teaching students with Asperger\'s Syndrome

Asperger's syndrome is a form of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It can involve widespread learning difficulties although not as severe as those found in other autistic disorders. It appears to have a genetic basis that results in failures to develop new areas of the brain properly during development. This causes a variety of problems such as particularly to do with social interactions and unusual behaviour. This can lead to the children with Asperger's syndrome being considered naughtier than other children.

The syndrome was named after Hans Asperger, who discovered it back in 1944 when observing poor nonverbal communication in children he was studying. The problems that Asperger's syndrome brings begin early in development and they are likely to continue throughout their childhood and into adulthood. The problems will appear in potentially all brain areas as they develop are cause new behavioural problems as a consequence. So teaching such children will involve a constant looking out for new symptoms and devising of strategies to deal with those symptoms.

There are a variety of symptoms of Asperger's syndrome that may be observed and of these, problems with social interaction are particularly prevalent. These can include reduced empathy, for example. This can appear as a failure to develop or hold on to friendships normally or to fail to join in with group activities. Other symptoms include stereotypies, involving ritualised or repetitive movements and speech, as well as a specialising of interests, perhaps with an intense focus. But physical clumsiness and odd use of language may also be present and perhaps misconstrued as naughtiness.

Diminished nonverbal communication skills are another symptom of Asperger's syndrome, such as the use of eye contact and gesture, for example. This can leave children with the syndrome in a position where they are socially awkward, failing to have normal conversations with either other children or their teachers. Although they may not be withdrawn from others, as such, making clumsy attempts at conversation instead that can involve just chattering away about something that they happen to be interested in.

Indeed the narrowed interests and intense focus that are exhibited can lead the Asperger's syndrome child to be quite knowledgeable on a very specific topic and only too willing to share that knowledge with others whether they like it or not. So teaching an Asperger's child involves plenty of hurdles to overcome, requires patience, and an understanding of the condition and knowing when a child is just being naughty and when they are doing things that result from the syndrome and require special treatment.

Learn more about this author, Darian Peters.