6. Area of Interest
Commonly, someone with Asperger’s will find a special area of interest that fascinates them and they may appear to become obsessive about this topic. This can result in their developing advanced skills and knowledge surrounding that area but they might also give the subject undue attention. As mentioned, they might feel the need to speak about this topic a lot, even when others attempt to show signs that they aren’t interested.
It is a common misconception that those with Asperger’s will have ‘savant-like’ abilities, as depicted in the film Rain Man. Not only is this actually a condition that is associated with autism more than Asperger’s, but it is also incredibly rare in those cases too.
What is true is that Asperger’s patients will be more likely to gravitate toward subjects that involve data, facts, figures and well-defined rules and structures. They might like looking at maps for example, or they might enjoy memorizing numbers or musical scores.