Name of Student: Eibhlín Ní Mhuircheartaigh
ID Number: 59210388
Qualification: M.Sc. Guidance & Counselling
Module: ES551: Wellbeing, Society and Lifelong Learning
Title of Essay/Seminar Paper: Case Study: School struggles of those living with Asperger Syndrome
Please indicate the term and academic year this module was studied: Spring 2010
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Academic Year: 2009/2010
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Word length: 2,735
Date of Submission: Day 29 Month 04 Year: 2010
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I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award ……………………………………………………………… (insert title of degree for which registered) is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work.
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Dublin City University
(School of Education Studies)
Case Study: School struggles of those living with Asperger Syndrome
By
Eibhlín Ní Mhuircheartaigh
Student number: 59210388
Submitted to the School of Education Studies, Dublin City University, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Master in Science in Guidance and Counselling
29/04/10
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………4-5
Case Study…………………………………………………………………………………..6-8
Theoretical Aspects………………………………………………………………………...9-11
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..12-13
References………………………………………………………………………………..14-17
Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………18-19
Introduction
As a secondary school teacher it is easily acknowledged that for many students school can be challenging. However, having read “Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome” by Luke Jackson it occurred to me how school can be particularly challenging for children with special needs, including those with Asperger’s syndrome (AS). They often experience difficulties with social interaction, behaviour problems and have difficulties understanding and adapting to the social demands of school. In his book “Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome,” Luke Jackson speaks of his experience of school where he “struggled to understand what was going on.” But one thing he did understand was that “most kids were mean to me.”
The situation can be further complicated by the fact that there is no typical, predictable classroom style common to all children with special needs, for that matter. It can also be problematic for parents to tell how much of any problem identified by a teacher falls into the normal range of a child’s development, i.e. how much is due to Aspergers, and how much is due to coexisting problem such as learning disability, anxiety disorder, or disruptive behaviour and others. With this knowledge the author was curious to investigate what measures have been taken to include children with such difficulties in main stream education and fully meet their required needs. Has this been successfully achieved?
While the past ten years have seen huge strides in catering for students with special needs in Ireland, challenges still exist to ensure students with special needs are catered for in an appropriate manner. Since 1998, the Department of Education have had ten pieces of legislation passed through the Dáil that relate one way or another to children and special education needs. Under the terms of the Education Act, 1998, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has the function of advising the Minister for Education and Science regarding the curriculum and syllabuses for students with a disability or other special educational needs. The White Paper on Education, Charting our Education Future (1995), states:
“All students, regardless of their personal circumstances, have a right of access to and participation in the education system, according to their potential and ability.”
The White Paper on Education envisaged that provisions of needs for students with special requirements are flexible, in accordance to the needs of the individual. However, this flexibility poses particular challenges in post-primary schools where timetable and deployment of resources are organised around subjects, assessment and where teachers tend to be subject specialists.
This paper affords the reader the opportunity to gain an insight into the author’s learning experience having spent time in a special needs unit in a post primary school. The objectives of this case study are; a) to develop a better understanding of Asperger syndrome, b) to identify the role of the unit in assisting the students in their education and personal development and finally, c) to investigate how integrated are students with Asperger’s in main stream schooling.
Case Study
As a secondary school teacher for the past five years in a mainstream school the aim of this case study was to gain a deeper understanding of how Special Needs Assistants help students with Aspergers, as well as investigating how included these students are in our educational system. During the initial stages of planning the research, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were considered. Firstly, the use of survey questionnaires was considered to study teachers’ perception of their role in educating students with special needs as well as measuring the experience of students with special needs in mainstream schooling. However, the nature of the research questions involved a lot of ethical considerations and the time scale available was not sufficient to address for the purpose of this assignment. Due to the fact that the unit currently catered for two students with Asperger’s syndrome a qualitative approach was more appropriate for this research study.
The unit in which the research took place is situated in a community college in North Dublin, where the socio-economic profile ranges from working to middle class. There are three Special Needs Assistants currently working in the unit and the unit caters for six full time students with autism and two students with Aspergers. The students with Aspergers spend the majority of their time in mainstream education but come to the unit if exempt from certain subjects and on a needs basis. For example, if there had been difficulties with behaviour or the student required time out for themselves. It was for these reasons that it provided the ideal setting needed to investigate the research questions posed by the author.
