ASPERGER'S SYNDROME - Marina Cáceres

A few days ago we saw a video in class of Asperger syndrome. In this video appeared people with this syndrome who told us the consequences of having it. Some features that characterize these people are, for example, the difficulty in social skills and emotional control, it’s means that, they don’t enjoy with the social contact. They have better relationship with people older than them that with children of the same age. They don’t like sports and have problems when playing with their peers, and the children don’t understand the rules and always want to win. Maybe that's why they don’t want to play and in many times they have conflicts with others partners. Also, they have difficulties to identify their feelings, and have many annoyances and tears more easily.

On the other hand, another feature that identifies them is the ability to communicate. Many of them don’t usually look into your eyes when you speak. They don’t understand ironies, so everything you say, they believe it. Sometimes they seem to be absent, because it’s hard to follow long conversations.

As for the ability of compression they have difficulty to understand complex questions, and they take longer to answer. These people don’t understand why they should behave differently depending on the social situation in which they are. Other things that I seemed me interesting it was, for example, that they have great memory for facts and dates and, above all, they have a special interest in mathematics. But, instead, they have a little imagination and creativity.

Other characteristics of people with this syndrome are, for example, the poor coordination in movement. They like routine, and, also, they are angry if sudden changes occur... etc.

But... as future teachers must think that, maybe, tomorrow we need to educate children who have this syndrome. Yolanda presented us this question: How would you educate children with Asperger's syndrome in class?

First of all, the most important thing for me is to make feel them like one more in the class, it’s means that, we don’t have to treat them with inferior ways to the rest students. I also think that, as a future teacher, it is essential to be more patient and we must know adapt to the needs of each child. In addition, as I said before, children have very significant features, so the teacher must be very familiar with all of them, so in this way, the child can improve.

On the other hand, I would help them for manage their emotions through the relaxation. Also, they must learn how to react in every moment, and so we must teach them to solve real situations. Also, we would try to integrate them with others, because this type of people doesn’t have this ability. As we have seen in the video, most children who have this syndrome are excluded by other partners, as many of this people make them bullying, so, teachers must do see others that children with Asperger's syndrome are students like them, who can offer wonderful things too.

As I said earlier, it is important to treat them as others, but to some extent. These people don’t start from the same level as others, so we should take more time with them, and use methods in which we can teach them more slowly and in smaller amounts.