Facing Asperger’s. Optimum Education and Schooling for Children with Asperger Syndrome

Table of contents

Introduction

Definitions: what is the Asperger syndrome?

Characteristics of the Asperger syndrome
Communication, interaction and empathy
Speech and body language
Interests and activities
Perception and sensory overload

Children with Asperger syndrome in school
Recommendations of the conference of the ministry of culture
The construction of school as space for living and learning Organisation
Classes
Work behavior
Social relations
Additional support in school

The inclusive school: building blocks for successful study for all children

Commentary

References

Introduction

„Asperger: a syndrome between autism and normality“¹

"The Oops-Wrong-Planet syndrome"²

Both terms describe the same syndrome. The affected children oscillate between the poles of normality and otherness and try to find a place in society in their own way and with their own needs and abilities.

Their intellectual potential often makes them capable of going to a regular school – however, their particular social and communication behavior alters their social interactions with the others: consequently, the daily school routine of many children is associated with tension and mishaps. It often occurs that they become socially isolated and inappropriately encouraged, so they can neither develop their talents nor keep positive memories of their school time (cfr. Demes 2011, p. 161 ff. et seq. p. 180; cfr. Amsler 2007, p. 12).

The future inclusive school has the task of adopting all children without any hierarchy and satisfying the individual needs of each.

However, how can the inclusive school be conceived as a pleasant place and associated with success from the viewpoint of these children? Under what conditions can it adjust to their exceptionality and encourage them in a productive way?

These are the research questions that will be driving this work. They attempt to analyze the daily school routine from “aspergic” perspectives and reveal the conditions for adequate learning programs and a successful school experience for these children. First of all, the diagnostic classification of the traits of the Asperger syndrome is analyzed with its potential implications in the daily routine of the children, since they determine the educational measures.

Concluding the work, further important building blocks for the future inclusive school to be attended will be approached and commented upon from my point of view as a teacher.

Definitions: what is the Asperger syndrome?

The Asperger syndrome has been named after the Viennese doctor Hans Asperger, who described in 1944 the first case of a group of children with autistic personality disorder³, the sole common trait shared with Leo Kanner’s early childhood autism, but with notable differences concerning language, intellect and interests .⁴

After Asperger’s death in 1980 the psychiatrist Lorna Wing coined the term of „Asperger syndrome“, „to create a new diagnostic category pertaining to the autistic spectrum“ (Attwood 2008, p. 45). An international conference in 1989 laid down the diagnostic criteria for this syndrome for the first time and in 1993 resp. 1994 the term „Asperger disorder“ surfaced in the international classification systems ICD-10⁵ resp. DSM-IV⁶ (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 11 f.; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 46).

The Asperger syndrome is included within the so-called autism spectrum⁷ which encompasses several autistic disabilities: at one end of the spectrum lies the Early childhood autism that starts from the first months of life and is usually associated with reduced intelligence and delayed speech development. Beside it lies the Atypical autism, exhibiting similar symptoms, though it does not completely fulfill the criteria for early childhood autism (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 13 f.). The third place is occupied by high-function autism: it is deemed to be a variety of early childhood autism that nevertheless allows the affected to develop their abilities, similar to those of people with Asperger syndrome. From early on, based on their similarity, these two terms have been used synonymously (cfr. ibid.; cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 9; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 57).

The Asperger syndrome lies at the other end of the autism spectrum: it comprises an ensemble of up to sixteen symptoms or abnormalities that surface starting with the third year of life⁸ and can exhibit a wide variation range of the degrees of manifestation (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 12; cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 873). The transition to normality is fluid, as well as the transitions of other varieties from one to another. This also means that people with an autistic diagnosis can pass from one sub-group to another. In order to emphasize the variation range resp. common points within this spectrum, the term „autism spectrum disorder“ is applied (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 12; cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 12; cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 34).

