People with Asperger’s Syndrome have an unusual profile of cognitive (i.e. thinking and learning) abilities. Some young children start school with academic abilities above their grade level – advanced literacy and numeracy often self-taught from an early age by watching TV or avidly looking at books and reading about a special interest. In contrast, some have a considerable delay. There seem to be more children with AS than one might expect at the extremes of cognitive ability.
The child has a distinctive learning style, being talented in understanding the logical and physical world, noticing details, and remembering and arranging facts systemically. However the child can be easily distracted, especially in the classroom, and when problem-solving. appears to have a ‘one-track mind’ and a fear of failure. As the children progress through the school grades, there may be problems with organizational abilities, especially with homework assignments and essays. They appear not to follow the advice or learn from mistakes. End-of-year school reports often describe a conspicuously uneven profile of academic achievement with areas of excellence and areas that require remedial assistance.
Teachers and parents need to know how a particular child with AS thinks and learns to improve their cognitive abilities and academic achievement. Normal children usually have two reasons to attend school – to learn and to socialize. If the child with AS is not successful socially, then academic success becomes more important as the primary motivation to attend school and for the development of self-esteem.
The diagnosis of AS itself gives limited information on a specific child’s cognitive abilities, but valuable information can be obtained by formal testing.
Profile of Abilities on Intelligence Tests
Standardized tests have at least 10 subtests that measure specific components of visual and verbal reasoning. A person’s Intelligence Quotient or IQ is usually divided into Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and an overall or Full-Scale IQ calculated from four separate factors: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.
While the Verbal, Performance, and Full-Scale IQ of children with AS are within the normal range, i.e. an IQ over 70, clinicians are more interested in a discrepancy between Performance and Verbal IQ and abilities on sub-tests.
Hans Asperger confirmed that 48% of children had a higher Verbal IQ, 38% had no difference, but 18% had a Performance or visual reasoning IQ significantly greater than Verbal IQ. This profile has been confirmed many times and is described as a Non-Verbal Learning Disability or NLD.
Some studies have not identified this pattern, especially in children who are intellectually very able. The gap between Verbal and Performance IQ tends to close as age increases. Thus no unique cognitive profile can be used to confirm a diagnosis of AS. The profile or pattern of intellectual abilities is more important than the Full-Scale IQ.
About 50% have relatively advanced verbal reasoning skills and are described as “verbalizers”. If there is difficulty with the social ‘theatre’ of the classroom, they can improve by reading or engaging in a one-to-one discussion. They may be successful in journalism or the legal profession.
The 20% with advanced visual reasoning skills are called “visualizers” and have an advantage as engineers or in the visual arts.
Sub-tests. Children with AS have good factual and lexical (or word) knowledge, have an impressive vocabulary, and score well on sub-tests that measure vocabulary, general knowledge, and verbal problem-solving. In the Performance or visual reasoning sub-tests, they achieve high scores on the Block Design test (copying an abstract pattern using coloured cubes, breaking a large geometric pattern into small segments, completing a Lego model, finding an embedded figure in a complex geometric pattern, finding a ‘needle in a haystack’) but cannot find their textbook in their desk.
The lowest scores tend to be on tests that require the mental manipulation of information, or in tasks where the child is vulnerable to being distracted, or in those affected by the child being a ponderous perfectionist (digit span, arithmetic, and coding sub-tests. They have difficulty with tests that require sequential reasoning, as in the picture arrangement test. The relative delay may be a genuine difficulty in understanding the concept – a problem with the ‘hard wiring of the brain’.
Most intelligence tests deliberately avoid testing school knowledge and exclude tasks where learning and environment play a role. A comprehensive assessment needs to include tests of scholastic knowledge and the grade level the child is functioning.
PROFILE OF LEARNING ABILITIES AT SCHOOL
The child is smart but schoolwork is not as good as one would expect. This reflects problems with attention and executive function – to perceive the ‘big picture’, consider the potential outcomes of various decisions, organize resources and knowledge, plan and prioritize within the required time frame, and modify decisions based on results.
