Hi, I have a son who has Asperger's's.  He and I were playing around the other day making silly faces and I noticed he can't do many of the basic tongue tricks, ex. roll his tongue, or even put the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth.  Instead of the tip he pulls the center of his tongue to the roof of his mouth while the rest remains flat, or even concave.  Does that have anything to do with his disorder? I have noticed that tongue control is used to determine neurological problems, could it be something more?

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Hi KittyDaLuz and thank you for your question. Here is an answer to your question from Margaret Bauman, MD, a pediatric neurologist and director of the LADDERS Program at MassGeneral Hospital for Children:

Many children, adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders - of which Asperger's is a part, are now recognized to have a variety of motor dysfunction, usually low muscle tone and deficits in motor planning (for example - how do I get my mouth to do what I what it to do, when I want it to do it). Tongue movement, and mouth movements can be part of this profile in some children and can impact on articulation, as well as chewing and mouth movements. The research pertaining to motor dysfunction in Autism/Asperger's is relatively new but evolving rapidly.
Note: Top medical experts on autism answer questions like these on the ABC News OnCall+ Autism site: http://abcnews.com/autism .

*****FROM ABC NEWS MEDICAL UNIT*****