Asperger's Syndrome

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Pages: 12

Asperger’s Syndrome

In today’s society, Asperger’s Syndrome is being talked about, and seen, more than ever, from television shows, such as Parenthood, to magazine articles, and of course in the inclusive classroom. Throughout this paper we will be looking at where Asperger’s Syndrome originated, some of the characteristics and causes, as well as ways in which teachers and parents can better deal with a child that has Asperger’s Syndrome. Asperger’s Syndrome is found under Autistic Spectrum Disorders which has certain determined types of developmental delays such as social interaction, communication, and stereotypic behavior. Under ASD you will also find disorders such as Rett’s Disorder, Childhood Disintegration Disorder, and
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When it comes to the classroom there are several things that teachers can and should do in order to prepare themselves for teaching a child with Asperger’s. First, the teacher should research the child by asking questions to the parents and Asperger’s specialist. Teachers can also attend seminars keeping up to date on new teaching strategies of which could appeal to the student’s method of learning. Teachers should also constantly set goals for the student, whether it is for achieving better behavior, opening up to different areas of interest, or trying to be more social. Strategies that teachers can use in order to gain a functioning classroom are discrete trial teaching, which breaks skills into small chunks, teaches and reinforces one chunk at a time until it is mastered, teaches the child to combine the chunks into sequences of skill or action, fades out the prompts for the skills, and then assists in the generalization of the skills across environments (L.J. Baker, L.A. Welkowitz, 2005). The second strategy that teachers can use, is the All Kinds of Minds model. Because no one student is alike, including those with Asperger’s, this model helps find the unique strengths and challenges of children. This model consists of several strategies that help (1)identify the purpose of the activity for this