Asperger's syndrome has been mentioned here before, and now, I realize that it has a place in a story I'm working on. To that end, I need more information.
In a daycare or school setting, how will the Asperger's children be different from other children? How will they act differently? If it was a Silicon Valley type of setting with a disproportionately large number of Asperger's children, how would the dynamic change? Would the day care staff (assume the best - money is no object) or teaching staff have special training & skills? Would they approach teaching differently?
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I have worked one:one with three students with Asperger's. All three were very different. Why would there be more in the Silicon valley?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Statistics show that there are, Elizabeth. Theories as to why vary, but it may just be all those geeks reproducing.
[ April 08, 2005, 12:45 AM: Message edited by: rivka ]
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
quote: In the past decade, there has been a significant surge in the number of kids diagnosed with autism throughout California. In August 1993, there were 4,911 cases of so-called level-one autism logged in the state's Department of Developmental Services client-management system. This figure doesn't include kids with Asperger's syndrome, like Nick, but only those who have received a diagnosis of classic autism. In the mid-'90s, this caseload started spiraling up. In 1999, the number of clients was more than double what it had been six years earlier. Then the curve started spiking. By July 2001, there were 15,441 clients in the DDS database. Now there are more than seven new cases of level-one autism - 85 percent of them children - entering the system every day.
Through the '90s, cases tripled in California. "Anyone who says this is due to better diagnostics has his head in the sand."
California is not alone. Rates of both classic autism and Asperger's syndrome are going up all over the world, which is certainly cause for alarm and for the urgent mobilization of research. Autism was once considered a very rare disorder, occurring in one out of every 10,000 births. Now it's understood to be much more common - perhaps 20 times more. But according to local authorities, the picture in California is particularly bleak in Santa Clara County. Here in Silicon Valley, family support services provided by the DDS are brokered by the San Andreas Regional Center, one of 21 such centers in the state. SARC dispenses desperately needed resources (such as in-home behavioral training, educational aides, and respite care) to families in four counties. While the autistic caseload is rising in all four, the percentage of cases of classic autism among the total client population in Santa Clara County is higher enough to be worrisome, says SARC's director, Santi Rogers.
quote: In previous eras, even those who recognized early that autism might have a genetic underpinning considered it a disorder that only moved diagonally down branches of a family tree. Direct inheritance was almost out of the question, because autistic people rarely had children. The profoundly affected spent their lives in institutions, and those with Asperger's syndrome tended to be loners. They were the strange uncle who droned on in a tuneless voice, tending his private logs of baseball statistics or military arcana; the cousin who never married, celibate by choice, fussy about the arrangement of her things, who spoke in a lexicon mined reading dictionaries cover to cover.
The old line "insanity is hereditary, you get it from your kids" has a twist in the autistic world. It has become commonplace for parents to diagnose themselves as having Asperger's syndrome, or to pinpoint other relatives living on the spectrum, only after their own children have been diagnosed.
High tech hot spots like the Valley, and Route 128 outside of Boston, are a curious oxymoron: They're fraternal associations of loners. In these places, if you're a geek living in the high-functioning regions of the spectrum, your chances of meeting someone who shares your perseverating obsession (think Linux or Star Trek) are greatly expanded. As more women enter the IT workplace, guys who might never have had a prayer of finding a kindred spirit suddenly discover that she's hacking Perl scripts in the next cubicle.
One provocative hypothesis that might account for the rise of spectrum disorders in technically adept communities like Silicon Valley, some geneticists speculate, is an increase in assortative mating. Superficially, assortative mating is the blond gentleman who prefers blondes; the hyperverbal intellectual who meets her soul mate in the therapist's waiting room. There are additional pressures and incentives for autistic people to find companionship - if they wish to do so - with someone who is also on the spectrum. Grandin writes, "Marriages work out best when two people with autism marry or when a person marries a handicapped or eccentric spouse.... They are attracted because their intellects work on a similar wavelength."
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Elizabeth, would you mind sharing your experiences?