The Asperger syndrome belongs, from a diagnostic system standpoint, to the group of profound development disorders that begin in early childhood and persist until adulthood, characterized by a qualitative impairment of social interaction and of the communication pattern as well as repetitive, stereotypical behavior patterns or distinct special interests (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 12; cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 13; cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 22; cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 873 f.). ^{9 10}

Another representative trait for the Asperger syndrome is that the speech and cognitive development of the affected takes place without any delay, while the social maturity resp. the social understanding present delayed development and exhibit unusual ways of behavior in the actual development phases (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 16; cfr. Remschmidt/ Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 874). The symptoms are different from child to child and may change their profile within the course of the development (cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 35 et seqq.; cfr. Bernard-Opitz 2005, p. 13 f.). In addition, other development disorders¹¹ can occur, pointing to the Asperger syndrome and requiring a precise diagnosis.¹²

It is assumed that the Asperger syndrome frequency lies around 1:250¹³, although only around half of the children with Asperger syndrome have been diagnosed (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 69). Following the analysis of diagnostic evaluations, boys are affected four times as often as girls.¹⁴ The diagnosis is more difficult in girls, since they often mask their social deficiencies by imitating the behavior of another person (cfr. Franke 2010, p. 9; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 59 et seqq.).

Regarding the etiology, genetic factors are incriminated (as Asperger did) as well as biochemical ones, although many studies have yet to be done in this area (cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 19; cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 44 et seqq.; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 390 f.; cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 876).

Characteristics of the Asperger syndrome

Communication, interaction and empathy

The Asperger syndrome is basically characterized by a profound „contact resp. communication disorder“ (Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 874): the affected children only have a restricted perception when it comes to the other’s feelings and intentions, and reacting appropriately. This deficient empathy¹⁵ impedes the assimilation of someone else’s perspective and learning to understand the reasons for his/her actions. Thus they have a poor capacity of evaluating the others’ wishes or knowledge and have difficulty predicting what those will do next (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 47 f.).

This impairment is obvious a.o. when learning social rules and during everyday encounters with the others (cfr. ibid.): because they cannot imagine that the others could know or do other things than them, they find it pointless e.g. to ask for help from these people.¹⁶ Deliberately lying is usually impossible for them (cfr. Schuster/Matzies-Köhler 2011, p. 14).¹⁷ Consequently, they are almost unable of role playing (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 10).

Furthermore, people with Asperger syndrome possess a diminished capacity¹⁸ of expressing their personal emotions as well as a limited, intellectualized vocabulary for describing their sensitivities. Since they are unable to communicate feelings e.g. fear, bewilderment etc. in these ways, these often accumulate as tensions and come out in delayed outbursts – e.g. the day after - (cfr. La Brie Norall/Wagner Brust 2011, p. 14; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 166 f.). These children also often present apparently inappropriate reactions to the behavior of another, e.g. giggling in a solemn context (cfr. ibid.). It may appear that they try to calm themselves with emotional mannerisms¹⁹ (e.g. “hand flapping”).

The consequent adhesion to daily routines and cycles and refusal of change can also constitute a sign of fear, insecurity or low central coherency²⁰. They attempt to establish order, control and a certain emotional security in their life through this obsessive behavior. (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 10; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 221 and p. 293; cfr. Schuster 2007, p. 11 et seqq.).

As a consequence of this lack of empathy or expressiveness, they often have difficulty establishing relationships especially with those of the same age and sharing interests, activities and feelings (cfr. Kappus/Schröder 2008, p. 190; cfr. Federal Association 2003, p. 4). The interactions in terms of distance and closeness with significant others can also be problematic.²¹

Children with Asperger syndrome are unable to assess their impact on the others or they do that very poorly. It often appears that they express their thoughts without noticing that, by doing so, they are harming someone’s feelings or embarrassing another. They must use logical strategies to a much greater extent than the others in order to handle social situations adequately (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 23; cfr. Franke 2010, p. 20).²²

