Elementary School Students with Asperger's Syndrome Face Uphill Battle

Even as parents have been alerted to the fact that Asperger’s Syndrome will make their child’s education more difficult, they may have breathed a sigh of relief when junior made it through preschool and kindergarten relatively unscathed. After all, there were few incidents and overall your child seemed to be doing remarkably well. This of course is a rather deceptive relief, especially since the real problems do not usually show up until the elementary school years, when social interactions are compounded with a more demanding academic schedule.

Elementary school students with Asperger’s Syndrome face an uphill battle in that they must now learn to contain themselves and their potential for hyperactivity and also emotion outbursts during a rigorous eight to ten hour day. Needless to say, this is where the first chinks in the armor will occur, and before long the child may realize that it is indeed markedly different from the peers and those who surround her or him. Even as intelligence is not an issue and the speech development is considered normal, the fact that Asperger’s Syndrome precludes the accurate understanding of non verbal clues renders the children almost helpless in a world that to an increases extent seems to be made up of such communications.

This is where the advocacy of parents comes to the forefront. Working together with teachers and school administrators, parents of Asperger’s Syndrome children may succeed in having the teaching methods changed to such an extent as to warrant adaptive technologies, altered curriculum studies, and even a difference in playground supervision. There is little doubt that elementary school children dealing with Asperger’s Syndrome do not have to be the odd man out they so frequently become when unskilled teachers and uninvolved parents fail to prepare them and their peers for successful interactions.

Although this only focuses on the social skills, they are a major factor in the life of any elementary school child, and wise is the parent who focuses her or his attention on this aspect of the scholastic life their child leads. The academic skills will take a bit of work as well, but most likely there it is a matter of helping the child to express their interest in certain subjects without actually disrupting the classroom setting, such as it may happen if the child calls out questions or even answered without being called upon and even after the teacher has already moved on to a difference subject matter.

Teaching a child with Asperger’s Syndrome does not have to be a complicated undertaking, but it does require some preparation, knowledge, and the support of caregivers. To this end parents and teachers are often urged to cooperate fully in the attempt to make the elementary school years as rewarding and positive for the child with Asperger’s Syndrome as is possible, and while it is simplistic to assert that there will be no problems, the fact that many of them can be nipped in the bud makes it a hopeful undertaking for those who do not want to put the child into a special education setting.