Problems with Attention
At least 75% of AS children have signs warranting a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder. Children with AS have problems with all four aspects of ADD: the ability to sustain attention, to pay attention to relevant information, to shift attention when needed, and to encode attention (to remember what was attended to). The degree of attention varies according to their motivation and can be excessive with his or her special interests. Nothing short of an earthquake can break that level of attention. The child with AS may have their own agenda for what is attended to.
Even when appearing to be attentive, they may not be attending to what is relevant to the material in front of them. They are often distracted and confused by irrelevant details and don’t automatically know what to look for. They can have difficulty ‘changing track’ while engaged in a train of thought. The learned information may not be stored or encoded and they may not remember what to attend to when they encounter the same problem again. This can affect social situations where intellect rather than intuition may cause problems remembering what the relevant social cues are and changing their mental ‘track’ when interacting with more than one person.
Impaired executive function can show difficulty switching from one task to another before there has been closure. Their thinking cannot cope with transitions and move easily to the next activity.
Remedial programs are very similar to those designed for children with ADD.
Executive Function
This term includes organizational and planning abilities, working memory, inhibition and impulse control, self-reflection and self-monitoring, time management and prioritizing, understanding complex or abstract concepts, and using new strategies.
The adolescent or adult can be notorious for being impulsive in school work and in social situations, appearing to respond without thinking of the context, consequences, and previous experience. They can be capable of thoughtful deliberation before responding, but in conditions of stress, or if feeling overwhelmed or confused, can be impulsive.
They may have exceptional long-term memory but have difficulty with the mental recall and manipulation of information relevant to an academic task. Normal children have a ‘bucket’ capacity but children with AS have a memory ‘cup’ that can be retrieved from the memory ‘well’.
Another problem with working memory is a tendency to forget a thought quickly. One reason they are notorious for interrupting others is that they have to say what is on their mind before forgetting what he was going to say.
Alternate problem-solving strategies present as inflexible thinking. They tend to continue using incorrect strategies and are less likely to learn from their mistakes, even when they know the strategy isn’t working. If it isn’t working, they get frustrated. This is a problem of neurology in the frontal lobes, rather than being the child’s choice.
In the middle school years, the curriculum becomes more complex and self-directed. Assessment requires the ability to write essays that have a clear organizational structure, and that they can recognize, compare, and evaluate different perspectives and interpretations. There is difficulty organizing and planning aspects of classwork, assignments, and homework. They may feel they are ‘drowning in a million different sub-tasks, seem disorganized, and don’t seem to ‘get their act together’. They may get distressed when situations don’t provide an opportunity for mental rehearsal or preparation for change.
There can be difficulty with abstract reasoning, prioritizing which task to concentrate on first, and time management, especially how long to spend on a designated activity. Delays in the submission of work can incur penalties.
Problems with self-reflection and self-monitoring. Typical children can have a mental ‘conversation’ or internal dialogue to solve a problem, discussing the merits of various options and solutions. Many people with AS ‘think in pictures’ and are less likely to use an inner voice to facilitate problem-solving. Some may have an external conversation by talking to themselves. Peers may think them weird, but teachers can listen and correct errors.
One strategy can use someone who acts as an ‘executive secretary’, a parent or teacher who guides the organization, dictating a time schedule, proofreading draft reports, encouraging alternative strategies, and ‘to do’ checklists. Parents may be labelled as over-protective but have learned that without this support, the child would not receive the grades that reflect their actual abilities. This role may last until replaced by an executive secretary’s wife.
PROBLEM-SOLVING
Using their own idiosyncratic approach to problem-solving has been labelled the ‘Frank Sinatra Syndrome’ or ‘My Way’. They may be famous (or notorious) for being an iconoclast and rejecting popular beliefs and conventional wisdom. This can have the potential advantage of producing an original response, but teachers prefer conventional strategies to be used first. Many games can be used to encourage flexible thinking and facilitate social play with peers. Comments such as ‘If I stay calm, I’ll find the solution more quickly’ and ‘The smart and friendly thing to do is to ask for help’.
Children with AS are more mentally flexible when relaxed. If becoming agitated, the first priority is to encourage a calm attitude or temporary diversion to a calming activity so that they are better able to listen, focus and consider alternative strategies.
