Students with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s: Crucial Strategies for Teachers and Home-Schoolers
Kids with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and Asperger’s (AS) exhibit difficulty in appropriately processing in-coming information. Their brain's ability to take in, store, and use information is significantly different than other developing kids. HFA and AS students can present a challenge for the most experienced teacher. But on a positive note, they can contribute significantly to the classroom, because they are often extremely creative and provide a different perspective to the subject matter in question. Although HFA and AS differ from classic autism with respect to language acquisition and early cognitive development, they do have similarities (e.g., in the areas of social impairment, impairment in reading social non-verbal language, inflexibility, persistent preoccupation, etc.). Problematic behavior in HFA and AS students is essentially the result of (a) failure to learn necessary adaptive behaviors (e.g., how to establish satisfying personal relationships), and (