How do teachers deal with a student with Asperger's who becomes violently angry with his peers?
Friday, July 30th, 2010 at
6:38 am
I work wіtһ a 12 y/o male wіtһ Asperger’s. Aѕ wіtһ individuals dealing wіtһ Asperger’s һе һаѕ a rigid view οf tһе world аחԁ becomes violently аחɡrу wһеח һе perceives injustice. Aחу tһουɡһtѕ οח һοw tο process triggering events wіtһ һіm? Wһаt’s tһе best way tο һаνе һіm work toward choosing חοt tο react violently wһеח a peer "talks trash".
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First, I commend you for taking the time to look for ideas on how best to deal with him. The more you research and begin to understand the reasons for his poor behavior, the more you will be able to empathize with him and calmly show him safe ways to express and manage his anger; it will also result in a better relationship between the two of you, hopefully increased self-esteem for him, and it could have a huge impact on his future just to run across one teacher who cares enough to try to make a difference in his life.
Asperger’s children can be at either end of two extremes – extremely prone to anger or extremely docile. Sometimes the same AS child will display both of these extremes in different situations. From what I’ve gleaned on the subject in my reading, experts agree that problem behavior associated with AS begins to rise around age 7, peak somewhere around 12-14, and then starts to decline with the onset of puberty. So if you regularly work with this age of child, God bless ya! I also hope you’re a ParaPro or special education teacher, because it is so difficult (and really unfair) for primary teachers to deal with this type of disorder while teaching a whole classroom. If you are the primary teacher, I would advocate to get it in his IEP for him to have a ParaPro assigned, at least temporarily.
As far as rigidity goes, it just comes with the territory. It’s possible that being rigid helps to give children with AS the order they crave and helps them make sense of a world that can seem chaotic and unpredictable to them. The AS mind has been compared to a train on a track vs. a car on a road, and it’s one thing about them that you just have to accept and make accommodations for. It is very difficult for children with AS to be flexible.
In a school setting, my son’s triggers were unpredictability or change of schedule; attention, concentration and organization; handwriting assignments; and social difficulties, with the latter two being the biggest problems. Unfortunately, AS children are often regarded by their peers as easy “prey.” They are poorly equipped to recognize “predators” or defend themselves from them, and they are left open to two main problems: 1) The AS child is vulnerable and easily taken advantage of and is subject to mean and unfair treatment. In this situation, he becomes a victim of bullying. 2) He misinterprets the intentions of people who mean him no harm and overreacts (such as to innocent joking or teasing). When this happens, he misperceives himself as a victim of bullying. The AS child will rarely ever initiate bullying, but because they don’t understand subtlety the way typical children do, they are the ones most likely to get caught and get into trouble when they react poorly.
AS children respond much better to positive discipline than negative, because in their mind their behavior is justified and we are the ones who are wrong for not catching the bullying and for not understanding their way of seeing things. Make one of his specific goals, “keeping your cool.” When you catch him keeping his cool in a particular situation, praise him for it (even it it’s only a small thing), and be specific: “I noticed you really kept your cool when…But you did well to stay so calm. That shows a lot of self-control. Good job!” They may not come across this way, but AS children are very, very often pleasers. A little praise goes a long, long way in teaching them appropriate social behaviors. However, you should never turn a blind eye on violent behavior. You need to have a crisis plan (try different strategies, record what works), step in quickly when a situation starts to escalate, stay calm, don’t give in to intimidation, and, if necessary, remove him from the situation (have a plan for this…another classroom where he can go to cool off, or a private area where you can go with him to talk through the situation.
Social stories can help a child to understand social cues and the difference between bullying and teasing. http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/29487.aspx They are often written for younger children, but can be adapted to various ages and needs. Check your local library for resources, or better yet, see if your school can order at least one or two for you.
Final Note: I agree that you should consult the parents, but since violence is involved, it’s probably school policy to contact the parents, and this has probably already been done. A few words of advice when it comes to us parents. Please don’t engage in the blame game with us (although I gather from your post that you don’t go there). Keep in mind that we are severely taxed with dealing with this disorder on a daily basis, and we can become defensive and nasty when our parenting skills are called into question, though we don’t mean to. I can’t tell you how many teachers have outright accused us of failing to discipline our children properly, but I assure you when it comes to raising a child with