Teaching the Child with Asperger’s Syndrome

Call him Cason. Cason first enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 2 student during the 2010-2011 academic year. At the time, his mother, Amanda, expressed deep concern at the indications of teachers that Cason’s behavior at school was erratic, and that his classroom decorum was preventing the needed improvement in math and reading skills, both of which were significantly below grade level. Amanda did not want to see her son fall behind in this early stage of school. She was acutely aware that for Cason this would mean getting caught in the cycle of poverty that typified so many people around her.

Some aspects of Cason’s story were typical of all students participating in the New Salem Educational Initiative, who are from challenged backgrounds and often functioning two grade levels or more below that of school enrollment. This frequently results in an entire academic year of intensified instruction in both math and reading before students rise to grade level in both key skill areas and embark on a college preparatory track.

In Cason’s case, though, the challenge was all the greater because of a mild case of autism that professionals had generally diagnosed as Asperger’s Syndrome. I quickly determined that Cason not only needed the small-group setting that has been so beneficial to the many students enrolled in the Initiative, but that to derive the desired benefit and make the necessary progress, Cason needed a weekly two-hour one-on-one session. For one evening every week I gave Cason all of my constant attention. Understanding that young people manifesting some level of autism are concrete thinkers for whom visual objects are powerful tools of learning, I worked to advance Cason’s reading vocabulary by associating words with physical objects and pictures suggestive of the word being studied. Cason quickly acquired a vocabulary appropriate to his Grade 2 level of school enrollment. Under similar physical stimuli, Cason also ascended to near grade level performance in math.

The conversations that Cason and I had en route to and from the weekly academic session were invaluable. I would tell Cason how proud I was of him and how smart he was. He would invariably ask me,

“Am I the smartest one?”

“Do you mean are you smarter than my other students?” I would ask in turn.

“Yeah. Am I the smartest one?”

“Well, you sure are a smart boy,” would be my reply. This would usually satisfy Cason, or he would move on as I continued to assure him how smart he was as I finessed the question of comparison.

Cason would often get excitable, sometimes mentally returning to some notable and even disturbing scenario at school. His monologue would variously combine utterances that he had made, that another student had spoken, or that a teacher had made, in the latter case often as an admonition. So for example, Cason’s words might contain the following sentences and phrases:

“I’m not going to tell you again. You better let go of my backpack. I’m not going to tell you again. I’m not going to tell you again. Give it back. I said give it back. I’m not going to tell you again. Well then you better quit saying those things. I said give it back. Well then you better quit saying those things. I said that you better quit. You better quit. I’m not going to tell you again. Sit down. I said sit down now. Well then you better quit saying those things. You better let go of my backpack.”

And so the repetition and jumbled order of the recounted incident in its verbal aspects would continue. It was very important when Cason would be reliving some incident, such as that implied above, that I not overreact or get excitable myself. My approach with Cason was always to remain calm and to coax him toward a state of calm. And if he told me that I was talking too loudly, even if I was just raising my voice a bit to give something a positive emotional emphasis (“Wow, that was a great idea you had!”), it was similarly important for me to lower my voice. And over time, knowing that while Cason could get his own decibel level up, he did not like it coming from me, I learned to say everything to him with extraordinary care, calm, and gentleness. He responded in like manner, and he thrived on the friendship that we built.

In response to the pedagogy and the human relationship that Cason found in the New Salem Educational Initiative, Cason will enter Grade 3 with a very viable chance of recording grade level performance in math and reading in the course of the 2011-2012 academic year. This young man’s Asperger’s condition presents challenges so daunting that adequate progress in school is frequently impeded. But carefully handled, Cason and his condition are much more manageable. As we anticipate the 2011-2012 academic year, I look forward to presenting Cason with additional exercises that I have designed in which the concrete becomes the gateway to the abstract, advancing both verbal and mathematic learning.

Amanda in the meantime has gained greater and greater hope for Cason’s academic future. She has a vision of the cycle of poverty ending for her family. She feels the satisfaction of a very concerned mother who has been able to get the needed help for her child. And her vision and her satisfaction are of the kind that build a better community for us all.