Looking at inanimate objects or a blank wall helps them think, a constructive action but one that can be misunderstood.
Coping With Mistakes.
The learning profile may include a tendency to focus on errors, a need to fix an irregularity, and a desire to be a perfectionist. Fear of making a mistake may cause refusal to commence an activity unless it can be completed perfectly. They can prefer accuracy over speed which can affect performance in timed tests and lead to pedantic thinking.
Children may perceive themselves more as adults than children and expect an adult level of competence. They may fear feeling stupid and dread ridicule by peers. There can be a limited acceptance that they are wrong, which may be perceived as arrogance.
Social Stories can be used to explain that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes; mistakes can lead to interesting discoveries, and an error is an opportunity, not a disaster. There can be an enormous delight in getting something right, and success and perfection may be a more important motivator than pleasing an adult or impressing peers.
Children and sometimes adults have a tendency to point out the errors of other people, being unaware that such a comment breaks social conventions, and can be embarrassing or offensive. They think that you should be grateful to them for doing this. Teachers, in particular, do not like their mistakes being loudly announced to the class.
School Achievement in Reading and Mathematics
Overall school achievement in reading and mathematics is consistent with their peers. But there are more AS children at the extremes – out of 74 students, 23 were outstanding in mathematics, 12% had outstanding artistic talent, but 17% had significant problems with reading and writing. Hyperlexia (the advanced ability in word recognition with relatively poor comprehension of the words or storyline) is more common in AS. One study suggests that 20% have significant reading problems and half with math showing both sides of achievement.
Children who score well on reading tests subsequently achieve overall high grades in school due to a relatively advanced ability to learn from written material. Children with problems with reading have specific perception and language problems that will affect reading ability (for example changing the font or dyslexia). Conventional remedial reading programs have not been as successful as one would expect. Some master the general ability to read but cannot read silently or independently.
The special ability in mathematics may be explained by mathematical concepts use visual images, where numbers are conceived of as shapes, not quantity. Many great mathematicians had Asperger’s syndrome. Mathematics is filled with tiny details and fascinations that cry out to be discovered. Solving complex mathematical problems can’t be done orally, only ‘headily’ – they can provide the correct answer but not easily translate into speech the mental processes used to solve the problem. This can mystify teachers when they can’t explain the methods on a test.
AS people have a strong desire to seek certainty and feel uncomfortable when there is more than one answer. They prefer subjects that provide certainty like math and avoid subjects that involve value judgments such as English.
Dyscalculia describes some children with AS with considerable difficulty understanding even basic math concepts. The problem may be applying mathematical knowledge to everyday situations.
Weak Central Coherence
Some children can be remarkably good at attending to detail but appear to have considerable difficulty perceiving and understanding the overall picture, or gist. When learning in the classroom, the problem may not be attention but focus. As the child is preoccupied with detail, focusing on parts rather than wholes. Large areas of potential information are not being cognitively registered leading to a fragmented view of the world. The person may learn isolated facts but have difficulty with an overall analysis. It can be compared to perceiving the world through a telephoto lens rather than a wide-angle lens.
When having to process complex information, typical children can organize simultaneous events into a coherent framework and process information at a deeper level. People with AS have a problem determining what is relevant and what is redundant and deciphering the overall pattern or meaning to create a mental framework. Psychologists use the term weak central coherence to describe this style of information processing.
This explains some of the talents and difficulties people with AS have. In cognitive terms, they can identify details and notice connections that are not perceived by others. This can contribute to being a successful scientist or artist, while attention to detail is an advantage to a contract lawyer, accountant, or copy editor proofreading a manuscript. One of the disadvantages is that it takes more time, and requires repetition and consistency to decipher the pattern in those school activities where the simultaneous processing of information from many different sources is needed.
In language, typical children can remember the gist of the message, and the key parts, which makes the information easier to remember. In conversation, having weak central coherence means the person may remember the details but not the overall story, they may be notorious for giving irrelevant information and have difficulty summarizing and saying just the important points.
