Asperger Syndrome (AS) was first observed by Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger in 1944. He described several children who lacked nonverbal communication skills, failed to demonstrate empathy with their peers, and were physically awkward.  Their speech was either disjointed or overly formal, and their all-absorbing interest in a single topic dominated their conversations. He labelled these patterns as "autistic psychopathy" and his writings gathered little attention until 1981 when English doctor Lorna Wing published similar case studies and credited Dr. Asperger by using his name to describe the syndrome. AS became an official diagnosis in 1992 with the World Health Organization listing it in their official manual (ICD-10). The official diagnostic manual of the psychological field (DSM) first recognized AS in 1994.

University of Pittsburgh psychologist Ming-Ye Wang examined the effects of verbal abuse on adolescents. His results conclude that, rather than minimizing problematic behavior in adolescents, the use of harsh verbal discipline may in fact aggravate it. The researchers found that adolescents who had experienced harsh verbal discipline suffered from increased levels of depressive symptoms, and were more likely to demonstrate behavioral problems such as vandalism or antisocial and aggressive behavior. Perhaps most surprising, Wang and Kenny found that the negative effects of verbal discipline within the two-year period of their study were comparable to the effects shown over the same period of time in other studies that focused on physical discipline.