Speech and body language

Although their speech abilities are often elaborated, they still tread on difficulties in the verbal area as well as the non-verbal one: leading a conversation, perceiving and correctly interpreting non-verbal forms of expression such as mimic, gestures, body posture, speech intonation and eye contact, understanding the meaning of what is said and reacting accordingly is usually an excessive demand to people with Asperger syndrome (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 9; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 16).²³ Speech is not classified into friendly, humorous or solemn with reference to the intonation resp. facial expression of the others: the spoken word prevails in these children (cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 53; cfr. Franke 2010, p. 14).²⁴ Because a great part of the messages is conveyed through intonation and mimic²⁵, the affected miss important information and, in this way, the basis for a continued dialogue often becomes unavailable (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 37 f.). Irony or metaphors are always taken literally, making bewilderment and misunderstanding rather frequent.²⁶

They speak mostly in a monotonous cadence themselves: the sound of their voice in particular is often monotonous and can be informed by excessively high or low volume, nasalization or excessive accent in pronunciation (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 257; cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 875).²⁷

Body language means are used by them only at the lowest degree: the fugitive or absent eye contact is here a well-known symptom of an autistic disability. However, low social interest is less likely to be incriminated than a particular perception with various causes (cfr. Schirmer 2001b, p. 30 et seqq.): thus, there are e.g. affected individuals that look away to be able to be focus better, as well as affected individuals that obviously hesitate to establish eye contact at the beginning (cfr. La Brie Norall/Wagner Brust 2011, p. 14; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 113).^{28 29}

Interests and activities

Another trait of the Asperger syndrome concerns the interests and activities of an affected individual: they pursue mostly popular hobbies. However, the manner and method resp. extent of their interests is significant: they pursue their hobby in an intensive way and almost fanatically and are only seldom as enthusiastic about other activities. Most of this is related to the acquisition of knowledge related to a certain topic or creating collections related to a certain theme³⁰ These „manifest interests“ (Federal Association 2003, p. 5) are often highly specialized but can also be understood as „stereotypical thought activity(ies)“ (Schirmer 2011b, p. 68), which have a restrictive effect on all other activities and thus can make the participation to everyday life more difficult (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 10; cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 41 f.; cfr. Remschmidt/ Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 875). However, they have relieving or rewarding functions for these children³¹ and are an expression of their intellectual abilities too (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 250 f.).³²

Deficient empathy is also exhibited in this area: they have difficulty understanding that their fellow men do not share the same enthusiasm for this hobby and do not listen entirely to their speeches resp. monologues on its topic. They do not notice when the others become bored with it (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 26; cfr. Franke 2010, p. 59 f.).

Another frequent trait found in children and teenagers with Asperger syndrome is a certain motor awkwardness (cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 875; cfr. Federal Association 2003, p. 5)³³. It expresses itself through deficient coordination and lack of balance or rhythm, which makes them look clumsy and sluggish to the outside world: many sportive and fine-motor activities are usually hard to perform for them (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 101 f.; cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 10). Self-control disorders may occur, especially when facing tension: manifestations include inhibition of activity, involuntary movements or tics³⁴, or even complete loss of control (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011c, p. 15 f.). An affected individual cannot carry out routine procedures such as handshaking for salute anymore, which frequently leads to difficulties in social situations (cfr. ibid.; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 317).

Perception and sensory overload

People with Asperger syndrome have a modified perception: environmental stimuli such as encouragements, visual stimuli, smells, sounds etc. often cause hyper- or hyposensitivity: in the case of hypersensitivity e.g. acoustic stimuli, the most insignificant accidental stimulus³⁵ (e.g. a neighbor’s cough) can trigger fear and even flight behavior, on the other hand, other stimuli have a soothing effect (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 323; cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 23).³⁶ Hyposensitivity can be potentially dangerous to the affected: in case of cold, warmth, pains or injuries, they depend on the help and directions of their fellow men. (cfr. ibid.; cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011c, p. 18.).