By identifying what is relevant or redundant, when a typical person walks into a huge room that has many people and activities, the brain could be overwhelmed but copes by identifying what is important. The priority system notices the people and the and conversations, not the pattern of the carpet or the light fittings. People with AS are less able to determine what to notice and what is irrelevant or trivial. After the event, AS people may not remember who was there.
Once the child has deciphered the social rules, they can become extremely agitated when the social rules are violated, showing extreme intolerance of made-up rules and cheating. The child also becomes the class policeman, observant of any social rule violations and resolutely administering consequences, not a popular characteristic with typical adolescents.
AS children develop an apparently inflexible adherence to specific, non-functional routines or rituals. These can be a sign of anxiety or weak central coherence i.e. difficulty determining the patterns or coherence in everyday life. They have a propensity to establish and enforce routines. Once a pattern has emerged it must be maintained and often increase over time. Reality to an autistic person is a confusing, interacting mass of events, people, places, sounds, and sights. There seem to be no clear boundaries, order, or meaning to anything. Much time is spent trying to work out the pattern behind everything. Set routines, times, particular routines, and rituals all help to get order into an unbearably chaotic life. They look to get consistency. The constant change of most things never seemed to give them any chance to prepare for themselves. Because of this, they find pleasure and comfort in doing the same things over and over again. Uncertainty causes confusion and frustration. Established routines ensure there is no opportunity to change or the need to create a new coherence or framework to understand what is happening and what is expected of you.
Weak central coherence may explain the intriguing ability to remember events in very early childhood. Normal can recall autobiographical events from when they were about 3-6 years old. Some AS children and adults can recall events from infancy. These can be predominately visual and experiences of importance to the person, often objects rather than people or personal stuff. Their different brain wiring from birth combined with weak central coherence may affect the perception, cognitive processing, and storage and retrieval of memories.
This can even extend to remembering whole pages of a book. This photographic memory can be extremely helpful in examinations. Boys, but rarely girls, may have a remarkable memory of directions and places they have been.
Classroom Strategies
Provide a quiet, well-structured classroom. Be aware of perceptual overload and subsequent stress. Sitting at the front may reduce distractions and interruptions. Using a workstation encourages concentration. Sit them near benevolent peers who can provide guidance. There should be minimal changes in routines and staff. It may be advisable to stay at home when there is a substitute teacher.
Older children benefit from comprehensive class notes and study guides as taking notes and copying information may be impaired. Teachers need to help with organizational and planning skills, using a ‘to do” list.
Even with a normal IQ, they should still qualify for in-class support for learning problems or an unconventional profile of cognitive abilities. Concepts may be easier to understand using a computer-based curriculum. Children may be significantly above their age peers but whose social maturity is considerably below. The benefit may be had by repeating a grade so that the social maturity differences are less conspicuous or advancing a grade to be with intellectual peers.
They can become very agitated if the schoolwork is too easy. Being with intellectual peers may be beneficial to access an interesting and thereby motivating curriculum.
The Knowledge and Personality of the Teacher
Hans Asperger wrote “These children show a surprising sensitivity to the personality of the teacher. However difficult they are, even under optimal conditions, they can be guided and taught, but only by those who give them understanding and genuine affection, people who show kindness and humour. The teacher’s underlying emotional attitude influences, involuntarily and unconsciously, the mood and behaviour of the child. The management and guidance require proper knowledge of their peculiarities as well as genuine pedagogic talent and experience. Mere teaching efficiency is not enough.”
The class teacher needs to create an ‘Asperger-friendly’ environment that requires information and expertise on AS and attend relevant training courses. Teacher assistants can play an important role. The greatest academic progress is achieved by teachers who show an empathetic understanding of the child and are flexible in their teaching strategies, assessments, and expectations. They invariably like and admire the child, respect their abilities, and know the child’s motivators and learning profile. They must have an understanding of the child’s delayed Theory of Mind abilities (that is, a delay in their understanding of what someone may be thinking or feeling); but the teacher must also have a ‘Theory of the Asperger Mind’ (an understanding of how the child may be thinking or feeling).
No two children with AS have the same profile of abilities, experiences, and personality. Practices used previously may not be appropriate for subsequent children.
Another requirement is to not be offended by comments that may superficially appear to be rude or insolent. It is also important to avoid sarcasm, as the child is likely to make a literal interpretation of what is said.
