Summary of “How to Speak Asperger’s” In the article, “How to Speak Asperger’s,” by Fran Goldfarb and Guthrie Devine, the authors contend that learning to communicate with people with Asperger’s Syndrome is an important skill. The authors introduce the article by providing a narrative about Goldfarb’s son. The point of her narrative is that communication is misunderstood with people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). The author, Fran Goldfarb, explains how her son misunderstands communication with his teachers, and how punishment is ineffective, because of his Asperger’s. The authors start by explaining why communication is very complex. To begin with, people with AS struggle with communication, because of their lack of social cues. They tend to miss irony, humor, and they take everything literally. That’s why people with AS don’t understand communication and everything is a struggle for them. Next, Goldfarb and Devine address the issue of the inability of those with AS to understand exceptions to general rules. They have a hard time with communication, and seeing beyond the rules. People with AS have trouble accepting changes in rules. So, her son got punished for failing to understand exceptions to rules at school. Then, the authors also report that communication with people with AS once something happens, it must always be the same. People with AS develop certain types of rituals after doing something for the first time. They fail to realize, a scenario that was once
This quote from Look Me in The Eye by John Elder Robison is brief, but crucially important. During our Clarkson Seminar class discussion my fellow students and I delved into the topic of what emotions and feelings John Elder Robison possibly experienced as a child. It was generally accepted by the group that he often felt confused, frustrated, and alienated throughout his childhood. However the deeper reason as to why he felt these emotions was only briefly touched on. Much of the blame for these feelings was put on the fact that Robison did not have a formal Asperger's diagnosis as a child. It was argued that if he had a formal Asperger’s diagnosis at a young age he wouldn’t of been as frustrated as he was, simply because he would have at
Haddon implements a first-person perspective to directly describe the unique mentality, attitude and logic of Christopher, without implicitly stating his impediment, allowing the audience to empathise and gain comprehensive understanding of his extraordinary ability. Christopher’s inability to comprehend figurative language is a dominant characteristic of Asperger’s syndrome, as concluded by multiple researchers (Vogindroukas, 2011), subsequently, his perspective enables the audience to experience situations through a unique lens. This is evident within Christopher’s comprehension of a metaphor ‘I think it should be called a lie because… people do not have skeletons in their cupboard’ (pg. 20). His explanation proceeding that statement transforms
Mark Haddon provides us a perspective from someone living with Asperger’s, he uses first person narration to do this. Haddon creates Christopher’s unique perspective by using
The film I decided to watch was, A Mile in His Shoes which was directed by William Dear and screen wrote by Frank Nappi and Jason Koornick (2011). This movie was very inspiring as an adult with Asperger’s syndrome is the main character. Asperger’s syndrome is a type of autism that is more of a social disorder (Gargiulo, R. M. & Bouck, E, 2018). These individuals have trouble in social situations whether that is making friends or just talking one on one with a family member. There are many characteristics that describe an individual as having Asperger’s syndrome. Most of these characteristics were displayed throughout the film through the character Mickey Tussler. In this paper, I will discuss the signs and symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome through the eyes of Mickey, a professional minor league baseball player as well as how he was treated by his parents, coach and teammates. I will lastly reflect on how I felt about A Mile in His Shoes regarding their portrayal of Asperger’s syndrome.
We all have labels. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. We are labeled from the day we are born until the day we die. White, black, smart, dumb, successful, worthless, popular, weird, attractive, ugly, Jewish, Muslim, Aspergian. These are just a few of the millions and millions of labels we affix to each other every day. Some labels are subjective. One man’s lunatic could be another man’s visionary. However, there are many labels that are permanent and inescapable. A white newborn will be white for their entire life. They cannot do anything to change their race. They will carry a “white” label to the grave. An Aspergian newborn will be Aspergian for their entire life. They cannot do anything to change their neurological makeup. They will carry an “Aspergian” label to the grave. It really is not up to us whether or not we will have a specific label. However, what we can choose is whether we will wear our labels with pride or wear our labels with shame. There are those of us who choose to pretend our inherent labels don’t exist. Living in denial is not living at all. The sooner one accepts the labels they can’t change, the better. If an individual has Asperger’s, pretending it 's not there won’t make it go away. An early Asperger’s diagnosis is crucial, for it can lead to treatment and acceptance.