Posted by Scythrop (Member # 5731) on :
Also, if you can, you should read Mark Haddon's novel "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" - written from the POV of a boy with Aspergers, Haddon (in addition to being a darn fine writer) has worked extensively with apsergers students in the past, and manages to capture almost perfectly the worldview and sense of detachment that often colours the way the rest of society views these children. The novel has been highly acclaimed by both literary critics, and by various asperger's assosciations around the world.
I also have links to a number of (Mostly Australian) aspergers info sites on my own website here
From a personal point of view, I taught a couple of boys with aspergers during my time in the classroom, and found it both challenging and highly rewarding. One boy in particular had an especially good grip on subjects like physics and computing (Common in apsergers' children) but as his English teacher, I had my work up out for him. He needed a pass in English to get a place at Uni, but in Aaron's case, his complete inability to grasp any form of metaphor made this difficult for him. Generally they are very *Very* literal in their interpretation of language and the world around them. We were given a good deal of professional inservicing as to dealing with Asperger's children.
Setting classroom boundries, for example, was particularly important. It wasn't enough to simply say "Aaron, don't leave your seat please." Because Aaron would simply remain seated while he dragged both himself and his chair across the room, disrupting everything between him and his goal. He didn't see this as being clever, or deliberately destructive, and would have been puzzled if chastized for it. Instead it was necessary to say "Aaron, I want you to remain seated, right where you are, behind your desk, and to keep working until I ask you to stop and move." This second sort of instruction made it much easier for Aaron to cope with the nuances of a mainstream classroom environment.
If you'd like to email me, I'd be happy to shoot you some more thoughts on the matter - just drop me a line. I'm pretty sure my email is in my profile.
Cheers tony
edit to add: Oh and by the way, Aaron got a conceded 51.5% pass for English, and managed to get into Computer Science at University, where by all accounts he is doing amazing things...
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I have a cousin with Aspergers, but I don't really feel it is my place to post things here about him. It is one of the only things I don't feel comfortable talking about here, because anyone could have acces to what I say.
I don't discuss finances here usually, and never much about my parents either, for the same reason.
My email is in the profile if you want to email me about it privately though. It isn't that I am ashamed, or anything like that...it is just a little too private for public forums like this, IMO.
Kwea
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Kwea, completely understandable.
For anyone else, my email addy is in my profile and is accessible, so feel free to email me about this instead of here. Please, though, mention either Hatrack or Asperger's in the subject line so I don't accidentally label it as spam and junk it.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
This is the same thing I need info on!
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
So, Syn, what questions do you have? Please, contribute them. You may think of some that I need answers to as well, but just haven't thought in that direction yet.
Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
I emailed you, quids. I'm getting revved up on no sleep, myself.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Mothertree, if I haven't responded, I may not have received it yet. What with the internet being broken and all, it's sometimes hours between when I can receive email.
Another request for evryone/anyone - please include your Hatcrack ID so I know who you are. Well, if you want to. If you don't want me to be able to put the two together, that's okay, too. But ya know, I'm sometimes easily confuzzled. Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Intersting abut the Silicon Valley!
One student was in first grade when I knew him. he knew the entire geography of the world, but could not interact with other children for more than a few minutes without exploding.
Another student, in first and second grade, was amazing artistically. She also had sever social issues.
Another child was in fifth grade, and did not have behavior issues unless she was pushed beyond her limits, sort of like when Adrian Monk is asked to sip from someone else's cup-she just couldn't do it, and would fall apart. Her parents also had Asperger's, and functioned very well. they appeared "shy."
It does seem to be the diagnosos of the year these days. The thing is, it can look so different in different people, it is hard to pinpoint.
Posted by IrishAphrodite19 (Member # 1880) on :
I wrote a paper about autism (similar to Asperger's) and socialization in the classroom if that would help in anyway. I touched on different methods of helping children with autism integrate into a "normal" classroom and associate with other children.
I don't know how helpful it would be though. I just thought I would mention it.
~Irish
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
I know a child with Asperger's too - but I think it's just going to be a very individual thing.
There is a book called Double Vision by Randy Ingermanson, about a high tech Silicon Valley company with a brilliant computer programmer that has Asperger's. You can read the first three chapters here. Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I read an article that said Einstein had Asperger's. I will see if I can find a link. Newton, too, I think.
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
I can't get the link to the PDF to work. It activated Adobe the first time but the document never appeared.
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