Many of the affected perceive their hypersensitivity as more detrimental at a daily level than other issues: they direct their whole attention towards these stimuli, become insecure and try to keep away from these stimuli (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 344).³⁷

The modified perception of people with Asperger syndrome is conditioned by the insufficient processing of a high amount of information: everyday environment stimuli are perceived by the affected in an unfiltered manner and all at once and cannot be ordered. Stimulus overload can appear quickly due to constant intensity of the stimuli (Franke 2010, p. 46 f.; Attwood 2008, p. 324) leading to structural deficiency. The affected individuals encounter problems in filtering essential information and assigning the corresponding meanings. They appear to be incapable of selectively recognizing rules, series and orders. They also fail at building a holistic image or contextualizing meanings (cfr. Schirmer 2003c, p. 29). Because they only perceive parts of the acoustic information, orientation in the environment and task fulfillment pose challenges to them. Their dedication to order can represent the attempt to „compensate for the lack of order in impressions“ (ibid.; cfr. Müller 2008, p. 385).

Sensory overload in the affected is related mostly to high stress and the feeling of excessive demand. Because each of their sensations is intense, they need faster and more frequent regeneration phases. They can also react (auto)aggressively or by withdrawing from the environment: these reactions are to be seen as protection mechanisms (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011c, p. 7; cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 32).³⁸ -

Abilities and school routine

Aside from the variety of different problems and a certain „Daily helplessness“ (Carstensen 2009, p. 15) of the affected, one cannot overlook the fact that the affected possess many aptitudes that can be useful resources to them in everyday life: exactitude, sense of justness, compliance to rules, logic, figurative thinking, honesty, perfectionism, orderliness, great knowledge and perseverance in the pursuit of established goals are to a certain extent highly distinct special abilities that can also be useful in society (cfr. Autism Deutschland 2011c, p. 24 f.; cfr. Winter/Lawrence 2011, p. 50 f.; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 250).

The issues of the affected can also be pushed to the background by using their abilities: Because they possess intelligence, good speech abilities and distinctive special interests, their problems will be realized first during school time³⁹ resp. not immediately pointed at. It appears that behavior abnormalities are attributed to other diagnoses such as ADS or ADHS or the like (cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 15; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 19). The lack of experience or uncertainty of the teacher can contribute to the intensification of the issues: the peculiar behavior resp. particularities of the children are more often misinterpreted and responded to with misunderstanding resp. punishment. Often enough, they are categorized as resistant to education or egocentric. In this way, these children are often deprived of the help that they need (cfr. Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 10 & p. 26 f.; cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 17 f.).

Children with Asperger syndrome often find it hard to cope with the school routine without stress. They can appear peculiar and strange to their schoolmates: their differentness can lead from early on to criticism, malice and exclusion. As their age increases⁴⁰, they realize that they are special and that they do not perceive the world as the others do. This awareness can cause aggression, fear, depression and compensatory behaviors⁴¹ (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 18; cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 879).

School graduation often signifies an obstacle in the life of the affected, since he/she frequently appears not to match his/her capacity: certain activities (e.g. oral participation) that are attributed particular significations cannot be performed by these children to the required extent, though (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 19). Various activities, such as listening and watching at the same time, can likewise mean an excessive demand to them: the affected frequently set for themselves other priorities than what the school expects from them (cfr. ibid.; cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 21).

In their perception, they often feel confronted with failure during their school time: they are often shown their mistakes, corrected, punished, and seldom praised (cfr. Schulz 2011, p. 11 et seqq.; cfr. Franke 2010, p. 36).

The particularities of the children in the fields of communication, social behavior, motor function and perception etc. reveal the importance of school support that comprises all relevant development areas of a child (cfr. Kappus/Schröder 2008, p. 191). The school system has the task of constructing the future inclusive school so that an adapted learning environment with incentives and development stimuli is provided to all children. The following must describe the building blocks that must be planned for children with Asperger syndrome and that have also aided me in succeeding.

