University Life and Students with Asperger’s Syndrome: A Professor’s

Guide.How to recognize, communicate with, and support a student with Asperger’s Syndrome

Audience: Professors at Oregon State University

Created by: Crista Ditzler

Asperger’s Syndrome, also known as AS, is defined by the National Autistic Society as: “A lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them.”

What is Asperger’s Syndrome?

“What is common to everybody who has an Asperger’s label is a significant challenge to understanding non-verbal behavior or social nuance. And understanding social nuance really is critical to success both in your classroom and in campus life” (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

“While Asperger’s is a continuum of behaviors.... each individual will present differently and with different levels of severity of behaviors” (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

Common Trait

Marcel Marceau/Online image

Because AS was only recently identified as a diagnosis, a count of the number of individuals affected by this syndrome is still hard to come by. Recent survey results from the National Institute of Child Health and Mental Development estimate that 1 in 500 people have some form of AS.... Among people with Asperger’s, the prevalence of males to females diagnosed represents a ratio of 4:1 (Asperger’s Association of New England).

How many people in the US have AS?

AS is on the Autism spectrum

The spectrum is a continuum of traits, behaviors and

disabilities

Students have a “lack of appreciation for social cues”

(Attwood, 1998, p.28).

Many AS students have difficulty in communicating as they may not understand the subtleties of language, such as irony and humor.(Autism Society.org)

Students with AS often have idiosyncratic behavior (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

AS Facts

AS Facts-Continued

Students with AS may have difficulty writing legibly as they commonly have graphomotor skill difficulties defined as the coordination of cognitive, perceptual and motor skills, necessary to write (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

Students with AS often have sensory sensitivity to sounds and smells as well as sights such as florescent lights that disrupt learning (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

Students with AS often have very intense, very idiosyncratic interests (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

Students with Asperger's Disorder frequently like to collect categories of things, such as rocks or bottle caps. They may be proficient in knowing categories of information (Autism Society.org).

This focus on subject can “be useful in the higher education environment as the individual may be able to spend their time studying their particular interest.... The unique qualities and different way of thinking and experiencing the world brings diversity to establishments and enriches the student population”(The National Autistic Society).

AS Trait That Becomes A Strength

Many Asperger’s Syndrome students want to be social but don’t understand the rules of social engagement. The lack of pragmatic language skills, those involving reciprocal language, and a lack of eye contact are two prominent features of AS students.

AS-An Isolating Disability

“For many students with Asperger’s Syndrome, coming to university can be, for the first time in their lives, an environment where they are not ostracised. There may be other students that share their love of maths or history, for example, and people who finally accept them for who they are” (The National Autistic Society).

University Offers Hope

From birth to death, ability is a salient and significant aspect of identity (Allen, 2011).

Individuals perceived to be abnormal or disabled are likely to be labeled in ways that can stigmatize them for the rest of their lives (Allen, 2011).

Persons with disabilities endure a common set of

stigmatizing social values and debilitating socially constructed hazards (Allen, 2011).

Why Students Are Often Silent About Their Challenge:

The Stigma of Information Sharing

Student is “weird”

Student is disrespectful and disruptive

Student is not paying attention-eyes down

Student is challenging authority-eyes staring

Student is lazy

Common Perceptions Professors May Have of Students With Asperger’s (When Student is Silent

About Condition)

Often a typically developing student who is disruptive in class will alter his/her behavior when given a look or some other non-verbal cue.

An Asperger’s student will not generally respond to a non-verbal signal that something is not going well, nor recognize the stares of others.

Sarcasm and nuanced language may confuse a student with AS – this may lead to responses or comments by AS students that seems inappropriate, out of place or rude.

On the surface, AS students behaviors may resemble many university student behaviors. The difference is the level and frequency of disruption to learning that behaviors cause.

What’s the Difference: How do you tell a disruptive student from a student with

Asperger’s?

“Your first meeting with an Asperger’s student won’t necessarily indicate default to thinking that the person has such a significant difference that they would have a disability label” (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

“But as you spend time with them and get to know them as an individual you will notice some differences about them particularly compared to the rest of the students” (Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P.).

Talking with students and getting to know them outside of class will allow a closer look at behaviors, making it easier to understand what you are dealing with and whether or not it might be AS.

