1074). Renae Beaumont and Kate Sofronoff present a social skills intervention for children in Australia with AS called "The Junior Detective Training Program" (Beaumont, 2008, p
Reading with Eye Contact An article in the Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing goes into great detail about the importance of a student with AS being able to relate fully to verbal and nonverbal dynamics in the classroom. The emphasis of this article is on how important it is for the AS student to properly read the facial expressions, the subtle "social nuances," the "nonverbal cues" and to grasp the emotions and empathy the teacher and others in the classroom are showing (Bellando, et al
For five months, the SODA strategy was utilized during cooperative learning activities, during organized sports games, and during visits with peers at lunchtime. A multiple-baseline-across-settings design was used in order to critique behavior with (intervention) and without (baseline) the use of SODA; a specific SODA story was written for each of the four boys and each story included "self-question and self-answer statements" and each story described the specific "social-behavioral difficulties that participants presented" (Bock, 2007, p
Prior to describing her own intervention strategy, Boutot quickly reviews four interventions that have been found to be of some use in working with children who have AS and ASD. Those four are: a) social stories (a pictorial or written story that zeros in on a difficulty experienced by AS students); b) social scripts (providing "clear instructions" on how to properly behave in certain social situations); c) power card strategy (the card depicts a hero -- that the participant views as a hero -- solving a problem in a "socially appropriate manner"); d) cognitive behavior modification (having the participant "use self-talk out loud" that progresses to "internal speech" as a way of monitoring behavior and responding to environmental stimuli") (Boutot, 2009, p
The author recommends that faculty receive training as regards the classroom needs of AS students, and moreover, support groups should be established. "Social Thinking" Interventions In another research project, six male children (between ages 9 -- 11) with either HFA or AS were recruited by the University of Arizona to participate in both structured and non-structured settings for the teaching of the "social cognitive (Social Thinking) approach" (Crooke, et al
Certainly, this study involved only one person so future research should perhaps involve more AS students; however, the progress that Matthew has shown is a positive sign that social stories combined with video modeling of those stories can help a child with AS. Conclusion -- Summary -- Recommendations Prior to Hans Asperger's seminal research (published in 1944), individuals battling the condition that society now knows as Asperger syndrome were described as "almost invisible" and considered "…eccentrics, obsessives, or borderline and schizotypal personalities" (Frith, 2004, p
Leon Hoffman, writing in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Hoffman, writing in response to an earlier published article on Asperger's syndrome in the same journal, asserted that when assessing children the clinician should not focus on the "exact categorization" of the child, seeking the ideal niche or grouping he or she might be placed in (Hoffman, 2009, p
This study was designed to measure "social anxiety" and parents of the children in the study were asked to complete questionnaires -- and they were given a week to a month to complete the questionnaires. The questions in the study were read aloud to the children who were 8 and 9 years old "…to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding items due to developing reading skills" (Kuusikko, et al
6). Development of Social Skills On the subject of the desirability of better social skills for persons with AS, a research piece in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders describes a project involving 19 children with AS, 20 children with "high-functioning autism" and 17 children the authors describe as "typically developing" (Macintosh, et al
Individuals with AS can quickly find themselves in situations that make them vulnerable, and they don't even know they are vulnerable because the world is passing them by from a social interaction point-of-view. AS from an Individual's Perspective An article in the journal Autism asserts that despite the considerable research done on the syndrome, "Only a handful of studies…" have been-based directly on "the perspectives of [AS] individuals themselves" (Muller, et al
Delay in AS Diagnosis Brenda Smith Myles and Richard L. Simpson emphasize the fact that "many children and youth who exhibit characteristics" associated with Asperger syndrome are not diagnosed with AS until sometime later in their lives (Myles, et al
When trying to pronounce new sounds, I must be shown explicitly how to produce them… [and] one of the areas where I continue to experience difficulty is in spontaneity and social coordination…I have learned not to force myself to go to cocktail parties and receptions despite the value of networking. Ironically, it's not so much the social experience I can't handle, but rather the problem is that the words of my conversant simply drown in the sea of background talk…I have to lean uncomfortably close and concentrate intensely on the other person's words to get anything…" (Perner, 2002, www
1707) due to the fact that: a) adolescents tend to withdraw from parents during puberty and hence parents can't precisely observe their behavior in that window of time; b) parents of younger children with HFA / AS tend to spend more time with their children; c) parents of younger children with HFA / AS perhaps become "particularly sensitive to their children's behaviors" and may in fact "over-report" symptoms; and d) that very anxiety that parents of HFA / AS children are known to exhibit "may have influence" -- and bias -- over how parents score the questionnaires. Inability of AS Individuals to Empathize One of the characteristics of Asperger syndrome is reported to be the inability of individuals with AS to empathize with others, according to an article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder (Rogers, et al
But because those interventions are best applied in early childhood, when a person is not found to have AS until later in life the healthcare professionals have a late start and solutions are not always effective. Reciprocal Communication Issues Writing in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Margaret Semrud-Clikeman and colleagues conclude -- as other researchers and scholars have -- that individuals with AS have difficulty with "reciprocal communication" and the AS person has "difficulty with sharing enjoyment of activities or objects" (Semrud-Clikeman, 2010, p
Matthew is a 9-year-old boy with AS and an IQ of 117, but the interventions used on Matthew failed to help him acquire the skills that he needed for reciprocal conversation. So, over a 15-week period there were 24 sessions with Matthew, three social stories were developed -- one on eye contact, the second on eye contact and smiling, and the third social story involved all three target behaviors (eye contact, smiling, and initiations) (Scattone, 2008, p
Helpful Services for College Students with AS As an increasing number of college-age students are attending places of higher education, the author of this article, Caroline P. Smith, posits that there are strategies through which institutions can "better accommodate and serve this population" (Smith, 2007, p
Family Support in Interventions No one is closer to an AS child than his or her family, of course, and so teaching family members to "become effective change agents for social behavior" seems an excellent idea. That is the salient idea in an article published in the journal Clinical Case Studies (Stewart, et al
In each group members practiced the new social skill (one pair at a time) while the remainder of the group watched what was going on, and later provided feedback. Later, during a snack break, participants were "encouraged to interact with one another"; following the break group games like Charades were played and at the close of the sessions "…members are encouraged to say goodbye to each other" (Tse, et al
Asperger Syndrome Asperger's Disorder -- also referred to as Asperger syndrome (AS) -- is essentially a "…chronic neurodevelopmental disorder" that limits the afflicted person's ability to have normal social interaction and communication, according to an article in the journal, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Woodbury-Smith, et al
Research on individuals with Asperger syndrome has identified two loci on chromosomes 1 and 3 that are likely involved in the genetics surrounding autistic disorders, further pointing to Asperger Syndrome as a less severe form of autistic disorder rather than a completely separate disorder (Toth & King, 2008). The neurobiological correlates of Asperger syndrome are not well understood, and further research is required in this area (McAlonan et al