Asperger's Syndrome and Transition Difficulties

Transition is defined as “passage from one form, state, style, or place to another”. A characteristic common to children/adults with Asperger’s Syndrome is the difficulty they experience with making transitions.

For neurotypicals the transition process happens effortlessly (without us noticing), countless times a day. So it can be challenging for parents/carers/teachers to comprehend the impact that problems with transition create for those with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Transitions occur in an Asperger child’s physical environment from the moment they open their eyes each morning.

From bed to breakfast table to living room. From pyjamas to school uniform. From bare feet to socks and shoes. (Keep in mind the sensory transition from comfortable PJ’s to crisp, clean school clothes; bare, cool feet to enclosed, clammy feet.) Feeling empty (hunger) to feeling full.

Be aware that when you call your Asperger child away from the television to brush their teeth, the transition involves:-

Stopping the visual/auditory processing of watching T.V.;

Physically moving from living room to bathroom;

Visually processing the bathroom environment; and

The taste in their mouth changing from morning breath to fresh, minty breath.

For your Asperger child, the simple act of going to school involves multiple transitions:-

From home to car/bus (processing the passing scenery of the journey) to school.Have you ever noticed that your Asperger child seems reluctant/slow to get out of the car/bus at school and doesn’t seem to hear your last-minute instructions? That’s because all their energy is focused on processing the transition. (A better time to give last minute instructions would be at the beginning of the car journey.)

Once your Asperger child arrives at school, transitions continue to bombard his/her processing system. From the school grounds/corridors to inside the classroom; from classroom to recess area; recess area to playground; playground to classroom and so on.

At the end of the school day your Asperger child must cope with the transition from classroom to car/bus to home.

So how do we parents/carers/teachers help minimize the impact transition has on our Asperger children?

The responsibility is on us to be able to recognize every transition our Asperger children are faced with each and every day, and allow them time to process/catch up with their environment. We also need to understand that on some days for our Asperger children, too many transitions can lead to overload and meltdown. We must also accept that our Asperger child won’t “grow out” of having difficulty with transition – it will be an ever-present challenge in their lives. Our awareness of transition difficulties will mean we can facilitate this Asperger characteristic by allowing extra time for our children to process their transitions.

This understanding will also guide us as to when our Asperger child is the most receptive to hearing instructions or important information we have to impart to them. In this way we can minimize their transition difficulty and maximize their learning outcomes.

Nelle Frances is the mother of a 15 year old with Asperger's Syndrome, a Special Needs Educator and Author of the Ben and His Helmet series of books for Asperger children. She is also an active member of 5 Asperger's Syndrome Support and Advocacy Groups. For more information and Support Strategies visit http://www.nellefrances.com/tips1.html

Aspergers Syndrome, About the Disease

Aspergers syndrome is a disorder that strikes many children, and is somewhat similar to the problems and disease of autism. Aspergers syndrome is a milder form of what is called autistic children, and it is being found more common than anyone might have thought in the past. Asperger’s syndrome is more common in European countries, but there are thousands of people, living with this disease around the world. This disorder is one that will affect social interaction with others, and that will cause eccentric behavior during the young childhood years.

Most children who are afflicted with Aspergers syndrome are found to have grammar and speech problems that are more prevalent, that repetitiveness is something that these children continually are fascinated with, and seem to need to thrive. Repetitive things, such as repeating what you say, doing something in a habitual manner daily, and even writing the same thing on a paper, time after time until they are too tired to continue. Those children who are affected with Aspergers syndrome often are found to be fascinated with other things as well, such as cross word puzzles, math, French, automobiles, astronomy or history and they are not interested in any other subject what so ever. If the four year old only wants to study the stars, and will continually make a habit of repeating all the names of the stars, this could be an example of a child with Aspergers syndrome.

The medical condition known as Aspergers syndrome is not one that was really diagnosed or talked about before the 1940’s. An Austrian doctor who first was describing and working with children with this disorder named the disease so that common therapy and communication about this disease could take place for the future. These children were thought to be previously useless, dependent on their parents forever, but that is not that case with children who have Aspergers syndrome.

Asperger syndrome is one that is also known as AS or Asperger’s for short. Children who are diagnosed with Aspergers will find that there are very common characteristics between children that are said to have this disease. These children have very high, to above average intellectual abilities, their IQ levels are not that of someone who is not capable or functioning. Children with Aspergers feel no need to interact with other children, or anyone else at all for that matter. While their intellect is developing very fast, they feel no social connection to others. Another very common trait of children who are afflicted with Aspergers is that they seem to be very clumsy, that they have a hard time balancing their self, and the objects they may be carrying or walking around.