Children with Asperger syndrome in school

Recommendations of the conference of the ministry of culture

The permanent Ministry of Culture national conference, in the „Propositions for the education and tuition of children and young with autistic behavior“ from 16.06.2000, exposed the particular educational needs of these pupils. It was stressed that all support must be invariably adjusted to the child and its individual needs and not to educational or organizational guidelines (cfr. KMK 2000, p. 2 f.).

Work with pupils with ASS requires a special organizational framework as well as fixed spatial and temporal structures (cfr. KMK 2000, p. 8 et seqq.), where solid relationships with the schoolmates and teachers are important. Teachers and supervisors must make efforts to understand the individual ways of expression of their pupils and find the most suitable communication strategies for building other relationships by themselves (cfr. ibid.).

The educational contents and methods must always be oriented towards the individual stage of development resp. educational needs of the pupil: the course is structured so that modifications of the learning steps, methods, pace and materials are possible each time. The revision times for pupils with ASS can be prolonged, just as oral, written and practical homework can be substituted one for another (cfr. KMK 2000, p. 9 f.). Supporting these pupils is the purpose of all types of schools. The support place where optimal conditions can be provided depends on each individual case (cfr. KMK 2000, p. 8).⁴²

The construction of school as space for living and learning Organisation

The organization of the class space is highly significant in the education of pupils with Asperger syndrome: smaller, solitary spaces are preferred to larger spaces, since they have more convenient acoustic conditions. Decorations such as photos, candles, flowers etc. should be removed from the space: the goal is to have an environment as devoid of distractions and structured as possible. Low-glare lighting, blinds, and a (single color) carpet are also recommended (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 90 f.; cfr. Autism Deutschland 2011c, p. 7; cfr. Bernard-Opitz/Häußler 2010, p. 11 f. and p. 17 f.).

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¹ Jørgensen 2010, p. 1.

² „The Asperger syndrome is also known as the "Oops-Wrong-Planet syndrome", because the affected often have the feeling of being mistakenly stranded on another planet, whose rules and inhabitants they cannot understand“ (http://www.aspies.at/information/asperger_genauer.html).

³ He qualified these children in his professorial dissertation as „child-aged autistic psychopaths“ (Asperger 1944, p. 76 et seqq.).

⁴ For a summary account of Asperger and Kanner’s biographies cfr. Schirmer 2003a, p. 20 et seqq.

⁵ „International statistical classification of diseases and related health issues“ (DIMDI 2011). According to this, Asperger syndrome is classified as F84.5.

⁶ The „Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders“ is a US classification system (Attwood 2008, p. 52 et seqq.).

⁷ It is also known as „autistic continuum” (Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 11).

⁸ A significant diagnosis is often possible starting from the 5th year of life (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 67).

⁹ Attwood applies Gillberg and Gillberg’s criteria, because they are the most similar to Hans Asperger’s assessments as special educational needs. They designate six criteria and aside from social impairment, four out of the remaining five must be fulfilled for a diagnosis (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 46 f.).

¹⁰ These restrictions are also known as „the autism triad“ (Amsler 2007, p. 12) resp. „triad of qualitative impairments[…]“ (Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 873).

¹¹ These can be „attention, speech, movement, affective […], eating or learning disorder(s)“ (Attwood 2008, p. 20 et seqq.)

¹² Aspects of differential diagnosis cfr. Spitczok by Brisinski 2003, p. 1 et seqq.

¹³ Attwood also links the Gillberg diagnosis criteria to this information. He emphasizes that the information can vary depending on the applied criterion (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 58).

¹⁴ Cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 19; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 59. Other authors indicate a ratio of 8:1 (cfr. Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 874).

¹⁵ This is labelled TOM capacity in this context (TOM = Theory of mind) (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 47 et seqq.; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 143).

