Sue, its is hard to communicate to teachers the need for socializing people with Aspergers or autism. The children with these conditions do in fact suffer from lonliness.

The cause seems to be a difference in the way their corpus collsum passes information from one hemisphere to the other.
THey can be so literal that metaphors upset them.

They are not integrating concepts but sorting them.

Loneliness only make for more stress as they seem to excel in sorting or savant abilities that seem far beyond the norm.

My point is that we may not dectect the lonliness they feel but it is felt even if it is not expressed. Explaning to others the reason these kids act the way they do can be a starting point for others to interact with them in ways thatboth can appreciate more than simply being afraid of or feel contempt for the "strange" kid.