Cognitive:
1. Easily distracted
2. Has difficulty expressing emotions
3. Shuts down when having difficulties with tasks
4. Often gets confused when stressed
5. Does not understand the rules of conversations (ex: interrupts people, dominates the conversation, when involved in a conversation has minimal amounts of participation, has difficulty shifting topics, has problems starting or ending a conversation, and has lack of knowledge reading non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions.
6. Has literal interpretations of instructions
7. Prefers visually oriented instructions and training
8. Has difficulty making generalizations
9. Prefers repetitive and simple routines
10. Has difficulty understanding rules for games
11. Often misunderstand people's preferences and meaning
12. Often is impulsive
13. Feels the need to completely finish a task before starting another
14. When give rules and routines they can not change
15. Has difficulty making connections and interpreting meaning to other activities, events, or ideas
16. Often pays heavy attention to details (especially with the aid of visuals)
17. Often thinks concretely
18. Often distracted by external and internal sensations, thoughts, and sensory inputs
19. Appears to be day dreaming often
20. Has difficulty determining importance
21. Seeks out perfection (if it is not to their standards, they will continue working on the task)
22. Has difficulties thinking about other's thoughts in similar situations that may vary from their own
23. Has difficulties organizational and sequencing skills
24. Has difficulties assessing cause and effect relationships
25. Sometimes lacks common sense
26. Sometimes emotions appear without any real causation (ex: rage, tantrums, shutdowns, self-isolation)
27. Has difficulties estimating the amount of time needed to complete tasks
28. Has difficulties self-monitoring
29. Often has extreme reactions to changes in routines, surroundings, and people
30. Often referred to as a "little professor" (has great knowledge in certain areas, especially of their interests)
What You Can Do To Help
1. Go to talk therapy with your child
2. Go to social skills group with your child
3. Make a schedule (stick to a routine)
4. Practice having proper conversations
5. Write out instructions step by step
6. Model ideas
7. Keep consistency when it comes to providing rules and routines
8. Explicitly make meanings between two like things
9. Provide lots of pictures
10. Ensure they stay focus on the task at hand by watching them
11. Write out weekly and monthly schedules
12. Buy items to help with organizational skills (ex: bins, planners, agendas etc)
13. Talk to your child (teachable moments)
14. Buy a stop watch and a watch to help keep track of time
15. Gradually release responsibility
Social:
1. Has difficulty accepting criticism or corrections
2. Has difficulty offering corrections or criticism without sounding harsh, pedantic or insensitive
3. Has difficulty perceiving and applying unwritten social rules
4. Sometimes displays “immature” manners
5. Sometimes has difficulties with personal care (ex: skin problems, teeth pocking, dressing etc)
6. Often displays shyness
7. Often has little or no conversational participation in group meetings/conferences
8. Constantly faces anxiety about performance and acceptance
9. Is very honest (sometimes done at an inappropriate time or setting)
10. Is often blunt
11. Sometimes has a "flat affect"
12. Sometimes displays a low to medium level of paranoia
13. Sometimes appear to have a bizarre sense of humor that stems from an internal joke/context
14. Sometimes has difficulties reciprocating greeting and compliments
15. Sometimes has difficulty expressing empathy to and with others
16. Sometimes fixate on bad experiences with people or events for a long period of time
17. Is sometimes overally emotional
18. Sometimes is abrupt and/or strong
19. Sometimes can be abrupt and opinionated about their likes and dislikes
20. Has difficulties in being flexible with rules and social conventions
21. Sometimes excessively talks
22. Sometimes displays flash tempers or tantrums
23. Often has difficulty forming friendships and intimate relationships
24. Sometimes has difficulty distinguishing between acquaintance and friendship
25. Often has limited clothing preference and discomfort with formal attire and uniforms
26. Often has a preference for bare environments for living arrangements
27. Often has difficulty judging others’ personal space
28. Often intensely focuses on limited pursued interests
29. Is often perceived as “being in their own world”
What You Can Do To Help
1. Take the child to group therapy
2. Take the child to social skills group
3. Be reassuring and positive
4. Offer sincere compliments
5. Teach appropriate jokes
6. Teach appropriate comments and proper greetings
