Research on Asperger's continues, unfortunately more needs to be done and it appears there are more questions than answers.
Slade Rice has Asperger's, since second grades he's struggled with communication.
"If he thinks he is in trouble with you he doesn't really make eye contact with you, its almost painful for them," said Krista Rice Watkins, Slade's mother.
"When we look at MRI imaging studies we show that some of the areas that are involved in recognition, facial expressions and emotion maybe altered."
Children with Asperger's usually excel in a certain area.
"He could do something in one second with electronic," she said.
"What scientist think is that while there are abnormal connections between certain regions of the brain that make empathy and emotions and interpreting conversation. There are super connections where there is a higher level of activity this is why it is likely that people with Asperger's have high intelligence in certain areas and capable of doing things that other people can't do," said Dr. Julie Pilitsis, a neurosurgeon at Albany Medical Center.
Motor skills are often challenged.
"Not only to socialize but the physical clumsiness, whether that is due a difference in those connections or just over attention to one detail and not to another," said Pilitsis.
Over stimulation usually causes a reaction.
"He cries very easily. He doesn't feel like he has any friends," Slade's mother said.
"Often times with the autism spectrum the singulis area in the frontal lobe that is often affected and depression and how we process emotion has different connections than people without the disorder," said Pilitsis.