Conventional motivators may not be as effective. While demonstrations of love, affection, and flattery are pleasing to normal children and often induce the desired behaviour, such approaches may only succeed in irritating the AS child. More successful motivators include appealing to intellectual self-esteem by commenting how smart the child is, incorporating aspects of the special interest in the activity, and reducing the potential for risk or errors.
“All educational transactions have to be done with the effect ‘turned off’. The teacher must be calm and collected and must remain in control.”
Being annoyed or affectionate when they are trying to concentrate can cause greater confusion or irritation for children with AS. Quiet assertion may be needed and the child’s increasing agitation is not allowed to create a reciprocal reaction in the adult.
Another trick is to announce any educational measures not as personal requests, but as objective impersonal law. Showing the relevant school rules confirms that the teacher is enforcing an accepted rule and not being mean or vindictive.
Homework
A major cause of anguish for all involved is the satisfactory completion of homework. The first explanation is based on the degree of stress and mental exhaustion during the day at school. They have not only had to learn the traditional curriculum but also the social curriculum. Intellectual reasoning is used to determine the social rules of the classroom and playground. Often the primary feedback is critical for an error, with little recognition when they make the correct response. Unfortunately, learning only from your mistakes is not the most constructive way to learn. Throughout the day, they rarely have an opportunity to relax – reading and responding to emotional signals, coping with the complex socializing, noise and chaos of the playground, the unexpected changes to school routine, and the intense sensory experiences of a noisy classroom.
Most need a clear division between home and school – “school is for learning, home is for fun or relaxation.” Interrupting that with homework can be more than they can cope with.
Due to impaired executive function, they have difficulty planning, organizing, and prioritizing, a tendency to be impulsive and inflexible when problem-solving, and limited working memory. Other features are difficulty generating new ideas, and determining what is relevant or redundant; poor time perception and management; and a need for supervision and guidance. There may also be specific learning problems such as reading difficulty.
Create a conducive learning environment by removing any distractions (visual ones like toys and television or auditory ones such as noise from electrical appliances and the chatter of siblings. Create a daily homework timetable using a diary and planner. This helps them remember which books to take home and specific homework. A timer can be used to track the time remaining to complete each section. Ensure that the time scheduled for homework does not coincide with favourite TV programs or use video recorders. Incorporate regular breaks.
A small digital recorder used for dictation can provide the teacher’s spoken instructions and the child can add their own comments. Supervision may be needed on when to get started, provide assistance should confusion arise, and provide alternative strategies showing there is more than one line of thought. Motivation can be enhanced by specific rewards for concentration and effort.
Cognitive Style
Special consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses. If their relative strength is in visual reasoning, the flow diagrams, graphic organizers, mind maps, and demonstrations will enhance their understanding. If the child’s strength is in verbal skills, then written instructions and discussion using metaphors (especially metaphors associated with their special interest), will help. Additionally, use a computer and keyboard, especially for those children who have problems with handwriting. Homework is often a collaborative rather than a solitary activity. Without the parent’s involvement, the work would not be completed on time or to the standard required.
Children with AS understand concepts better on computers. Material presented by a person adds a social and linguistic dimension which can increase confusion. Homework should be adapted so that most can be done on a computer. Word processing especially graphics, grammar and spell-check programs improves legibility and quality.
Teaching a child with AS requires special skills and parents have difficulty being objective and emotionally detached. Homework tutors can provide skilled guidance and supervision.
Reducing the Amount of Work at Home
If homework causes anguish especially if they are already exhausted from a full day at school, the teacher should realize that homework may not be the most effective means of education. One option is to enable the completion of homework at school at lunchtime and after class in their home class or library. Taking fewer classes can give you extra time. Children with AS often excel at self-directed learning when interested in the activity. Their problem is learning in the social context of the classroom.
They should be exempt from punishment for not completing homework assignments on time. Homework should be limited to 30 minutes.