7. Teach that corrections and criticisms are not always negative
8. Teach how to give proper criticisms and corrections
9. Teach proper personal care (ex: how to brush your teeth properly and match clothing)
10. Expose the child to other activities
11. Teach the child the concept about personal space
12. Expose the child to different types of living environments
13. Teach the child how to properly hold a conversation
14. Teach the difference between friendships and intimate relationships
15. Teach how to properly display empathy
Work Characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome:
1. Sometimes has difficulty with team/group work
2. Sometimes displays intense pride in expertise or performance, which could sometimes be perceived by others as "showing off"
3. Sometimes has difficulty in accepting compliments
4. Sometimes has the tendency to “lose it” when senses are overloaded, during multitask demands, or when contradictory and confusing priorities are set
5. Sometimes has difficulties starting a project
6. Often shows discomfort with competition and displays out of scale reactions to losing
7. Sometimes has low motivation to perform tasks that have no immediate personal interest
8. Sometimes forgets tasks without formal reminders such as lists or schedules
9. Sometimes shows great concern about the order and appearance of personal work area
10. Often performs tasks slowly
11. Seeks perfectionism
12. Often has difficulty with unstructured time
13. Is often reluctance to ask for help or seek comfort
14. Often asks excessive questions
15. Often has low sensitivity to risks in the environment, to themselves, and/or to others
16. Sometimes has difficulties writing reports
17. Sometimes displays stress, frustration, or anger when interrupted
18. Often has difficulty in conflict situations
19. Tend to have very low levels of assertiveness
20. Sometimes are reluctant to accept positions of authority
21. Sometimes has difficulties handling relationships with authority figures
22. Is often viewed as vulnerable or less able to resist harassment or teasing by others
23. Is almost always punctual and conscientious
24. Often avoids socializing, “hanging out,” or small talk on and off the job
What You Can Do To Help
1. Seek out a job coach for your child
2. Make a work schedule for your child
3. Write down the tasks that your child needs to complete
4. Teach how to speak to authority figures
5. Teach strategies for dealing with conflicts
6. Teach how to write reports
Physical Manifestations of Asperger’s Syndrome:
1. Typically have strong sensory sensitivities, especially to: touch and tactile sensations, sounds, lighting and colors, odors, and taste
2. Sometimes is clumsy
3. Sometimes has balancing difficulties
4. Sometimes has difficulties in judging distances, height, and/or depth
5. Sometimes has difficulties recognizing others’ faces (prosopagnosia)
6. Sometimes stims (self-stimulatory behavior, which serves to reduce anxiety, stress, or to express pleasure)
7. Sometimes displays self-injurious or disfiguring behaviors
8. Often bites nails
9. Sometimes has bad posture
10. Often has gross or fine motor coordination problems
11. Sometimes is depressed
12. Sometimes is displays feelings of anxiety
13. Sometimes has difficulties sleeping
14. Sometimes has difficulties expressing anger (can be bottled up or excessive)
15. Sometimes has difficulties initiating or maintaining eye contact
16. Often raises voice volume during periods of stress and/or frustration
17. Usually has strong food preferences
18. Sometimes has unusual or rigid eating behaviors
19. Sometimes has bad or unusual personal hygiene
What You Can Do To Help
1. Teach proper hyigene (ex: wearing deodorant)
2. Expose child to different types of food
3. Teach child how to properly display anger
4. Take the child to therapy and/or social skills group
5. Teach the child how to hold proper eye contact while speaking with people
6. Teach the child proper posture
Book List:
What It Is To Be Me! An Asperger Kid Book By Angela Wine
Grade Level: First to third grade
Gist Of The Text: The author explains the pros and cons of having a child with Asperger's Syndrome. She provides insight as to what it is like to live with a child who has Asperger's Syndrome.
Articles:
This article provides a basic overview of what Asperger's Snydrome is, types of treatments available, and what you can do to help your child live a better lives.
Parenting A Child With Asperger's Syndrome Article
This article discusses the importance of social skills, especially with children with Asperger's Syndrome.
Social Skills Article
Videos:
This is a two part series describing video is intended to educate their professors, teaching assistants, etc. on what it means to be a college student with Asperger's Syndrome and how they could best help them succeed.
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