Asperger's Syndrome and High School Kids

Parents who were heartened that their children, who at some point were diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, made it through preschool, kindergarten and even elementary school relatively unscathed, are now worried about the impact high school will have on their kids. After all, the amount of teacher and parent supervision and control over the environment of a high school youngster is greatly diminished. There is little doubt that problems which may deeply affect an Asperger’s Syndrome child will not come to light as readily as they did in the past, when mom or dad where almost standard fixtures on the school playground.

This has given rise to parental over involvement in the high school setting, although in some cases the children have suffered more from the constant over parenting than they might have from any ramification that teasing or other Asperger’s Syndrome related conditions could have brought. In the high school years, being accepted is a major aspect of the social pecking order and it is then that an Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis may be thought to make or break a child’s spirit.

The sad reality dictates that the lack of supervision gives rise to an increased danger of bullying and high school students with Asperger’s Syndrome quite often make the hapless target of a bully on the playground. Add to this the marked absence of structure and the increasing lack of routines, and the student with Asperger’s Syndrome is going to find that high school life brings with it a lot of challenges for which she may or may not have been prepared at the onset. Even in the relationship with teachers there is going to be a significant shifting. No longer is there one teacher in charge of the entire class, but instead a number of subject teachers will parade through the classrooms.

This leads to adverse interactions, and students who, because of their Asperger’s Syndrome, may talk and act like an authority on a given subject may actually make a teacher feel challenged in his authority. This may find an outlet in power struggles, bad grades, and even some less than pleasant parent teacher conferences. For the parent who has a child with Asperger’s Syndrome in the high school system, the added problem that makes parenting now a challenging obstacle course is the painful awareness that a youngster may not be as attractive to members of the opposite sex as perhaps she or he would have hoped.

Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Asperger’s Syndrome youngsters in the upper grades of high school will point out that acceptance of their peers takes a radical turn and while in the past there was copious teasing and even bullying, the upper grades are marked by inclusion and even a general sense of taking care of the friend with AS. Parents need to help their youngsters make it through the lower grades in anticipation of that changing in the sentiment, and this is never an easy task, no matter how hopeful the parent and the child may be.