In the initial visit it was clear to the author that the unit was differed in it’s lay out and atmosphere to a normal class room. The unit was very bright, airy and spacious, as opposed to rows of tables and chairs there were little working areas. Each of the students had their own working space and computer. The unit also had an art area, kitchen, common room, office and a sensory room. It was immediately sensed by the author that overall it was very relaxed area and the students themselves were very content and calm. The layout of the unit helped to create such an atmosphere giving the students the opportunity to sit at their own workspaces and listen to music if they became agitated.
The author was hugely interested in the sensory room especially built for the two students with Aspergers. There are frequently sensory issues with those with Aspergers meaning that they can have a heightened sense of smell, taste, or sound. Their senses are often hyper-acute resulting in an over-reaction to ordinary sounds such as fluorescent lights, fans, and other electrical appliances. Thus, things that might be annoying for the average person can be amplified and uncomfortable to the person with Aspergers. The aim of the sensory room was to help the students with this hyperactivity of their senses. Also the room was used as a space for them to withdraw if they had being involved in a highly stressful situation for example argument with teacher or another student. Over-reaction to situations is common occurrence for students with Aspergers. Therefore, “time out” is an essential coping mechanism for students with Aspergers.
Results from eleven studies published from 1989 to 2003 indicated that those students with disabilities, both visible and non-visible, experience bullying more than their non-disabled educational peers and that boys were bullied more often than girls (Dawkins, 1996; O’Moore & Hillery (1989). Both students with Aspergers involved in this case study were themselves victims of bullying. John (student one) was recently a victim of bullying and as a consequence was now suffering from very low self esteem. The Special Needs Assistants were working with John, rebuilding his self esteem and helping to create new friendships. In order to accomplish this, the Special Needs Assistants organised that John would learn how to make a pizza and have John invite some students in his class to have a pizza party.
Séan (student two) experienced bullying within the classroom. Séan has great difficulty differentiating between appropriate and inappropriate social responses. He has learned to be argumentative and aggressive which has caused some problems for him in school. Séan’s behaviour made him the perfect target for bullying where other students would provoke him within the class causing him to lash out at teachers and at students. The teachers felt that Séan was the culprit and causing hassle and was often removed from the classroom. Clare his Special Needs Assistant is helping him to identify different approaches to certain scenarios’ he may encounter in the school environment. She uses teaching material which looks at recognising Séan’s feelings and improving his social skills.
The Special Needs Assistants in the unit are all in agreement that their role is to develop the students social and life skills. Clare highlighted some of the characteristics of the syndrome which include ‘poor choice of words when speaking, motor clumsiness, non-verbal communication and social interaction which is the most noticeable difficulty’. Clare stressed that these impairments in social interaction work strongly against people with the syndrome. Therefore, it is important that this area in particular is worked on with the students. While great work is being carried out with the students it can sometimes be difficult for the Special Needs Assistants. While they work on strategies to help Séan and Johns’ behaviour in the classroom it can be frustrating as cooperation from colleagues doesn’t come easy at times. Clare feels this is partially due to the fact that teacher training colleges and universities don’t give time to train teachers in regards to special needs. Also Special Needs Assistants are seen as a quick fix for students with special needs. But it can often lead to isolation rather than inclusion for the students.
Analyse theoretical aspects
One of the most striking aspects of the above case study is the huge impact the lack of social skills has on those students with Aspergers, as they can be excluded by other students in a school environment. One of the most significant problems is their difficulty understanding the thoughts and feelings of others, since empathic imagination is lacking (Convit, Dziobek, Hassenstab, Rogers, & Wolf, 2007). In addition, their brains work differently more effort is required to be in a relationship than for neurotypical people. As expert Tony Attwood points out, “Conventional social occasions can last too long for someone with Asperger’s syndrome, especially as social success is achieved by intellectual effort rather than natural intuition. Socializing is exhausting,” (2007, p. 91). So the desire to be social and the difficulties involved with being social are often at odds, creating an uncomfortable dilemma that requires understanding and patience from others. They often behave in unattractive ways to others, leading to repeated rejection and ridicule (Gaus, 2007). Bullying is also common (at least 4 times the rate reported by neurotypicals from 4-17 years old), since those with Aspergers tend to have a trusting nature along with the inability to predict the thoughts of others (Attwood, 2007). As a result, there is often a lack of adequate social support resulting in a sense of isolation, which has such clinical repercussions as depression and anxiety (Ghaziuddin, 2005).