¹⁶ This capacity can nevertheless be trained through goal-oriented exercises and progressively incorporated in their action spectrum (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 49 et seqq.).

¹⁷ Lying implies knowing the other’s level of knowledge and the certainty that he/she may believe something else than you (cfr. Schuster/Matzies-Köhler 2011, p. 14).

¹⁸ Understanding and expression of feelings constitutes a diagnostic criterion for Asperger syndrome(cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 217).

¹⁹ There is a correlation between the Asperger syndrome and the development of depressions, anxiety disorders and steering problems caused by rage (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 160 et seqq.).

²⁰ It denotes the difficulty recognizing patterns and orders in everyday life and assembling a general picture (cfr. Schuster 2011, p. 22; cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 292 f.; cfr. Müller 2008, p. 380).

²¹ Cfr. the additional remarks by Carstensen on the problematic of distance resp. proximity towards significant others (cfr. Carstensen 2009, p. 54 et seqq.).

²² Cfr. the use of „Strategy Books“ (Ansell 2011, p. 85 et seqq.).

²³ „People with autism spectrum disorder often have difficulties in […] interpreting the mimic and gestures of the others“ (Schirmer 2007b, p. 58).

²⁴ Franke describes e.g. the question„Can you give me the teddy bear?“ as a question that is understood as one of possibility and not a request for an action and therefore is answered with a mere „Yes“ and no appropriate action (Franke 2010, p. 10).

²⁵ Schirmer states that 38% of the information is provided through one’s intonation and 55% through mimic. (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 38).

²⁶ Cfr. Franke’s examples (cfr. Franke 2010, p. 13 f.) and Schirmer (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 40 f.).

²⁷ Echolalia can also occur in this context (cfr. Jørgensen 2010, p. 58).

²⁸ Schirmer indicates thereon that focusing demands from the child on something or somebody for a longer time span are not reasonable from a pedagogical standpoint (cfr. Schirmer 2001b, p. 36 f.).

²⁹ The affected often have difficulties identifying faces, because they are only able to focus on individual facial features (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 163; cfr. Müller 2008, p. 384).

³⁰ Cfr. Schirmer’s examples (cfr. Schirmer 2011b, p. 68).

³¹ E.g. orientation, identity, relaxation, surmounting from fear etc. (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 231 et seqq.).

³² Approx. 5-15% of the affected show no special interests sometimes. A diagnosis should therefore not depend on this aspect (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 222).

³³ The authors indicate thereon that this trait is “a frequent one, but not indispensable for diagnosis [from ICD-10 (F84.5)]“ (Remschmidt/Kamp-Becker 2007, p. 875).

³⁴ Cfr. Attwood’s examples (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 22 and p. 317).

³⁵ Between 70 and 85% of the children with Asperger syndrome exhibit hypersensitivity to noises (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 327).

³⁶ Particularities of autistic perception (e.g. filtering deficiency, impaired directional hearing, distorting etc.) cfr. Schirmer 2003b, p. 34 et seqq.

³⁷ Many children with Asperger syndrome are also considered e.g. hydrophobic, because they perceive the contact with water as unpleasant or even unbearable (cfr. Franke 2010, p. 44 f.).

³⁸ Schirmer indicates that eye contact fails due to incomplete sensory overload reduction (cfr. Schirmer 2011a, p. 21).

³⁹ „One tends thereon to wait and observe what goes on when more of the normal development criteria are met […]“ (Autismus Deutschland 2011b, p. 19).

⁴⁰ Most affected individuals are aware of this between the 6th and 8th year of life (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 29).

⁴¹ There are four compensations resp. adaptation strategies of the affected: accusation, imaginary escape, denial and imitation (cfr. Attwood 2008, p. 43).

⁴² Research shows that Asperger autistic people are taught predominantly in regular schools (cfr. Kappus/Schröder 2008, p. 191).