VISUAL THINKING
Some people with AS sometimes think in pictures rather than words. Temple Grandin was the first to discuss the several advantages. “My mind is completely visual and spatial work as drawing is easy. I taught myself drafting in 6 months. I have designed big steel and concrete cattle facilities, but remembering a phone number or adding up numbers in my head is still difficult. I have to write them down. Every piece of information I have memorized is visual. If I have to remember an abstract concept, I ‘see’ the page of a book or my notes in my mind and ‘read’ information from it. Melodies are the only thing I can memorize without a visual image. I remember very little of what I hear unless it is emotionally arousing or I can form a visual image. In class, I take careful notes, because I forget the auditory material. When I think of abstract concepts such as human relationships, I use visual similes. For example, relationships between people are like a glass sliding door. The door must be opened gently, if it is kicked in, it may shatter. If I had to learn a foreign language, I would have to do it by reading and make it visual.” (Grandin 1984, p.145)
Temple has written a book that explores her visual thinking and how this has affected her life and enabled her to develop quite remarkable design skills (Grandin 1995).
The disadvantage of this way of thinking is that schoolwork is primarily presented in a verbal way of thinking. A teacher often uses speech and a lecture style to explain an educational concept rather than provide a practical demonstration. A strategy to help ‘visualizers’ is to make greater use of diagrams, models, and active participation. In maths lessons, the child can have an abacus on their desk. The child can also learn to imagine the principles or events as real scenes. Adults with AS have learned history or science by visualizing events – for example, running a mental video of changing molecular structures.
There are considerable advantages to this type of thinking. They may have a natural talent of chess and snooker, and the greatest scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, was a visual thinker. He failed his school language tests but relied on visual methods of study. His theory of relativity is based on the visual imagery of moving boxcars and riding on light beams. His personality and family history have elements indicative of Asperger’s syndrome.
COGNITIVE TALENTS
There are children and adults with AS who have cognitive abilities that are significantly above average, i.e. an IQ of over 130, and are sometimes described as gifted and talented. The advantages include a greater capacity to process and learn social cues and conventions intellectually. Advanced intellectual maturity can be admired by a teacher and winning competitions can lead to greater status for the child at school. Academic success can raise the self-esteem of both young people and adults; often their social naivety and eccentricity can be accepted, even appreciated, as part of the ‘absent-minded professor’ image. Cognitive talents could lead to a lucrative career developing technology or an illustrious career conducting research.
However, there are many disadvantages. They can have a relatively high level of moral development and ideals and can become distressed in situations of injustice, such as cruelty to animals, the effects of natural disasters on people, and fairness affecting interactions and games with peers who have a more flexible and egocentric view of the rules. The child has a conceptual capacity beyond what they can manage emotionally. The conceptualization or solution may be extraordinary but the practical aspects of organizing the ideas into a coherent framework, and communicating thinking using speech, can be a significant problem. They know the idea or solution is perfect, but no one seems to be able to understand it.
They can focus well on the individual component of a problem and may identify aspects overlooked by others, but may also respond emotionally to relatively less significant problems. They are often perfectionists with high self-imposed standards of achievement and tend to abandon a project quickly if there is little initial success. The self-imposed standards can lead to considerable frustration and children with AS are notorious for their inability to cope with frustration.
They have the ability to create imaginary stories that are fascinating to other children and can become the leader of the group, eager to enact the stories. Later in childhood, creativity and talent in the arts may be a form of self-expression and personal satisfaction that is not primarily intended for an audience or admiration from their peers.
These gifted children are rarely given work matching their cognitive abilities. Hopefully, the class teacher recognizes the potential and arranges an advanced curriculum. They benefit from gifted programs.
Significant advances in science and the arts have been attributed to individuals with a different way of thinking attributed to AS. Typical people have a social/linguistic way of thinking and benefit from the alternate perception and cognitive thinking of AS children. Language can be viewed as a cage for thought and many advances in science and philosophy have been achieved by alternate conceptualizations not based on linguistic thought. They give another perspective on mathematics and highly abstract things (they can solve a Rubik’s Cube in minutes). Joining Mensa is used as a hallmark of their intelligence. If they could change and get rid of the Asperger’s, they wouldn’t as they would lose part of their intelligence. Society needs people with Asperger’s to bring a new perspective on the problems of tomorrow.