Aspergers display varying degrees of interactional dysfunction in that some may suffer greatly and be noticed for it while others “pass” as normal (Stoddart, 2004). Some examples of unspoken social rule errors those with Aspergers make include speaking too loudly in inappropriate situations, cutting ahead of lines, interrupting conversations, failing to notice social cues such as when someone wants to leave or finish a conversation, taking innocent jokes as serious criticisms, and taking jokes too literally so that the punch line is not responded to in the desired manner (Gaus). Sensory integration problems that are common in Aspergers can make “touching and physical closeness uncomfortable or even painful” (Lovett, 2005, p.199). Unaware individuals may touch or hug a person with Aspergers, unwittingly putting him or her in the awkward position of wanting to avoid that person yet still seeming interested in being social.
As seen with the case study, the lack of social skills can cause those individuals with Aspergers to be judged negatively by others with higher expectations for their functioning, such as parents or teachers. According to Lovett (2005, p. 172), “There is research that shows that autism spectrum disorders do seem to cause many people to live in a state of hyper-arousal – a sort of prepanic state that can be very debilitating.” Thus, those with Aspergers need more time to rest, recuperate and become refreshed between activities causing difficulties in cases where regular work schedules are demanded. In addition, sensory issues like problems tolerating the light wavelengths and intensity of fluorescent lights, which are common in workplaces of all kinds, may interfere with comfort and performance at work (Attwood, 2007).
“I have spent my life trying to find a place for him in our educational system. It must be appreciated how different children with autism are from each other and no one recipe will work for all children simply because they have a diagnosis of autism/Asperger 's …”
(The Educational Provision and Support for Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Report of the Task Force on Autism 2001).
Another issue highlighted from the case study was the inclusion of students with Aspergers in main stream schooling. Due to the fact that many students with Aspergers have proficient verbal expression skills and an overall IQ within the normal or above normal often mask outstanding deficiencies observed primarily in socially demanding situations, thus decreasing other people 's perception of their very salient needs for supportive intervention (Klin and Volkmar, 2000. p. 342). ‘Inclusive Education’ and 'mainstreaming ' promote the ideal of equality of opportunity, acceptance, belonging and social inclusion by providing choice and quality of support.
The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act (2004), considers home, school and community sources of information about children with special needs. All can provide perspectives to implement programmes and strategies that can help the needs of a child with Aspergers. However, this collaborative approach can have its difficulties, for example the diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder is a stressful and significant event in the lives of families. Such a diagnosis often follows years of uncertainty where parents struggle to cope with their child’s ‘difference’ and try to rationalise behaviour that is unusual, unmanageable and often unresponsive to parental controls. In Ireland, diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorders remains problematic, with significant delays being the norm in many instances (The Educational Provision and Support for Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Report of the Task Force on Autism 2001). Also a label can be incredibly stigmatizing for an individual, and some interpret this dark mark as a message that society has given up on him or her, which may lead to learned helplessness and giving up on one’s self too (Stoddart, 2004).
Another issue of inclusion for students with Aspergers is that inclusion can be left to the discretion of the individual teacher. In a study of provision for pupils with special educational needs by the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (1998) it was indicated that the main areas of concern that emerged were teacher training, teachers’ attitudes, and the less developed nature of second-level systems in dealing with special educational needs. If inclusion is to be affective the Task Force considers the legal obligation on all schools to submit a Whole School Plan which includes a description of how the school plans to include students with special needs in the mainstream, as an important feature of department policy. Conclusion
As seen from the case study improving social skills is important to the development of students with Aspergers. Counselling can provide an environment to work on such skills, one such technique is Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). CBT teaches people to monitor their own thoughts and perceptions with the hopes that they will become more aware of their interpretive errors. Psychotherapy is becoming more widely perceived as a viable treatment modality for individuals with Aspergers (Attwood, 2007; Jacobsen, 2003) and some authors have recommended the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy (Attwood, 1998, 2004, 2006; Gaus, 2007; Hare & Paine, 1997). CBT can help people with Aspergers learn to re-conceptualize social interactions and become more able to more accurately “read” the behaviour of others. Once they understand others ' motives they can more easily monitor their own behaviour and adjust their responses to other people and situations.
It is quiet evident that living with Aspergers poses many obstacles. These obstacles have implications for the individual’s personal life, physical well-being and employment. As a Career Guidance and Counsellor it is vital to provide appropriate and effective supports and accommodations to students with Aspergers. While counselling might be seen to be helpful for students with Aspergers, it is vital to acknowledge that they may not have the ability to recognise problems they may be experiencing especially emotions. Therefore, it would be critical to work on the client/counsellor relationship in the initial stages. Counsellors are able to develop positive relationships with clients when they possess the personal qualities of ‘warmth, sincerity, congruence, understanding, acceptance, concern, openness, respect for the client and the willingness to be challenged by others’ (Corey, G, 2008 p323). These characteristics pave the way for counsellors to develop positive therapeutic relationships with students, which would be vital to students with Aspergers which sometimes are excluded by society.
