Living with a Disability: Asperger's Syndrome

I want to start off by saying that I appreciate getting this assignment. I found the website and the blog to be very interesting. Hopefully I will be able to find the book easily, because I definitely want to read it.

John Elder Robinson has Asperger’s Syndrome. This is a form of autism, but people with Asperger’s have a higher functioning level than those with typical autism. As a result of having Asperger’s, Robinson has a number of strengths that have, after a difficult childhood, served him quite well as an adult. He is able to think very logically and seems to naturally understand technology. Robinson is able to frame a problem in his mind - such as the ratio of females to males at an event – and to not only solve the problem, but to organize it in a novel way, i.e. each female is represented by adding 1 and each male is represented by subtracting 1, with the end result being 14. His weaknesses are common to those of many people, not just people with Asperger’s. These would be feeling awkward in social situations, particularly large gatherings, and not being sure how to act. I know that I certainly share these anxieties.

I am not sure if my teaching strategies would necessarily change if I had a student who I knew had been diagnosed as having Asperger’s. If a child is not understanding something I think my first attempt to help them would be to break the problem down into logical pieces. Something I would have to keep in mind with a student who has Asperger’s or autism would be ensuring that I was not using phrases with double meanings or ambiguous meanings. I imagine sarcasm or irony would be something that may confuse or frustrate students with Asperger’s, especially, but I do not think sarcasm is really an appropriate way to speak with any child.

Of course the social aspect of schooling would be a difficult issue in this case. I think if I was teaching a child with Asperger’s at a primary level I would want to try to very slowly get the child comfortable with being in a large group setting. This would require a lot of collaboration with perhaps an occupational therapist or another professional who would be able to focus their attention more on the individual child. I think it would be very important, particularly starting at a younger age, to take “baby steps,” working up to more and more social interactions. Creating a classroom environment where the student feels safe and secure would be vital.

If I was teaching a student with Asperger’s at a high school level, and the student had not been involved in any sort of early intervention program, I imagine it would significantly more difficult to gain the student’s trust. I think that feeling of trust would be key in accommodating a student with Asperger’s.