by Sammy Stein

Created on: September 14, 2010   Last Updated: September 23, 2010

Students with Asperger's Syndrome do not misbehave, they react! In the right situation, with the right support, a student with Asperger's Syndrome will comply, work hard and be a very valuable member of any class. They are often very clever students and can apply themselves logically to many problems on an academic level and will often achieve high levels academically.

However, students with Aspergers' Syndrome find a number of things difficult. Group projects can be hard because they may fail to recognise and react to facial expressions, they may have a lack of empathy and understanding with other members of the group and they may find coping with unexpected changes in people, staff or subject areas very difficult. So, they react by trying to change the situation.

This may take the form of failing to comply, sticking to their guns in an area which makes little sense to staff and fellow students but it is the Asperger's way of trying to maintain routine and, for them, normality. They may throw things and disrupt a lesson if they are really not coping and it is vital to understand the condition and to recognise when they are not coping rather than simply put it down to them 'misbehaving'.

Students with Apserger's Syndrome want to achieve and react well to praise and encouragement just like any other student but, along with the diagnosis of Asperger's, comes a range of difficulties and students with the condition may have all or just a few of them including failing to recognise social nuances, an inability (not for lack of trying) to empathise, difficulty with accepting and dealing with changes and they find it difficult to read body language so may be unaware when someone is cross or becoming annoyed. They also have rigidity of thought in some cases which means that if you give them a task, they stay on task and will simply do the task without realising some may not be going at the same pace, be on the same level and so they appear to fail to interact with others.

All this adds up to the misconception that students with Asperger's syndrome misbehave more than other students - they just fail to cope in some areas.

Recognising Asperger's syndrome is important and understanding how students with it might find some tasks and areas of work difficult is important in being able to help them. It also raises the awareness of other students within the class room and a read of a student's notes will really help so you know what to expect of them (and yourself) when they are in the class. The difficulty with Asperger's is that no student fall exactly into the textbook diagnosis of how they will react so sometimes it can take a while to get to know their idiosyncrasies.

Above all, it is important to remember that students with Asperger's may appear to misbehave more than other students but actually, once you understand them, you will find they are some of the most highly intelligent, able, clever and well behaved students in your class.

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