Aspergers Syndrome: Awareness For My Volunteering Classroom!

I work with children who have more severe cases of Aspergers and Autism at the special-ed school that I volunteer at and will be doing my senior project. Because of this, I thought I would spread some Aspergers awareness for my special little friends at the special-ed school.

Here are some of my favorite Aspergers awareness videos:

     

What is Aspergers Syndrome?

Children and adults with Asperger’s Syndrome have an intellectual capacity within the normal range or even above the normal range, but have a distinct profile of abilities that has been apparent since early childhood. The profile of abilities includes the following characteristics:

A qualitative impairment in social interaction:

• Failure to develop friendships that are appropriate to the child’s developmental level.
• Impaired use of non-verbal behaviour such as eye gaze, facial expression and body language to regulate a social interaction.
• Lack of social and emotional reciprocity and empathy.
• Impaired ability to identify social cues and conventions.

A qualitative impairment in subtle communication skills:

• Fluent speech but difficulties with conversation skills and a tendency to be pedantic, have an unusual prosody and to make a literal interpretation.

Restrictive Interests:

• The development of special interests that is unusual in their intensity and focus.
• Preference for routine and consistency.

May also include: 

•  motor clumsiness 
•  problems with handwriting 
• being hypersensitive to specific auditory and tactile experiences
• impulsiveness 
• tics 
• self-stimulation behaviors