Hi Twinkletoes,

Being adept at reading others' emotions sounds like NOT at all an Asperger feature. It's a huge asset.

The other traits, the being stuck on one play topic all day, and the bossiness, both can be part of AS (but aren't necessarily-- you'll get no armchair diagnosis from me).

To give you some context: my niece who has AS played repetitively with a few things, usually in a heavily scripted way such that she resisted input from other people. Her language use and vocabulary seemed sophisticated, but a lot of it was borrowed bits of books and TV shows. She orders other kids around: things have to be her way for her to play successfully with them. She is a very bright kid, but quite inflexible.

If you have concerns based on what the psychologist told you, you might want to have it checked out-- we finally got useful diagnostic info from the autism center of a children's hospital.

It is often hard for docs to figure out what is Asperger's and what is giftedness-- especially in girls-- so if you choose to pursue these questions, you would need to find a specialist who is really equipped to do this.

HTH,
DeeDee