References
Attwood, T. (1998). Asperger’s syndrome: A guide for parents and professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Attwood, T. (2004). Cognitive behaviour therapy for children and adults with Asperger 's syndrome. Behaviour Change, 21(3), 147-162.
Attwood, Tony. (2007). The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Butler, E., Ghaziuddin, M., Ghaziuddin, N., & Tsai, L. (1994). Is clumsiness a marker for Asperger syndrome? Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 38, 519-527.
Clements, John (2005). People with Autism Behaving Badly: Helping People with ASD Move on From Behavioural and Emotional Challenges. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Convit, A., Dziobek, I., Hassenstab, J., Rogers, K., & Wolf, O. (2007). Who cares? Revisiting empathy in Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 709-715.
Corey, Gerald. 2008. Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 7th ed. California: Brooks/Cole Publishers-Thomson Learning
Gaus, Valerie (2007). Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Adult Asperger Syndrome. New York, NY: Guilford Publications, Inc.
Ghaziuddin, Mohammad (2005). Mental Health Aspects of Autism and Asperger Syndrome. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Grinker, Richard (2007). Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books.
Hare, D. J. & Paine, C. (1997). Developing cognitive behavioural treatments for people with Asperger 's syndrome. Clinical Psychology Forum, 110, 5-8.
Harpur, John (2006). Succeeding with Interventions for Asperger Syndrome Adolescents: A Guide to Communication and Socialisation in Interaction Therapy.London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Jacobs, Barbara (2003): Loving Mr. Spock: Understanding an Aloof Lover. Could it be Asperger’s Syndrome? Arlington, TX: Future Horizons.
Jacobsen, P. (2003). Asperger Syndrome & Psychotherapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Lovett, Juanita (2005).
Solutions for Adults with Asperger Syndrome: Maximizing the Benefits, Minimizing the Drawbacks to Achieve Success. Gloucester, MA: Fair Winds Press.
Murray, Dinah (Ed) (2006). Coming Out Asperger: Diagnosis, Disclosure and Self-Confidence. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Schopler, Eric (Ed) (2001). Research Basis of Autism Intervention. Secaucus, NJ: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Stoddart, Kevin (Ed) (2004). Children, Youth and Adults with Asperger Syndrome: Integrating Multiple Perspectives. London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Williams, Chris (2004). How to Live with Autism: Practical Strategies for Parents.
London, GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Reports
The Department of Education and Science. The Report of the Task Force on Autism – The Educational Provision and Support for Persons with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, October (2001).
The Department of Education and Science .The White Paper on Education, Charting our Education Future (1995).
Acts
The Education Act 1998. Acts of the Oireachtas
The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act,
2004.
Appendix
My personal learning from our group task
I found that the group task was a very enjoyable and a beneficial experience. One of the major advantages was it gave me to opportunity to reflect on my case study to date. Reflection has been described as the ability to 'examine one 's own actions, thoughts and feelings ' (Newell, 1992). This was certainly true for me, as when I was speaking about my chosen case study it helped clarify what my aims and learning were from doing the assignment. It also helped to improve some areas of the assignment as when the group asked questions based on my case study it made me think what the strengths and weaknesses were in my essay and it also made think that they were areas that I would need to look at again especially in the area of inclusion of the Aspergers students.
Another of one the advantages of working with the group was that we benefitted from one another. Each member provided his or her own thoughts and information to each of the topics being covered in the group. It created a collaborative learning environment in which practical knowledge was shared giving the ability to appreciate new ideas and opinions of those in the group. By having a group discussion we were able to provide extra information or help those who were struggling with some aspect of their assignment. This is something that may have not being achieved if we were working on the assignment alone.
Finally, it was enjoyable to seat back and listen to the other case studies carried out by other members of the class. It was amazing the huge variety of ideas within such a small group and yet as every spoke it was clear there was an overlap of ideas and concepts of society to be seen in each one. It was also interesting to hear the reasons people chose their topics and it was evident that they were very personal reasons behind them. It was also clear that each person had learnt a great deal and had through a personal journey in carrying out the assignment.