Aspergers (high functioning autism) is a developmental disorder falling within the autistic spectrum affecting two-way social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and a reluctance to accept change, inflexibility of thought and to have all absorbing narrow areas of interest. Individuals are usually extremely good on rote memory skills (facts, figures, dates, times etc.) many excel in math and science. There is a range of severity of symptoms within the syndrome, the very mildly affected youngster often goes undiagnosed and may just appear odd or eccentric. While Aspergers is much more common than Autism it is still a rare condition and few people, including professionals, will know about it much less have experience of it. It seems to affect more boys than girls. In general terms they find making friends difficult, not understanding the subtle clues needed to do so. They often use language in a slightly odd way and take literal meanings from what is read or heard. They ...
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I'm 22 (23 in June), and have Asperger Syndrome. If your child has difficulty knowing when the rules do or don't need to be followed, make sure to explain this to his/her teachers in middle school/Jr. High. Especially if this has led your child to have conflicts with other people when s/he sees them do something s/he thinks is against the rules. This is especially important because when your child starts middle school/Jr. High, s/he might notice that some of his/her teachers are not as consistent with following or enforcing rules as most of his/her teachers in elementary school were.
Some middle school students on the Autism Spectrum might still think that rules are the same in all situations, and may not realize yet that some rules may not apply in certain situations.
Also make sure your middle schooler's teachers (and classmates if your child says it's OK) understand that even though your child's intellectual state may be above average for his/her age or grade level, he/she may (or may not) still have the social/emotional skills of an elementary school age child. If your child does not want his/her classmates to know about this, make sure all of his/her teachers know that s/he doesn't want the other classmates to know.