Aspergers Syndrome: Surviving and Thriving at School

1
Aspergers Syndrome Surviving and Thriving at
School

• Dr Michelle Garnett
• Minds and Hearts A Specialist Clinic for
  Aspergers Syndrome and Autism

2
Association With Famous Individuals in Science
and Art

• Ludwig Wittgenstein.
• Albert Einstein.
• Bela Bartok.
• Alan Turing.
• Bill Gates.
• Thomas Jefferson.
• Howard Hughes.
• Napoleon.

3
Failure to Launch

• Unemployment
• Underemployment
• Ineligible for some services
• Mental health issues (depression, anxiety
  disorders, PTSD)
• Overrepresentation in forensic settings

4
Hans Asperger
1930s
Vienna University Childrens Clinic
5
1944 Thesis on 4 Children Die autistischen
Psychopathen im Kindesalter.
6
Autistic Personality

• Impairments in verbal and non-verbal
  communication (unusual conversation skills and
  prosody, and pedantic speech).
• Impairments in the communication and control of
  emotions and a tendency to intellectualize
  feelings.
• Empathy not as mature as one would expect.

7
Autistic Personality

• Difficulties with social integration and making
  friends.
• Tendency to be teased by peers.
• Egocentric preoccupation with a specific topic of
  interest.
• The need for more assistance with self-help
  skills and organizational abilities than one
  would expect.

8
Autistic Personality

• Motor clumsiness.
• Hypersensitivity to some sensory experiences.
• Tendency for some children to develop conduct
  problems.
• Much more common in boys than girls.

9
Autistic Personality

• Family members may have some of the personality
  characteristics.
• Part of the natural continuum of abilities that
  merges into the normal range.
• Life-long and stable personality type.
• Some children develop special talents that can
  lead to successful employment.
• Some adults develop life-long relationships.

10
Autism, High Functioning Autism and Aspergers
syndrome
Typical development
Aspergers syndrome
High Functioning Autism
Classic Autism
Early childhood
Adolescence
11

• The nature of these children is revealed most
  clearly in their behaviour towards other people.
  Indeed, their behaviour in the social group is
  the clearest sign of their disorder and the
  source of conflicts from earliest childhood.
  Hans Asperger.

12
Hans Asperger

• Where it is about logical thinking, where the
  issue is meeting their special interests, they
  are ahead, surprise their teachers with their
  clever answers where it is about concentrated
  learning (copying, spelling, methods of
  arithmetic) these clever children fail in a
  severe kind of way, so that they often are on the
  brink of failing their exams 1944.

13
Common difficulties at school

• peer problems
• bullying and teasing
• easily distracted, ADD or ADHD
• poor problem solving ( one-track mind )

14
Common difficulties at school

• specific learning difficulties
• a fear of failure
• strong emotions
• behavioural problems

15
AS Responses to Bullying

• Three Strikes.
• Lack of ability to defend oneself when being
  accused.
• Ignore until the person can cope no longer.
• The Bully did not read the signals.
• Taking the law into their own hands.

16
The Effects of Being Bullied

• Low self-esteem.
• Anxiety and depression.
• Low academic achievement.
• Increased social isolation.
• PTSD

17
Strategies for Bullying

• www.mindsandhearts.net
• Article written by Dr Tony Attwood to download
  under Resources

18
A Map of the Safe and Vulnerable Places

• Some areas to receive more supervision.
• More safe-havens created.

19
Include The Silent Majority

• Bystanders to be assertive and to intervene.
• Consequences for not intervening, encouragement
  to intervene.
• Buddy with a social conscience and social status.

20
Avoid Vulnerable Situations

• One day things just got too much to bear. I had
  tried to hide in the changing rooms away from my
  tormentorsI wish I had written my book then as I
  would have realized that hiding away is the worst
  thing to do. These two lads (low-lifes) found me
  and began toying with me in much the same way as
  a cat plays with a mouse

21

• Dont go to a quiet corner somewhere at school
  breaks. Try to be somewhere safe such as the
  library. I know it sounds strange but when you
  think you are hiding you are most likely to be
  found and bullied. AS kids are not good at
  working out how other people think. The best
  thing to do is stay with your friend if you have
  one, or at least a place where there are lots of
  people around

22
A different way of learning

• Many children with Aspergers syndrome
• perform at the extremes of cognitive ability.
• have a conspicuously uneven profile of academic
  achievement.
• have a distinctive learning style, e.g. are
  talented in understanding the logical and
  physical world, noticing details and remembering
  and arranging facts in a systematic fashion.

23
Verbalizers

• About 50 per cent of children with Aspergers
  syndrome have relatively advanced verbal
  reasoning skills.
• Understanding may be improved by reading about
  the concept or engaging in a one to one
  discussion.

24
Visualizers

• About one in five children with Aspergers
  syndrome Aspergers syndrome has relatively
  advanced visual reasoning skills.
• Learning may be facilitated by observation and
  visual imagery.
• A picture is worth a thousand words
• Converting thought and images to speech.

25

• Two reasons to attend school, to learn and to
  socialize.
• If the child with Aspergers syndrome is not
  successful socially then academic success becomes
  more important for self-esteem.

26
Similarities to Attention Deficit Disorder

• At least 75 per cent of children with Aspergers
  syndrome also have a profile indicative of
  Attention Deficit Disorder.

