Global and Regional Asperger’s Syndrome Partnership (GRASP)

The Global and Regional Asperger’s Syndrome Partnership (GRASP) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase public awareness of Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism; to provide those with Asperger Syndrome and High-Funcioning Autism with a mutually-supportive community that is both comforting and challenging to one another; to teach its members who are diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism, through education and understanding, to maximize the talents and minimize the damage brought on by their condition, to harness the unique capabilities and celebrate the accomplishments inherent in their community, and to reduce the harm caused when their behavior diverges from non-autistic norms; to become a national, and eventually, international force for change in improving the live of those with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism. Asperger’s syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder. Children with this disorder experience the inability to understand the feelings of others, abnormal single-mindedness, lack of verbal skills, insensitivity to social cues, withdrawal and obsessive indulgence in special interests. Many clinicians believe that Asperger’s syndrome is a sub-type of autism that is differentiated by a later onset (i.e., it is usually not recognized before 30 months of age) and by the fact that speech generally is not delayed, as it often is in children with autism. The exact cause of Asperger�s syndrome is unknown.