Oddvar Nilsen writes about a variety of subjects. He is the owner of http://www.aspergerssyndrome-online.info where you find more information of Aspergers syndrome.

Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

It is every parent’s nightmare for a child to be born with some form of disability. In the case of most physical disabilities this can be obvious or at least quickly diagnosed by a doctor. However, less obvious are disabilities or abnormalities associated with the child’s brain. Autism is such an abnormality and asperger's syndrome is a particular type of autism. Autism and asperger's syndrome in particular cannot usually be detected until the child has reached 18 months to 3 years of age. Asperger's syndrome may not become apparent until much later and sometimes into adulthood.

Asperger's syndrome (AS) is one of five neurobiological pervasive disorders (PDD) which collectively cover deficiencies in social and communication skills. Asperger's syndrome specifically identifies a person with normal to above normal intelligence compared with classic autism. As with classic autism, the asperger's syndrome person will have difficulty communicating and interacting with other people but is more specifically characterised by limited interests other than a preoccupation with a particular topic to the exclusion of all other topics. Other characteristics include repetitive behaviours or rituals, peculiarities in speech and language, socially and emotionally inappropriate behaviour and interpersonal interaction, problems with non verbal communication and clumsy and uncoordinated physical movements.

More simply, the characteristics of asperger's syndrome can be divided into three main categories: social impairments, narrow but intense interests and peculiarities of speech and language.

Many asperger's syndrome sufferers will experience difficulty in life and the progress of treatment will depend on how early in their life the condition was diagnosed, development of language skills, access to suitable schooling and above all the love and support of parents and family. Usually, treatment can be provided alongside a normal life and mixing with normal people.

There is no specific cure for asperger's syndrome or any form of autism but it can be managed by using special behavioural management techniques, special education and medication. With the love and support of parents and family together with a good psychologist many autism and asperger's syndrome people are able to integrate into a normal life pattern.

For more information on Autism and Asperger's Syndrome visit http://www.aboutautismhealthsite.info/ for other Health Issues visit http://www.the-health-issues-directory.com/

What is Asperger's and Where Does It Come From?

Did Einstein have Asperger's? Recently, I found myself miffed at yet another conference on Autism. In this case, it was a day long seminar lead by an M.D. from the child study center of a major Connecticut medical university. What upset me was that he implied that only M.D.'s can correctly diagnose Asperger's; moreover, that diagnosing anyone in less than four days was simply people out to scam money out of the poor families.

That this man was narrow minded is clear. What upset me was that he implied that only M.D.'s can correctly diagnose Asperger's; moreover, that diagnosing anyone in less than four days was simply people out to scam money out of the poor families.

What is important to see here is why they did not need this medical assistance. Why didn't they? Because their "special interest" generalized to an interest in which the general population is also interested. According to Dr. Iknowbest, though, people who achieve public success cannot possibly suffer from Asperger's.

Here again, we see a case wherein symptoms, rather than personal suffering, drives the diagnosis. However, before I address this misnomer further, I need to first make a disclaimer. I want you to know that I, in no way, mean to imply that all medically minded folks are asses. In truth, I relish reading medical studies such as those Harvard recently did, wherein they used brain imaging to explore the physical identity of Asperger's.

In truth then, I am only railing against people who use these kinds of studies to depersonalize human suffering. Moreover, saying Einstein did not suffer socially ignores everything we know about him as a person. To me, this is profoundly sad, and ignorant, especially in light of that his social ineptitude is a matter of record. As is that of people like Thomas Jefferson, Socrates, Lincoln and Newton, and so many others just like them.

That these men had a hard time socially connecting to others is simply fact. Newton, for instance, spent most of his life shut away in his apartment. Doing what? Thinking and writing about his "special interest"; physics. In a way, then, it's a miracle we even know of his work, given his aversion toward social shallowness and people in general.

Whatever the case, we do know him. Asperger's and all.

What is Asperger's?

So how do I define, Asperger's? Let me first define the spectrum to which it belongs; autism. I define autism as, "a social impairment wherein a person suffers from a pervasive category of socially disconnecting distractions." Moreover, what I mean by "socially disconnecting distractions" is that the person has the very tendency to which I have been referring; a personality sized "special interest."

