Effect of Asperger’s Syndrome on Socialization Kerri Watkins and other students Touro College

Effect of Asperger’s Syndrome on Socialization

Kerri Watkinsand other students

Touro College


Asperger Syndrome (AS) or Asperger Disorder (AD) is a type of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). It is a high functioning form of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The major characteristic of Asperger’s Syndrome is a deficit in social interactions. This Pervasive Developmental Disorder has shown to have a major underlying core deficit in social competence and understanding


Children with Asperger’s are sometimes misunderstood by teachers and educators because they have a high level of cognitive skills and average and even above-average abilities academically. Often educators will describe AS students as “typical” but their social behaviors are eccentric. Often times teachers and educators will assume these eccentric social behaviors are due to a lack of control and not realize it is because the have an absence of the proper social behavior skills (Sansoti & Powell-Smith, 2006, p.43-44)


. Many studies suggest that individuals with Asperger Syndrome often have higher IQ’s than that of children with High Functioning Autism (Ghaziuddin, 2008)

Intelligence levels may also be a factor in the social deficit. In a study done by Ghaziuddin (2008) children with AS had shown to have a distinct style of social interactions with others. This distinction shows that even though Asperger’s is a mild form of Autism it’s differences from Autism may be both quantitative and qualitative. This study also suggested that further studies need to be done to find the relationship between AS and autism as well as AS and other social impairment disorders.


Even though we now know that children with Asperger’s posses an understanding of basic emotion they still have difficulties with more complex emotions as well as self-conscious emotions and feelings.

According to the findings from Losh and Capps (2006), compared to typically developing children, autistic children “significantly less inclined to organize and convey their accounts of emotional experiences in specific and personalized causal--explanatory narrative frameworks” (Losh & Capps, 2006)


Effects of Medication on Social Interactions There was a study done by Jahromi in 2009 which

was done to examine what the effects of methylphenidate would be on the social communication of children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders such as Asperger Syndrome would be. According to the results of the experiment done by Jahromi, methylphenidate treatment showed an improvement in school aged children’s emotion regulation and joint attention initiations which may be very beneficial to children with PDD.


Social Competence Intervention is a technique that has been used in the hopes of helping to improve the social deficits in individuals with High Functioning Asperger’s

This Social Competence Intervention program is discussed in a study conducted by Stichter, Herzog, Visovsky, Schmidt, Randolph, Schultz, & Gage (2010) “Specifically, the curriculum provides a clear process by which to promote acquisition of necessary skill sets in concert with multiple opportunities for structured and naturalistic practice to encourage students’ ability to integrate and translate the learned skills into their natural environments”


One group of research clinicians commented: “They may be able to describe correctly, in a

cognitive and often formalistic fashion, other people’s emotions, expected intentions, and social conventions; yet, they are unable to act on this knowledge in an intuitive and spontaneous fashion, thus losing the tempo of the interaction. Their poor intuition and lack of spontaneous adaptation are accompanied by a marked reliance on formalistic rules of behavior and rigid social conventions. This presentation is largely responsible for the impression of social naiveté and behavioral rigidity that is so forcefully conveyed by these individuals.”

http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/about_asds/aspergers_syndrome_social_and_emotional_issues


“The inability to develop social competence is the leading factor in the failure of most adults with autism to attain even a minimal level of quality in their lives” (Gutstein, & Whitney, 2002, p. 161).Since AS is relatively new there are more children and adolescents diagnosed with it than there are adults and it is important to have more research done to help these individuals for the future.

Effects of Treatment on Asperger’s Syndrome

Asperger Syndrome (AS) can be very difficult to cope with throughout life. It involves social deficiencies and also other disorders as well. Over time there have been interventions that have been discovered that help people suffering with AS. Most of these interventions are geared towards working on social skills.


The key indicator of ASD is an inept for social interaction. This can be detected as early as infancy. An infant who may have ASD can be unresponsive to those around them. Also they may focus exclusively on something in particular for long periods of time. In a lot of cases of ASD, a child may seem to be developing normally and then become withdrawn. They no longer show interest in social interactions, they may no longer respond to their names when called, and they will often avoid eye contact with other people. Children with ASD do not interact with their peers very well. A common characteristic of ASD is a lack of empathy. It is difficult for people with ASD to understand people’s tone of voice, or facial expressions (www.nih.gov)


INTERVENTIONS Some studies have shown that although

interventions do not cure AS, they do help people with AS cope with their life in better ways. Since AS is a form of high functioning autism, people with this disorder usually do not have the same issues as someone with a form of lower functioning autism. Interventions are more based on improving social skills

Effects of Treatment on Asperger’s SyndromeIn a pilot study conducted in 2010, researchers looked at the

effectiveness of a new intervention called ‘socio-dramatic affective-

relational intervention’ (SDARI). This intervention is meant to improve

upon social skills among adolescents with AS.SDARI “adapts dramatic

training activities”. I t focuses on the population’s deficits in social

skills. This intervention was given over a six-week period at a summer

program for adolescents with ASD. There were 17 participants in this

study altogether ranging in ages between 11 and 17. Nine of these

participants took part in the SDARI intervention and eight did not.

