Teacher in need of help

I am a teacher with over 20 years experience but I am struggling to cope with a boy with the diagnosis of Asperger's who has recently joined my maintream class of 28 12-13 year olds. Although I can see that he does have some of the classic AS features I feel that this may not be an accurate or complete diagnosis. As a result, I worry that he may not be getting the correct help or level of support he requires.

The boy is an extremely eloquent speaker on a 1-to-1 basis. He is charming and polite when addressing me although he does make outrageous comments and has an extemely pessimistic outlook. He appears acutely aware of his own intelligence and the lack of ability in others. I have caught him baiting less able pupils in the class by asking them difficult/convoluted/complex questions and he has revelled in their confusion. He even told me he enjoys 'playing with people's minds'. It may be my own ignorance of the condition but I did not think that this type of malice was normally associated with AS.

I have not been fully informed about this boy's confidential record but I believe that there is a history of violence and self-harm. Is this typical of AS too?

As I said I'm really struggling here and I don't particulary feel that I am getting the support of my management team. Any help/comment/advice would be appreciated.

You are right; that type of malice is not associated with AS.

It is a shame that you are not getting the support of your management team.

Although I was never diagnosed with AS I have every symptom of it and I do believe that malice can be associated with the disorder. When I was younger I was a menace and enjoyed the destruction I caused, especially the look on peoples' faces. However, I got well beaten back by some strong authoritative adults and receded to the complete opposite of a menace: A person who wishes to help people so much but cannot do it on a physical level due to the AS.


In any case, this boy needs guidance but needs to be shown who's boss. 'Aspies' don't generally like authority. If anyone wants authority over and 'Aspie' they really need to try hard.


About the lack of help from your management team, well, what can I say but people JUST DON'T CARE. And that's a very sad fact indeed.


Kevster

People with Austim are supposedly unable to figure out what other people are thinking. When you can't do that it is kind of hard to play with minds.

The level of the Syndrome in people differs so I'm assuming there are some who are capable of judging emotion from facial expression.

catherine wrote:People with Austim are supposedly unable to figure out what other people are thinking. When you can't do that it is kind of hard to play with minds.

That's just ignorant. You're feeding the stereotypes with these kinds of overgeneralized half-truths.


Autism makes it very hard to know what other people are thinking or feeling. However, it is not impossible and the more intelligent the person is the easier it is for them to collect the data necessary to start making some rather accurate educated guesses.

Also, it's significantly easier to predict what someone will think next than it is to guess how they will feel.


It's not very hard for someone highly intelligent to "mess with someone's mind" as this kid is doing by deliberately leading them into thought processes that result in an embarassing mistake. All that is required is that the kid have observed how the neurotypical mind differs in its thought processes from his own and realize that while he is more likely to be caught making a social "mistake", there are similar pitfalls that the neurotypical mind is prone to that his mind is actually immune to.

It's neither remarkable nor unexpected that if he gets teased regularly for making social mistakes he might delight in laying intellectual traps for his tormentors.


Oh, and before you go for the "break him with the iron will of authority" consider two things. First, you may win and not like what you get (a broken will on his part).

But second, you may not win. You can't afford to lose even once. Give him a single victory and you'll never win. If he's beaten you once he'll always believe he can.