What, then, is the principle symptom of this suffering?

The profound inability to connect to socially normal people. Especially to social peers.The principle behavior which drives this behavior?

Compulsively focusing on things other than personal relationships at the expense of personal relationships. Here again, the tendency to have "special interests."

So where does Asperger's fit into this spectrum? Asperger's is an autism. Thus Asperger's is "a personality sized, minority life focus wherein the person suffers from a significant inability to connect with socially normal peers. This is autism. And it certainly applies to people with Asperger's.

What qualifies someone as having Asperger's then? The focus of the person's "special interests." Here, I would describe this tendency; the person's special focus, as stemming almost entirely from the personal tendency to make information more important than people. This means the principle thing which distracts people with Asperger's is information and learning. Especially in and around their special interests. Moreover, without ever realizing it, they do this at the expense of their social relationships.

Okay. So I admit it. This way of defining Asperger's is a lot to digest. And requires a lot of letting go of old ways of thinking. Beginning with the idea that my focus here is not on some medical way in which to measure personal non conformity. Rather, my way of defining Asperger's focuses on how the person suffers personally. As a human being, and not as a lab rat.

Here then is step one in the journey toward treating people with Asperger's as human beings. Focus on their suffering. Not on their medical symptoms.

Where Does Asperger's Come From?

So where does Asperger's comes from? Before I tell you, allow me to describe a quality which underlies the whole of Emergence Personality Theory. This quality? Blamelessness; the idea that no one consciously causes their pain. This includes the parents of kids with Asperger's. Not one of them ever causes their child to get Asperger's.

Where does it come from then? Remember, I'm a personality theorist. Thus, I would never see logic alone as the proof my point of view is true. Logic is simply too cold and impersonal. To me then, either the ideas feel true to both my head and heart or they're not a condition of human personality.

So how do we find ideas that feel true to both the head and heart? Simple. Whatever condition we seek to describe must have once been normal. For instance, it was once normal for all of us to focus on sensation at the expense of our social relationships. When? In the first six months of life. Unfortunately, some babies never expand beyond this focus. Thus, they incur the condition we call, Kanner's Autism.

In the second six months of life, we all have another norm. We focus on learning how to use the ability we mastered in our first six months; sensation itself, to sense the things in our environment. Here again, some few babies unfortunately never focus beyond this point. In their case, we call what they have, OCPD; Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. The compulsion to sense the things in their environment at the expense of connecting to people.

And Asperger's then? Asperger's comes into being sometime during a baby's second year of life. How? Well consider what is normal for babies to focus on during this stage in their lives. They focus on learning to understand the things they've learned to sense in the prior stage of their development. Thus, if babies do not move past this focus, they remain intensely interested in learning for learning's sake, even to the point wherein they never learn to connect to people.

Is there a fourth norm then? Absolutely. From age two to age four, kids normally rebel against any pressure put on them to simple parrot what other folks have learned. The "terrible two's," remember? So what does this turn out to be if the baby never loses this focus? ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder. And yes, I know medically minded folks now call this condition, ADHD. However, it seems incredibly silly to diagnose a kid as having ADHD without HD. Which happens to be the most common version of this lab rat label.

What Could We Be Doing To Better Help These Folks?

So what could we be doing to better help these folks? Well, in the case of Asperger's, we could be focusing our efforts on getting these folks to make "connecting" more important than "information."

Notice, I haven't simply said, teach them better social skills. In truth, teaching mouth readers to read eyes is a lot easier that you might imagine. In fact, given they believe you have something valid to say, folks with Asperger's are among the best folks of all to teach.What else could we be doing? We could stop telling them they have a disease. They do not. They have a style of relating to the world which was once normal for all of us but no longer is. Even Dr. Iknowbest was once like this.

During this time, we all made learning the meaning of things our special interest. Moreover, in babies aged one to two, this focus is absolutely normal.In people with Asperger's, however, this tendency never leaves them. Thus, what was once normal now impairs their very ability to see the beauty in people. And renders them unable to do much more than parrot authentic social connections. The very thing that ADD kids hate doing. Which in part explains why AS kids have the most difficult time with ADD kids.

What else could we be doing to help? For one thing, we could pay more attention to the way "focusing on information more than people" plays out in the very nature of peoples' language skills. In my work, I call this natural tendency, being "fussy" rather than "fuzzy."

