If you are a parent and your child has Autism or AS, first of all check what provisions and support, as well as Special Education Needs the school you are sending them to have in place. Then make your decision on whether they should go to that school or not.
If children with Asperger's Syndrome are to be in mainstream education, a good solution would be to let them go to school for 20 hours a week and excuse them from break times. Perhaps they should be, if it is too much for them, allowed to attend school on a basis of 9am to noon to get the best out of them, rather than a full day where they can't handle it or which is too overwhelming and overloads. I remember coming home from Primary and Secondary School feeling mentally overloaded.
If there is a problem of a pupil with Asperger's learning by these methods I have just suggested or outlined, and falling behind with their education, perhaps distance learning should be the method by which they keep up with their studies, apart from in practical subjects such as Science and Maths, where you have to learn formulas and calculations. They should be excused from break and registration if it attending is detrimental to them.
After all, that is where most of the banter and interaction occurs between pupils, and noise of course. If at dinner and break time children with AS wish to go the library to read instead of going out in the playground, then let them do so. At dinner time, perhaps they could be allowed to go to the canteen early and alone. These are modifications which aren't too much to ask, and aren't hurting anyone are they?
I am a visual and experiential learner myself, and a visual thinker. I don't seem to be able to learn something very well, when someone is showing me how to do it, unless it is provided in a detailed and step-by-step manner. I also don't particularly like someone talking at me. No-one showed me how to touch type or use the internet or IT skills, or how to design this website, apart from myself obtaining the basics of HTML from a book I obtained in a central Library. I mainly learned myself.
If someone with AS is to be in Science subjects in mainstream education, then when experiments are done, often a Teacher can talk too quickly about setting them up, or at least too quickly for the person with AS to process. An aide must be present for those with AS to ensure they set their materials up, and also remember them all, as they may forget due to overload and noise.
The level of the sound of the school bell should be reduced as many people with AS are hypersensitive to noise. I am not saying it shouldn't exist at all, but it should be quieter. To the child with AS the hurly-burly world of School can seem totally confusing and chaotic. As they struggle to cope, the individual with AS's anxiety level would rise.
When they are aware, or fully know that a child with AS is in their classes, Teachers must not use metaphors, cliches, irony or sarcasm when talking to the class as a whole, or when they deal with pupils with AS in any capacity. My advice to Teachers at all levels is use straight-forward, clear and unambiguous language when teaching pupils with AS or Autism, in ALL subjects.
Why have them wasting precious learning time trying to work out sayings that have metaphors or double-meaning, when they could be spending that time concentrating on learning verbs, adjectives, clauses and common and proper nouns in an English lesson, or trying to work Pythagoras Theorum (SOHCAHTOA) or other Mathematics formulae?
Instructions could be given using a visual form or prompts. Orders and commands aren't really appropriate, as they are nothing concrete. If instructions are to be given, they must be brief and quick.
However, when you consider that Secondary Schools, and mainstream education, or even further education Colleges, are noisy, socially orientated, seemingly contradictory and confusing environments, is it so surprising? Don't forget, Aspie pupils need to work twice as hard as NT pupils. Whilst NT pupils have to mainly cope with the academic and sport part of the curriculum, Aspies need to learn the often illogical, inconsistent and contradictory rules that govern social interaction.
Another provision for children with AS would be to provide visual structure through colour coding or assignment books. This could ensure that they don't lose or misplace their items, and reduces their disorganisation levels, which can occur due to confusion and overload, or dysexecutive functions.
A pupil with Asperger's Syndrome can be excused from sport, unless they are good at it. They are usually better at individual activities, such as running and tennis (both court and table), rather than team sports, such as soccer, cricket and rugby.
Many Aspies have poor spatial awareness and a poor sense of position. They are likely to take the blame from NT's because their class has lost at soccer, due to them not trying to stop a player from scoring a goal or because they can't bowl over arm at cricket or if they live in the USA, because they can't pitch at baseball.
Mentors should be provided for ALL children with ALL disabilities. Not just a few, or none, in one area and many in another, but consistently the same amount. A "Buddy" scheme should be put in place in ALL mainstream Secondary Schools. This is where a person, who is sympathetic and understanding, befriends those with AS so they are not left to be vulnerable and isolated, or put in a position where they could be.
