Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Chapter Five Students with Asperger’s Syndrome
Rourke, B. (1989) Nonverbal Learning
Disabilities: The Syndrome and the
Model.
Attwood, T. (1998). Asperger’s Syndrome:
a Guide for Parents and
Professionals.
People with AS may have problems communicating with others
because they do not naturally learn the rules of conversation. They
may:
• interrupt or talk over the speech of others
• make irrelevant comments
• have difficulty initiating and terminating conversations;
• use speech characterized by a lack of variation in pitch, stress
and rhythm
• use overly pedantic or formal speech, particularly as the
student reaches adolescence
• stand too close when talking to someone
• stare, use abnormal body posture, or use other strange body
language
• fail to understand gestures and facial expressions of others
Rourke’s concept of a Nonverbal Learning Disability overlaps
greatly with the concept of AS. Rourke believes that all individuals
with AS have a nonverbal learning disability. Students with a nonverbal
learning disability demonstrate difficulties with visual-spatial
skills, motor skills, and social skills.
Students with AS are of average to above average intelligence
and may appear quite capable. Many students with AS are relatively
proficient in their knowledge of facts, and may have extensive factual
information about a subject that absorbs them. However, they
demonstrate relative weaknesses in comprehension and abstract
thought, as well as in social cognition.
Consequently, they experience some academic problems,
particularly with:
• reading comprehension
• problem solving
• organizational skills
• concept development
• making inferences and judgements
Individuals with AS often have difficulty with cognitive flexibility
(i.e., their thinking tends to be rigid) and with adapting to change
or failure. They do not readily learn from their mistakes.
68 Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders