Supplemental Guide for Teachers of Children with Asperger's Syndrome

There is little doubt that teaching a child with Asperger’s Syndrome can be an intimidating prospect. After all, they do not call these children little professors for nothing. At the same time, their proverbial hair trigger temper is all but legendary, and those who do not work on providing a safe and also structured environment for students with the condition will soon find that their classroom will have a lot of problems. Mind you, these problems are not the fault of the student with Asperger’s Syndrome, but they are the responsibility of the teacher who failed – in spite of being alerted to the child’s condition -- to prepare for teaching properly.

In the hopes of minimizing the problems your classroom faces this year, here is a supplemental guide for teachers of children with Asperger’s Syndrome.

* Underestimating the frustration a child with Asperger’s Syndrome faces is easy, in part because their verbal skills are far advanced ahead of their peers. This leads to repeated overestimation of their academic prowess, which in turn places a lot of pressure on the child. Pressure turns into frustration, and frustration may lead to unwanted acting out. Avoid this vicious cycle by accurately assessing the actual learning rather than inferring skills. * All peer interactions are stressful, and bullying can happen even if you do not personally believe any of the kids in your class to be able to engage in such behavior. Work closely with playground supervisors to know what is going on when the children are not under your watchful eye. Adopt a zero tolerance policy for bullying and nip even the earliest signs of this kind of behavior in the bud. * Remember that students with Asperger’s Syndrome often have a hard time when forming their words on paper. This causes them to fall behind in activities and makes the classroom experience one of intense frustration. Counteract this problem by limiting the amount of writing the children need to do in class, and instead focus on other activities first. If you can schedule the writing activities to be done toward the end of class, this offers an open end that other children who are already done with their writing may use to read or get a start on their homework, while it will not allow the child with Asperger’s Syndrome to fall behind the rest of the class. * Consider a foray into typing. Typing is a normal motor skill that children with Asperger’s Syndrome can easily learn and it will make their homework preparation a much simpler task. Work with parents and caregivers to establish proper typing techniques and then let all your children choose to either type or handwrite their homework assignments. * Whenever possible test orally. This flies in the face of a lot of common school wisdom, but when teaching a child with Asperger’s Syndrome, you will find that the old school wisdom does not always work. Additionally, you may find that this mode of testing also helps your other kids do better on their evaluations and learning. You may be surprised how many actually are auditory learners as opposed to visual learners!