[The influence of the social perception of emotions in the formal language of children with Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism].

INTRODUCTION

People with Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism both have difficulties in the social area that become manifest in alterations affecting the development of mental skills, difficulties in self-perception and control over the emotions, and scant success when it comes to developing social interactions that last for any length of time.

DEVELOPMENT: A linguistic analysis of the answers children give when asked to talk about personal events in which they made someone angry or somebody made them angry reveals the intention to generate empathy and sympathy in children who have undergone normal development. These two tasks were performed by children with Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism and the results were then analysed.

CONCLUSIONS

Competencies of an emotional nature, which were detected through the language used, vary widely among children with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism of the same chronological age and indicate a motivation to generate a positive representation of themselves in their interlocutor when they answer questions in which they have to talk about negative events they were involved in.