为亚斯普杰氏症候群。

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