Many times students with a diagnosis will share this information if engaged in a conversation about behavior that is respectfully handled outside of the classroom setting.

Professor and Leader of your Class—Things You Should Know

Difficulty with organizational skills is a key deficit in AS students, including note taking, time management and follow-through

Verbal information may cause struggles in the class through note-taking coordination, nuanced language confusion and difficulty with organization of thoughts and materials

Class participation/comments are sometimes off topic or “out of the blue”

Difficulty in reading body language and facial expressions may make appropriate interaction in class with professors and other students difficult for AS students

Classroom Specific Challenges for AS Students

Asperger’s Syndrome is not a disorder of motivation…. If you have a student with AS in your class, it is because they deserve to be there. Give them skills to succeed in your class by giving them feedback in the form of instruction vs. criticism.

Dr. Peter F. Gerhardt, Ed. D. President, The Organization for Autism Research

Instruction VS. Criticism

Support in the Classroom

Provide seating that allows for less distraction like the front of the room or away from noisy equipment or lights

Provide note-takers or allow tape recording lectures for students with handwriting and organizational challenges

Provide lecture notes in advance so student has context as well as content of the material

Speak with students after class to discuss expectations as it relates to the student and their individual challenge

Remember, you set the tone. If you treat students with respect and show them you are flexible toward diverse learning, then so will the rest of the students in your class

Dr. Peter F. Gerhardt, Ed. D. President, The Organization for Autism Research

Where would we be without them? Famous people thought to have had AS

Albert Einstein provided the theory of relativity and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the work he did with photoelectric effect.  Characteristics, which may indicate that Einstein was a fellow Aspie:  Einstein could not speak fluently at the age of nine.... His parents suspected that he might actually be mentally retarded (Botham, 2006, p. 16).

Source: http://www.disabledworld.com/artman/publish/article

Isaac Newton dropped out of school as a teenager (Botham, 2006, p. 15).  A person with Asperger's may not be able to accept rules in school if they appear illogical, pursuing a point or argument "as a matter of principle," which can lead "to a significant conflict with teachers and school authorities," (Attwood, 2006, p. 11).

Beethoven was such a poor music student, that his music teachers decided he was hopeless as a composer and each time he sat to write music, he reportedly "poured ice water over his head," (Botham, 2006, p. 30), indicating the potential inability to "show" what he could do and a potential preoccupation of sensory experiences (Attwood, 2006, p. 4), or need for unproductive idiosyncratic routine.

Michael John Carley, Executive Director of GRASP and Author of Asperger’s From the Inside Out.

“To become a truly inclusive society…we first have to acknowledge the different challenges that are faced by those who are in the behavioral minority, because what we are after is the same opportunity to success, not the right to success”

Final Thoughts

“Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you cannot count, really

count”--Albert Einstein

Resources for students and professors

http://www.grasp.org/

http://www.aane.org/about_asperger_syndrome/asperger_faqs.htl

http://www.autism.org.uk/About-autism/Some-facts-and-statistics.aspx

http://ds.oregonstate.edu/home/ http://www.wrongplanet.net/article392.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=233-3jtEZck

http://www.autismsociety.org/about-autism/aspergers-syndrome

Allen, B. (2011). Difference matters: Communicating social identity (2nd Edition).

Long Grove, IL : Waveland Press, Inc.

Asperger’s Association of New England website. Retrieved on April 14, 2011

from http://www.aane.org/about_asperger_syndrome/asperger_faqs.html

Attwood, T. (1998). Asperger’s syndrome: A guide for parents and professionals.

London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Autism Society website. Retrieved on April 14, 2011 from http://www.autism-

society.org/

Carley, M., & Gerhardt, P. (2008). The college professor’s introductory guide to their students who are on the

autism spectrum. Retrieved on April 14, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=233-3jtEZck

Disabled World website. Retrieved on May 1, 2011 from http://www.disabled-

world.com/artman/publish/article_2086.shtml

National Autistic Society website. Retrieved on April 14, 2011 from

http://www.autism.org.uk/engb/workingwith/education/education-

professionals-in-fe-and-he/university-how-to-support-students-with-

asperger-syndrome.aspx

References