After the six-week study period was over, researchers found that

participants that were engaged in the SDARI treatment made huge

gains in social assertion and were better able to detect emotions in

adult voices. They did not however make gains in internalizing and

externalizing symptoms or reading other social cues. In conclusion

results of this study found that the intervention of SDARI suggest that

this treatment may be effective in treating some aspects of social

deficiency in young adults with ASD more specifically AS. The parents

of the young adults who took part in the SDARI were very satisfied

with the results in their children (Lerner, Mikami, & Levine, 2010).


Catherine Schreiber wrote about studies that took place over a 10 year

period in which participants with AS took part in different types of

interventions to help them with social skills. These participants were

between the ages of 5 and 18 years old. The different types of social

skill interventions used were social stories, manualized instructional

programs, nonmanualized training and support groups, cognitive

behavioral therapy, family mediated, peer mediated, and activity

based (Schreiber, 2010).


The social story intervention was developed in 1993 by Carol Grey. I ts intent is to “improve social understanding through simple short stories that describe social situations”. This intervention is very helpful to children with AS due to their lack of understanding in social situations. Social stories are very effective in the area of self management in children with AS. In the research reported on, social stories are good to use in schools mostly because they can be individualized to tailor to the student’s needs. One researcher, Brownell (2002) found that the use of music along with a social story improves the effectiveness. By putting a social story to a song, the child is able to remember it better than just the story alone (Schreiber, 2010).


Cognitive behavioral therapy proved that children with AS can learn

social skills cognitively. A study performed by Solomon, Goodlin-J ones,

and Anders in 2004 focused on “emotion recognition and

understanding: theory of mind; and executive functions/real life type

of problem solving.” Their study showed gains in facial expression

recognition and problem solving skills (Schreiber, 2010).


Interventions are not a cure for Aspergers’ syndrome but do make life easier for those living with the disorder

Effect of Asperger’s Syndrome on College Education

People with Asperger’s may not have the intellectual and physical impairments that come along with many forms of other ASD diagnosis; they do however display many of the social, emotional and communication deficits as other diagnosis on the spectrum. They also have the some of the same behavioral problems.

Although effects many aspects of someone life it doesn’t not hinder people from living successful lives. Many people with aspergers go to college.


There are many thoughts in regards to the extent of interventions and services in college, some universities are for it and some are not.

There are also many different outlets a child with Asperger’s can use in college campuses.


According to recent numbers one in eleven college students have a disability, whether it be physical or a learning disability or s disability

According to an article written by Laura Rothstein, the rise in these numbers is due to The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, programs receiving federal funding or assistance must not discriminate against those with disabilities who qualify to be in their institution of higher learning.

She also states that even though there is this law to protect these individuals, they still face some difficulties. Unlike K-12 where it is the schools responsibility to make sure the child with an IEP or a child put under section 504 receives the special accommodations, it becomes the child’s responsibility in college.


“Once in college, it becomes the student’s responsibility to identify themselves as having a disability. They are expected to initiate the request for accommodations and to provide acceptable documentation to the colleges and universities. Students must also be informed the older documentation of conditions such as learning disabilities may need to be updated and that they are generally required to pay for such additional documentation. They also need to know that the level of services and procedural protections provided in postsecondary settings will differ from those afforded in high school.”

This needs to be made aware to these students so they can come up with some sort of transition plan.

Students with Disabilities and Higher Education: A Disconnect in Expectations and Realties

Laura Rothenstein


Once the college is made aware of the person’s disability and their expectation the college needs to make him/her of the universities police and procedures so there is nothing left uncovered. The student will need to know if there are any special accommodations the can except, or if they will be on their own. Most students with aspergers will benefit greatly from special services in college, especially because of the social aspect of college.