27
Attention

• relevant information should be highlighted
• assignments should be broken down into smaller
  units, in keeping with the childs attention span
  
• the teacher should regularly monitor and give
  feedback to maintain attention
• the amount of environmental distractions should
  be reduced
• a quiet, isolated work space should be provided
• consideration should be given to the possible
  value of medication.

28
Executive Function and Attention

• Leads to difficulties considering alternative
  problem solving strategies My Way

29
(No Transcript)
30

• Train track.
• One-track mind.
• The last to know and seek help if they are on the
  wrong track.
• Lose train of thought if interrupted.

31

• Distress and confusion if there is a change in
  the method of class assessment or tests.
• Not having an inner conversation to solve a
  problem.
• Continue using incorrect strategies and not
  learning from mistakes.

32
Need an Executive Secretary
33
Consistency and Certainty

• Drive to seek consistency and certainty.
• Concern if there is more than one right answer.
• Black and White thinking
• Difficulty accepting value judgments (English).

34
Preparation for Change

• Explanation, preparation and reassurance.
• Social Stories.
• Compulsion for completion.
• Transfer to another school.
• Buddy system.
• Visual systems

35
(No Transcript)
36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
Fear of Making a Mistake

• Dont try, you dont make a mistake.
• Fear of appearing stupid and being ridiculed by
  peers.
• Advice perceived as criticism.
• Tendency to point out other peoples errors.

39
Coping With Mistakes

• Perfectionist.
• Self-perception as an adult.
• Cognitive style of noticing details and errors.
  (Weak Central Coherence and pessimism).
• Limited ability to tolerate frustration.
• Frustration volume control an on/off switch.

40
Alternative Strategies Flexibility in Thinking
41
Strategies

• In play and learning, an adults ability is not
  perfect.
• Model how to cope with frustration.
• We learn more from our failures than our
  successes.
• Approach an error as an opportunity.
• Alternative options.
• Being calm is being smart.
• I.Q. drops 30 points.

42
Elijah

• Dad told me mistakes were okay and now I know
  that the first mistake I made was thinking
  mistakes were not okay.

43
Oppositional and Defiant

• Do not recognize alternative perspectives and
  priorities.
• Egocentric perception.
• Limited in the gentle art of persuasion,
  negotiation and compromise.

44
Classroom

• Quiet, well-structured classroom.
• Avoid sensory overload.
• Minimal changes in routines and staff.
• Visible daily schedule of activities and
  preparation for transitions.
• Benevolent peers as guides.

45
Classroom

• A work station or office.
• A to do list.
• Extra time to complete an activity or assignment.
• Access to a special education support teacher or
  learning support unit.

46
Support Services

• Access to a special education support teacher or
  learning support unit.
• Expertise in autism.
• Advisory visiting teacher for Autism Spectrum
  Disorders.

47

• Computer based learning and a curriculum on a
  CD-ROM.

48
The Knowledge and Personality of the Teacher

• These children often show a surprising
  sensitivity to the personality of the teacher.
  However difficult they are, even under optimal
  conditions, they can be guided and taught, but
  only by those who give them understanding and
  genuine affection, people who show kindness
  towards them and yes, humour. The teachers
  underlying emotional attitude influences,
  involuntarily and unconsciously, the mood and
  behaviour of the child. Of course, the management
  and guidance of such children essentially
  requires a proper knowledge of their
  peculiarities as well as genuine pedagogic talent
  and experience. Mere teaching efficiency is not
  enough.
• Hans Asperger 1944.

49

• Teachers who show an empathic understanding of
  the child.
• Are flexible in their teaching strategies,
  assessments and expectations.
• Like and admire the child, respect his or her
  abilities and know the childs motivators and
  learning profile.

50
Nita Jackson

• Mr Osbourne was always bubbly and ready to make a
  light-hearted joke out of anything. He rarely got
  angry or raised his voice like most of my other
  teachers did. He let me hide in the music
  departments store cupboard at break time,
  without even blinking an eye, it was as though he
  understood and accepted why I needed to go to
  ridiculous measures to separate myself from
  society. I respected him for not probing for
  answers like everyone else did. Occasionally he
  would tap on the door, say boo! and offer me a
  biscuit (which I never declined). On the last day
  of term, I bought him a tin of biscuits in return
  for the amount of biscuity yumminess he had
  allowed me

51
Hans Asperger

• While demonstrations of love, affection and
  flattery are pleasing to normal children and
  often induce in them desired behaviour, such
  approaches only succeed in irritating Fritz, as
  well as all other similar children.
• All educational transactions have to be done with
  the affect turned off. The teacher must never
  become angry nor should he aim to become loved.
  The teacher must, at all costs, be calm and
  collected and must remain in control.

52
Stress and Mental Exhaustion

• The education and social curriculum.
• Absence of real breaks.
• School is for learning, home is for fun and
  relaxation.

53

• Pruning the High School Curriculum.

54
If the world was left to you socialites, we
would still be in caves talking to each other
Temple Grandin
55
Association With Famous Individuals in Science
and Art

• Ludwig Wittgenstein.
• Albert Einstein.
• Bela Bartok.
• Alan Turing.
• Bill Gates.
• Thomas Jefferson.
• Howard Hughes.
• Napoleon.