Borderline Asperger's Syndrome - good teaching techniques?

Question

I have a 9th grade student who has both borderline Asperger's symptoms and borderline schizophrenia symptoms. He is being seen by the counselor twice a week and a psychiatrist once a week. He still has bizarre outbursts in class that cause other kids to ostracize him. Anyone out there (teachers) who have any good techniques for dealing with the bizarre stuff? Ignoring works okay, to a point, but not great.

Answer 1

Difficult combination! I worked with a 14 yr old young man with Asperger's when I was therapist in a Sp. Ed. self-contained class for Severe Bhr Disorders. "Bill" had no outbursts, but did whatever he wanted to do or simply walked home during class. He rarely communicated verbally. Piaget's Pre-Concrete Cognitive stage worked well and I got him diagramming his behavioral patterns. He was particularly good at it. I used Wm. Glasser's Basic Human Emotional Needs (Belonging, Power, Freedom and Fun) as the goals of behavior. (All behavior is purposeful and to get our physical and emotional Needs met.) Berne's Games People Play very nicely explains the Behavioral Patterns as the vehicle with which we get our Needs met! I call these "Survival Needs" and found an old movie clip of a women's prison that cared for the prisoners' toddlers. (Sounds bizarre, but they actually existed--instead of foster homes.) Dr. Spitz's studied these babies back in the middle 20's?? and found that inspite of fact that they were well fed and cared for, they had a high rate of infant deaths. This came from NOT handling, talking directly to them, etc. The term was called marassmus. I showed the students the movie of these profoundly depressed toddlers and the guys in the class had tears in their eyes. It truely was heart breaking. The point was to show how life deteriorates without the EMOTIONAL Needs met as well as the physical Needs.

This is long, but if you could get this student interested in diagramming--maybe there is some disruption other than his own and you could demonstrate diagramming the action. Students usually chime in and say No, such-and-such happened first. Etc. This seems like a long way around, but it is truly well-worth it!! Bill eventually helped me make a video tape demonstrating his diagramming his bhr AND he went on diagramming his FEELINGS--very complicated, but very effective AND with the verbal dialogue. He began functioning more effectively in class and doing his homework. He eventually wanted to start a mainstream class and eventually eased into about half time of special classes. I left the area then--this was ten years ago--but plan to visit and try getting ahold of his mother to see if Bill would visit with me. Also to find out how he is doing as an adult now. Piaget's cognitive levels are very useful to figure out where they are operating and where they need to go. Bill also was able to then go on and diagram his Family of Origin and explore HOW he had developed those deviant bhrs and WHAT Needs they met for him!! (Piaget's Formal Concrete Cognitive Stage)

I got that tape out recently, but it evidently was not stored correctly and has lines through it!! SAD, because it was priceless!!

Keep in there--We need good teachers!!.

Answer 2

Do yourself a favour and try putting your son in a private
school if at all possible. I have all three of my Special
Ed children in a Private Christian School. The teachers
there are great and really Love God and work hard to
help all his children no matter how great the challenge
If you simply can not afford this, try looking into School
vouchers I here they exist in the Bigger Cities. Public
School is Okay for most , but not for someone like your
son who will get made fun of on a regular basis and even
verbal and physical abuse. Believe me I know. My oldest
Son could not go the the Christian School I just mentioned
it had not started up yet, He has seizures and Aspergers
He still resides at home with me, now 22 years old.
He has great social difficulties, I suppose mainly because
of the Aspergers, But I know the abuse he received from the public school helped to make him distrustful of teachers
and people in general. As far as the Bizarre stuff, try
keeping him on a very basic schedule, one that you can live
with , but one that he can also. This seems to keep them
on tasks at times Thank you for Sharing and take care of yourself GOD BLESS YOU!!

Answer 3

Is he also seeing an Occupational Therapist? If not, the school system should be providing one to deal with his sensory issues which I can only assume result in his outbursts.

Also I would speak to your school administrator about having an Autism Consultant/Specialist come speak to your class or even school as a whole, about Autism Spectrum Disorders. As it is now an nationwide epidemic, children need to be informed. In this day in age, there is no reason for teasing someone that is "different" regardless of the age group.

Best wishes!

Answer 4

It has been proven that students in the ASD are very visual learners. Although he is high functioning, his ability to understand abstract concepts is very difficult. Using a written schedule and notes to inform as well as remind is very helpful and has proven very efffective with students with autism of every functioning level.
The link below will take you to the site of an international presenter who specializes in communication skills with children with asd and communication delays. There is a 5 disk training for parents and educators that is phenomenal! It provides strategies, ideas and rational for why and how to determine your students best way of learning.
When a student is high functioning, it often gives us a false sense of what they are able to do, and their ability to speak and communicate verbally also can give a misconception of what he can UNDERSTAND. That is usally where the problem is. A great book to read is Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin. She is a woman with autism that actually earned a PhD in animal science. She speaks in detail of how she interpreted the world around her especially communication and words. I commend you for looking for ways to help this student instead of writing him off and hoping trhey move him on.

Answer 5

Put him on a behavior contract. Get the counselor/psychiatrist to assist you in developing one. He can improve his behavior. Those two illnesses you mentioned are manageable.