Due to problems with communication and shortage of understanding social interaction a child with Asperger’s syndrome may find group work difficult. This would lead to the child not to perform well in teams and some children may refuse to communicate with anyone. This behaviour wouldn’t last long so would guardedly improve or contact the parents or guardian of the child to make them aware and possibly send their child to therapy, where they could benefit from.
Don’t demand a student with Asperger’s syndrome to maintain eye contact with you. In my first year of teaching I asked a twelve year old boy with autism to maintain eye contact with me while talking to me. He struggled to understand what my intentions was and found it extremely hard to keep eye contact with me. Many students with Asperger’s syndrome experiences difficulty with eye contact; it is extremely hard for them to focus their eyes on a person for an extended period of time. Restricted eye contact is a part of the disability. Don't demand an Asperger’s student to look you in the eye as I wrongly did.
Explaining something to a child with Asperger’s syndrome staff need to explain in detail whether it’s something, like not being in school for a day. If possible teachers should inform students’ early hand that they have exams. It enables them to relax as they know what to expect. Another thing teachers should do is explain the activity to students with Asperger’s syndrome as many times it takes them to understand and ask simple questions to them so you’ll know if they comprehend what you’re saying. This would make children with Asperger’s syndrome feel more comfortable with the surrounding.
As a teacher you shouldn’t be super strict on a student for breaking something. A child with Asperger’s syndrome might be clumsy. This would lead to them having a poor co-ordination and trouble learning certain activities. You should brace yourself and be steady with their emotions if they broke something due to their clumsiness. Not all symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome are problematic. The astonishing ability to recognise patterns in enables students with Asperger’s syndrome to understand difficult mathematic problems and challenging science equations. Whether a child with Asperger’s syndrome is struggling to maintain brilliant grades, they’ll understand certain patterns and developing this natural talent is a positive step as you know you wouldn’t go through the same topics over and over again.
Let’s assume that the children are skilled and able to participate in their own way. Do they need to pace around the classroom to list the alphabet? You should allow the student to learn within their own framework, even if it seems odd. Be mindful that self-stimulatory performance such as flustering or fidgeting is vital to autistic children's focus and sense of security. Teach the child's peers to be respectful of stemming, rather than teaching the autistic child to suppress it. This is because autistic children are just as capable of learning as non-autistic children. They simply need to find a strategy for appropriate information interest. Children with Asperger’s syndrome should have the options to attend mainstream school without being characterised as children that should be only attending special school. This would not only teach children that students with autism can’t fit into society and would be recognised as ‘social outcast’, but that adults with disability would struggle in finding jobs because of the stereotypes. Children that have autism should be able to attend mainstream school. The staff should be taught and inspected because it’s a known fact that majority of students are influenced by teachers in school because they are being taught by them.
In general, it is a struggle to educate someone with Asperger’s Syndrome, but every child has the right to be educated. When striving to understand someone with a different viewpoint and understanding of life you need to step away from the negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs in order for you to view the situation objectively. When a student involved has Asperger’s syndrome staff need to be patient and sympathetic to the student going through common symptoms of autism. You shouldn’t be subjective to any student, but you should be considerate to students with autism because they face difficulty in understanding certain things that most people generally understand.