On the site mylittleprofessor.com, which is a parental resource site. “Individuals with Asperger’s will not need a lot of special accommodations, but they might need extra time with professors because they might not understand some of the jargon used by the professors, they also might not understand what is important as far as note taking and what is not. While a person who does not have Asperger’s will know a professor is breezing through one topic and then goes on to place a lot of emphasis on another and which of the two would be more important, a person with Asperger’s will not know the difference. So if the professor was made aware there was a student in the class with Asperger’s, they might preface parts of their lectures with “this is important take notes” or “you do not need to take notes on this”.

"Little Professors" on Campus: Planning for College With Asperger's http://www.yourlittleprofessor.com/college.html


There are some arguments for and against these students receiving any special services or accommodations. Some state that it is not the universities responsibility to provide any additional services to students. They feel college is the last gap between students and the “real world”. They believe that students are responsible for themselves and should be able to complete tasks as their peers would. Colleges and professors argue that sometimes student’s expectations are just too high

Keith J. Anderson, a psychologist at Rensselar Polytechnic Institute says, “The problem is that parents start to develop the expectation that we will provide unlimited services—and that’s just not feasible”

Asperger’s Confounds Colleges, Elizabeth Farrell


There are some colleges that believe they need to help their student succeed, and provide services to these students in order for these students to do so. According to the article written by Elizabeth Farrell, there is a program in Pittsburgh called Achieving in Higher Education with Autism and Developmental Disabilities. This program works with local colleges. The founder, Carolyn Komich Hare, works with students to help them through their college career. She visits students on the college campus and helps them with their scheduling and helps them deal with social situations. What this means is she guides them on what and what not to ask during class, or how to develop peer relationships and how to ask people out on dates. It has been reported that since this program has been developed it has turned students GPA’s from failing to A’s and B’s. The cost of this particular program is $4,500 per semester, which may or may not be partially covered by medical insurance.

Asperger's Confounds Colleges A surge of students diagnosed with an autism-related disorder poses new challenges

ELIZABETH F. FARRELL


Other universities with special programs Boston University: They have staffs that work with

students to interpret body language of professors as well as other peers. Ms. Wolf at Boston University points out that even though the college is not legally responsible to provide any such services, the students would put a tremendous drain on the staff’s time.

Drexel University: has a comprehensive autism support program which includes, peer mentoring systems, support from advisors and special classes that help the student adapt to life in college and change.

Rutgers University: a student with Asperger’s can get a single dorm, and the student can enroll in the Asperger’s Disorder College Program, which aides students with goal development and guidance in socializing and studying.


Eastern Michigan University: they have one of the most comprehensive program for students with autism, as well as the most expensive, running parents up to $8,500 per semester. This program helps each student with all aspects of college, from nutrition planning to academic help. With this program the students not only interact and meet with staff and other students, but they meet with other students with autism as well as other individuals with autism around the community.

Midwestern State University: they are addressing the rise of students with autism and realize the great need for supports. Here the counselors and other students mentor the students with Asperger’s. They also have special housing for those who chose to utilize it, where they will have two peer mentors and learn to live independently.

10 Impressive Special College Programs for Students With Autism

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/05/25/10-impressive-special-college-programs-for-students-with-autism/


There are some outside therapies a college student with aspergers can benefit from. Some suggest using a mentor system for college students with Asperger’s. This way the almost all the students needs can be addressed. This is discussed in the article written by Michael R. Dillon titled “Creating supports for college students with Asperger Syndrome through collaboration”. He talks about utilizing this mentor system to meet a wide variety of student’s needs. Not only does this provide the student with Asperger’s the most individualized program for intervention, it also can allow a college to put together students who meet each other’s needs. This model of intervention is successful because it facilitates the most individualization, and well as an ever-changing aspect.

Creating supports for college students with Asperger Syndrome through collaboration

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_2_41/ai_n27245699/?tag=content;col1


Other ideas can be to join clubs, to make use of the college disability office, get a single room if dorming, use tutoring services and to be up-to-date with documentation regarding your diagnosis.

These any more were suggestions made by the Asperger's Association of New England during a panel discussion. Another suggestion made by this panel was to use technology to keep in touch with people.

Asperger's and College Life: Great Panel at AANE yesterday http://welkowitz.typepad.com/aspergers_conversations/2008/09/aspergers-and-college-life-great-panel-at-aane-yesterday.html


There are also psychologists out there that offer therapy for those diagnosed with Asperger’s. They offer therapy for the transition into college life. Dr. Patricia Robinson offers such services, she states with her therapy individuals will learn to date, become organized, make friends, manage their moods, as well as many other skills.

http://patriciarobinsonmft.com/College_students_G3VI.html

Documents

Effect of Asperger’s Syndrome on Socialization Kerri Watkins and other students Touro College