Coping with Asperger in Class

These are my personal experience with a pupil diagnosed with Asperger and even though this approach has worked for both me and him it does not guarantee success for all pupils with Asperger

I found out offering two places to sit in class can be helpful. One for receiving instructions and one for working at a task. This way talking/listening and working are divided. The place for working is set up in the most quiet place in class and preferably put against a wall with the pupils back facing class so he won’t get distracted by visual input. This workplace should be organized so the pupil will know what is expected of him.

We put an alarm clock on the table and a visual week schedule of tasks above the table. We put up two screens on both sides of the workplace so he was sitting in sort of a cubicle without any distraction from either side or front.

I made very strict rules with this pupil (age 9.) He had to finish within the given time or else he had to stay inside and finish it while the others played outside. I took a red pen to write the time it had to be done on top of his paper and a green pen to put down three times (e.g. 9:15, 9:30; 9:45) on those specific times I made sure I was at his table to help him. We agreed on him moving forward if he did not understood what needed to be done and safe the question for those specific green times I was able to help.

As this pupil grew older he could also say: I need help only once or I can do without help. Whenever he did a task without asking for help he got a double reward or something extra. This way we encouraged him to work independently.

We organized his work for him by making copies out of the books we used for the other children. I would leave out all illustrations out because this would distract him from getting his work done on time. Whenever he had to write something to answer I would copy more space for him to write since his handwriting was bigger then the rest of the class and he would panic if the lines were not long enough. Make sure you copy ahead of time and put all the assignments inside the right containers:

The copies were kept in plastic containers with different colors. Math was in the red container, spelling in the yellow one, reading assignments in the green container, history in blue and so on. On his visual schedule it would say what task he needed to do with the appropriate color visualize to it. He would go over to the pile of containers and pick out the task he needed and bring it over to his workplace. Since it were all copies we made sure he could answer on the copied paper as well. Whenever a job was done he needed to get 74% of the answers right to consider it a job well done. When it was finished and well done he would go over and store his work in his folder and take it off the visual week schedule

Since writing can be hard for those with Asperger it might be an idea to work with different ways of answering. Sometimes he had to pick out the right answer by circling it or he could type his work on the computer and print it. This way frustrating with writing can be dealt with. Some of his work was conveyed to the computer as well.
This specific student needed guidance and encouragement to start a task and sometimes help to finish it. I repeated the same instruction his teacher had give him earlier and made sure he understood the question he needed to answer. I worked with him in class for 3 years, first every morning I would sit with him and talk him through the task he was working on and at the end it was no longer necessary for me to be there. He could do what he needed to do on his own.

Make sure you offer a structured environment and have strict rules and regulation, a daily routine, use unambiguous language and prepare these children with Asperger for any change in routine. Not taking “rude” remarks personally, an open mind with clear understanding of all the Asperger behavior and a lot of patience is very helpful!


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