For example, in one case, I taught the mom of a man with Asperger's why asking him to clean his room put him into a full blown panic attack. I explained to her that to her son, her requests for him to clean his room required he fully grasp the nature of cleaning rooms. Not just his room. All rooms. Moreover, that without this comprehensive level of understanding, he simply didn't know where to begin. Thus, his panic and resistance.

As I told this mother these things, I saw this man vigorously nodding his head in agreement. At which point, I turned to him and explained that when his mother said these things, she was merely asking him to "do something to make your room look a little better. Anything."

"Fuzzy" and "fussy." Two very different qualities. Especially when applied to language. The ability to help here would come from teaching both those with Asperger's, and those who do not have it, to speak to each other in the other's language. In effect, they both become bilingual, in that they both learn to speak "fussy" and they both learn to speak "fussy."

Learning this alone has changed my whole outlook on the world. As well as allowing me to socially connect to others for the first time in my life.

Lastly, one more thing we could be doing is we could stop reminding people with Asperger's that some few folks with Asperger's became world changers. Why stop saying this? Because this only makes them, and me, feel even more inept. And more like failures.

People with Asperger's are not failures. They are simply in the minority, both language wise and interest wise. Moreover, to see this as true, simply imagine our world were it not for people like them. Easier in some ways. Yes. Certainly. But without the special interests of those few who have changed the world? I doubt I'd even be writing on this computer, let alone have ever had a chance to become a somewhat normal human being.

Finally, to the Dr. Iknowbest's of the world, I sincerely pray you'll reconsider. I know that underneath it all, you too want to help these folks and make the world better. Please know, however, that no good can ever come from treating warm human beings like they are cold scientific data. And while this approach works fairly well on things like rocks and clouds, it downright stinks at helping people. We humans are just too complex. And too spiritually minded.

I write this with high hopes and warm regards,

Steven

Steven Paglierani is a writer, teacher, personality theorist and therapist whose work on human consciousness is read weekly by thousands all over the world. He is the author of Emergence Personality Theory, and his mission is to make the world better for children, by restoring and deepening peoples' love of learning. He can be read or reached at his site, http://theEmergenceSite.com

Asperger Syndrome - An Overview

Asperger syndrome is a condition that increasingly, many children are diagnosed with. It is classified under pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) is essentially a group of disorders characterized by delayed development in several basic functions of a person. Delayed development also includes socialization and communication. These delays can be seen as early as infancy. Hence, your child can be diagnosed with an asperger syndrome even before he turns 3-years-old if the signs are obvious enough.

There are 5 different types of PDD. Asperger Syndrome is a high functioning form of autism or developmental disorder. If your child has Asperger Syndrome, he will have at least normal intellectual capacity but may be lacking in the area of social development.

Unfortunately there is no known cure for this condition. However, if there is early intervention in helping your child learn socialization and communication skills, he can learn to adjust and be able to function normally.

Your Asperger child will usually interpret auditory information literally. He may also have delays in processing auditory information and while he may be able to comprehend the auditory information, it may takes effort and time for him to process this information before he is able to respond. Your child may also have difficulty following multi-step auditory directions.

Knowing these things should prepare you to provide your child with concrete explanations whenever necessary. It is also important for you to focus on increasing your child's comprehension of figurative language skills including idioms, multi-meaning words, jokes, teasing, etc. It is found that the best way in which to do this is through the use of visual aids.

Your Asperger child may also have some sensory processing difficulties. These can result in atypical responses for your child. This is because your child has difficulty in organizing his sensory input because he may be experiencing both hypersensitive and hyposensitive responses. These responses can cause your child to experience stress and anxiety whenever he is trying to evaluate his environment properly. Difficulties in this area can also really decrease your child's ability to stay focused.

Autistic children also have a tendency to blurt out their thoughts as statements of factual information. This can cause your child to appear insensitive but your child simply does not realise that there are some thoughts and ideas that should not be put to words. So, be aware that your child may not be socially aware of what he is saying.

Your child is going to need to have a therapist help him to adjust socially. He will exhibit social difficulties and need to learn appropriate strategies and some modified behaviour so that he can socialize nicely. If he understands and learns what he can do, and how to make and keep friends, he will be much more well adjusted and happier. It is found that the best results can be obtained when you, as a parent, work closely with the therapist to address the unique and challenging needs of your child.

Sandra Kim Leong shares about autism diet and other therapies for children with learning disabilities. She draws on her experience as a mother to an autistic child. To read her blog, please visit http://www.autismdietplan.com