Amazingly, one percent of new births will have some type of autism (Autism Society of America, 2010). Asperger’s disorder is one type of Autism, and is at the high end of these disorders. This “disorder, which is also called Asperger's syndrome (AS) or autistic psychopathy, belongs to a group of childhood disorders known as pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) or autistic spectrum disorders”(Exkorn, 2006). A characteristic of this disorder is harsh and strict disruption of a certain type of brain development. The most affected areas of Asperger's disorder is difficulty in social understanding and in behavior or activities that are limited or recurring (Frey, 2003). Students with Asperser’s have different levels of seriousness,
Communication is one of the hardest challenges with Asperger's. People with Asperger's have a limited area of interest, resulting in the excessive discussion about this area of interest. They often do not realize that someone has lost interest in the topic of discussion ("PubMedHealth"). "Most treatment efforts focus on enhancing communication skills and reducing problem behaviors. For children with Asperger's syndrome, most therapy should consist of school education combined with special psychological supports for communication and socialization problems "("Magill's Medical Guide"). Fortunately, people, like Jacob, have tutors or teachers to help them converse and behave in a calm and collected manner. Jess, Jacob's tutor, teaches him how to order food politely, how to greet people, and overall, how to carry on a conversation without delving too deep into a certain subject. Being in a school environment gives one with Asperger's a sense of belonging or recognition. Jacob goes to a public school that allows him to use a "get out of class" pass if it gets too overwhelming for him.
Asperger’s syndrome is often thought of as an invisible disorder as you usually cannot tell just by one’s physical appearance if they have this syndrome. Asperger’s patients look like everyone else physically but their brains are wired much dissimilarly than someone whom is non-Asperger’s. Although there are no tell tale physical traits of Asperger’s syndrome some patients exhibit a youthful look or glow, blank facial expressions, and lax joints.
Autism by definition is a psychiatric developmental disorder that usually shows itself in the form of communication disorders, short attention span and social problems. Children that show autistic features will not be interacting and playing the way a typical child would. Years ago autism was incredibly rare and almost never found in children. Studies have shown about 1 in every 110 children are diagnosed with autism today. That number was unheard just 40 years ago.
Professionals can use various strategies to improve the pragmatic abilities of students with disabilities. One such strategy listed in the reading is in relation to Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Here, the researchers created “structured peer relationships.” Through this process, they integrate children with AS into casual situations with peers. They would train the child’s peers to learn how to work with the AS child. Then, those kids could include the child into their conversations and hangouts. Through these natural experiences, the child with AS can learn the pragmatic nature of language. According to the reading, “specific goals for the student include learning how to have fun with other people, how to experience a sense of togetherness, how
This is a case study course of 10 group sessions with eight children (three girls and five boys) in the ages of 10 to 12. All children were diagnosed with either ASD, Asperger 's syndrome, or Rett 's disorder. The children were seen in the setting of a special education school. They selected as they were fairly high functioning, although two of them were not, but joined as they were in the same age and could benefit improvement in their communication skills by working with peers (Miller, 2005).
"It was explained to me that I have Asperger Syndrome. I think it has a lot to do with how I communicate with other people. It's harder for me to understand what people mean sometimes and I get bullied a lot because of this. I think that everyone has a little bit of a difficulty understanding other people because they are so confusing. Sammie stated.
As described in the textbook, there is a broad range of characteristics associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). One of the first characteristics noted with ASD is language deficits, or using language in “odd” ways. As stated in the textbook, “Children with classic autism may be nonverbal. Alternatively, they may have significant language difficulties, so that their language may consist primarily of echolalia or delayed echolalia”, (E. Amanda Boutot, 2011, pp. 6,9). Additionally, “Children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) frequently have difficulty in conversations and following up on statements made by others”, (E. Amanda Boutot, 2011, p. 18). Individuals with AS may also take a literal interpretation of language, as well as, speak with an unusual volume, pitch, or rate. Other characteristics of ASD are social differences, such as a lack of theory of mind (mind blindness), joint attention, play (lack of imaginative play), and imitation of others. The textbook states, “It should come as no surprise, then, that one of the earliest symptoms of autism noted by parents are differences in social behaviors”, (E. Amanda Boutot, 2011, p. 19). It is also noted that some children diagnosed with ASD may lack emotional facial expressions and affect. Children diagnosed with an ASD may have sensory concerns, such as hypersensitivity (over) or hyposensitivity (under) to objects and the environment.
Drawing ground lines in pictures, seen in a therapeutic light, helps signify that an individual has started to feel grounded themself (Emery, 2004). This feeling of being grounded lead the little boy to develop an interpersonal relationship with his therapist –another category of life that those with ASD tend to struggle with. The creation of an interpersonal relationship between the little boy and his therapist was seen during the latter end of all of his sessions. This relationship was very noticeable when the client created a book of his favorite restaurants and wanted to give it to his therapist –showing that he was willing to engage in sharing his belongings (Emery, 2004). The interpersonal relationship was furthered when his therapist mentioned a subtle joke that the little boy
Limitations in social communication are a feature of ASD. Social skills programs are often employed with individuals with ASD. Self-report can be used as a measure of progress and to understand individual challenges. Kalyva (2010) examined social skills through self-reports of 21 children with Asperger’s Syndrome matched with a group of typically developing peers. Results indicated that children with ASD had more social skills challenges according to all raters and that they reported more aggressive behavior, more conceit/haughtiness, more loneliness/social anxiety, and less assertiveness than children in the comparison group. The level of agreement between raters varied significantly, suggesting that social skills are best