Aspergers. Educational Implications and Teaching Strategies?

Question

What are some of the educational implications and teaching strategies for a teacher who has a student with aspergers in their classroom?

Answer 1

I have aspergers myself and I have noticed that teachers and friends often go at this totally wrong and make things much worse.  The biggest mistake is in being more tolerant of their wrong behaviors.  This only encourages them to continue doing the wrong thing.  You need to provide instant, constructive but positive feedback whenever there is a problem.  You need to explain the problem in plain English and not assume that the aspie knows what you are talking about.  Then get the aspie to verbalize in their own words what the social error that they made was.  A yes or no answer is not acceptable.  Then get them to verbalize a plan for the next time something similar happens.

Don't make the mistake of poking an aspie to try to get them to stop talking or talk differently.  To an aspie, that will be perceived as a physical attack and they will respond accordingly.

Remember that aspies do not have empathy.  Its a non-existent emotion for them.  We can't actually feel empathy which causes us to say hurtful things sometimes without realizing it.  It IS possible to learn pseudo-empathy.  Its just an act, but it helps us get along better with the rest of the world.

So basically, an aspie has a problem with social skills.  He is socially retarded.  Yet, he can achieve a 4.0 gpa with no difficulty.

Of course, all of this comes after the aspie accepts that he has a disability and learns what the symptoms are.  He can never get better until he takes that very important step.

Answer 2

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswh...

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/asperge...

educational implications

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http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?encq...

Answer 3

Children with Asperger's Syndrome typically exhibit strengths in their visual processing skills, with significant weaknesses in their ability to process information auditorilly. Therefore use of visual methods of teaching, as well as visual support strategies, should always be incorporated into any teaching that you are doing. Visual schedules and prompts work very well to keep them on track.

Children with Asperger's Syndrome can exhibit difficulty with their narrative discourse skills, including relating past events, or retelling movies, stories, and T.V. shows in a cohesive and sequential manner. They may leave out important pieces of relational information, as well as referents, and may use many revisions, pauses and/or repetitions. This impacts their comprehension of reading material as well. I would use a story map for fiction reading and a graphic organizer for non-fiction.

Finally, Asperger's children do not learn social relations by watching other people. These things need to be directly taught. For instance, if you want an Asperger's child to work in a cooperative group, you are going to have to teach him or her the behaviors that are necessary. The same goes for the playground or cafeteria. If you can come up with some visual prompts for the sequences of behavior, you will be ahead of the game. You might show a sequence of lining up, then walking quietly in line, going through the cafeteria line and then sitting down and eating lunch with friends.

Thank you for being interested in finding out more.

Answer 4

for aspergers, the most important of all is their ability to understand from ANOTHER perspective. which, most unfortunately, is their main area of difficulty. its a term "theory of mind".

if u r teaching comprehension, present a passage then ask them to tink how each character feels at a given situation. bcos they tend to take information very literally, they will have difficulty understand from another person's eyes. also, "abstract" concepts like "irony", "black humor", and "sacarsm" are their area of weakness too. u can try using pictures (in the form of comic strips) to depict the concepts graphically - as they can learn better visually.

Answer 5

Understand, these children look so normal, and they are so bright, but they are so different. Anything you say will be taken literally. Don't say " take a flying leap" because they will say from where? It might get a laugh but they are really serious.You need to start reading. There are so many books on Aspergers.One of the simplest and sweetest is All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome. By Kathy Hoopmann.

By the way our local community college is having a special meeting for faculty, because so many Aspies are coming in this year. It's like a epidemic.

I am a Grandma of an Aspie Genius. I just pray he can get through life okay.

Answer 6

I am still working on learning this one myself. I am going to college right now to become a teacher and every other Saturday I have been doing outside lab hours with an Autism support group where I attend college. My study there has been to provie the daycare for the parents to have support meetings. Most of the children have aspergers. If you e-mail me at [e-mail] I will e-mail you the name and number of the lady that runs it she might be able to give you some information and she has told me it is okay to give it out. The meetings are in Killeen Texas. The kids are sooo amazing. Here is one of the sites I have checked out on them

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/kare...

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/educ...