High School Help

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Hi Everyone,

I work in a high school and we are trying to start a program to help students with Asperger's. If anyone has any suggestions on what kind of support you would like to have in high school, please let me know. Clubs? Academic Help? PLaying on a sports team? Comedy Club? Help meeting people? Help figuring out what to do after high school? Help getting a job?

Thanks so much!

Amy

I think the best thing, after getting them all in the same room at the same time, is getting a discussion going about what aspects of high school life are toughest for them and addressing it as best you can. Maybe getting some adult aspies from the community to talk to them about their own experiences would be helpful.

This is a very ambitious project of open fields, and I compliment you. I will put on my thinking cap and try to come up with some ideas.

Alternate activities provided for social events - official authorization for them to eat lunches somewhere away from other students or spend time in the library.

A peer buddy system for students that might be being bullied. Helping such students arrange their schedules so that they can travel together and reduce the risk of being singled out.

A place to talk about the things that are happening which confuse them and a chance to hear unbiased NT perspectives on what they might be missing/what they are confused about. They might have some strange ideas because they are so completely lost in the social game, and it would be a good time to try to sort that out.

If possible, enforce that the little cameras be turned on and used in school busses coming from and going to school. A lot of the time this is where the worst of the bullying occured (for me) and if there was actual video evidence of what happened it might help to contain the problem.

In addition... let me address some of the things suggested.

Clubs - more support of clubs would be helpful, as it gives an outlet possibly based on an interest. Trying to make any club aspie specific though, I think, would be a mistake.

Academic Help - this would depend on the kid. Some need help here, and others need to be pushed harder because they are just plain bored.

Sports Team - Aspies tend to be a bit... clumsy. This is one of the more disabling symptoms, IMO, because if you could focus on a sport and make a couple of field goals than all the social blundering in the world couldn't make you unpopular at that age. Having some kind of 'B League' would make it worse too... I can just imagine the comments about the "Ass Burger Special Olympics".

Comedy Club - not sure why that would help. I can relate it to the Drama Club type activities which have been known to help Aspies with social skills. You would have to put them with NTs though, as an Aspie peer group or Aspie teaching how to act could turn out all kinds of bad.

Meeting People - I can't think of a way of doing this that wouldn't be stigmatizing.

Help with after High School prep - This could be helpful depending on the student, but I know for a fact I wouldn't have listened to anyone at that age. For me at least, it would have been mostly a waste of time, but it might make all the difference in the world to someone else. Can't say much either way.

I commend you for facilitating this. At so many high schools, teachers and students don't really get ASD students, and it creates a sense of exclusion. If I may suggest, don't just make this a "support group," and try to integrate the outside student body to generate understanding. It's alright if you want to have separate ASD meeting, but definitely, try to at least have a campaign to raise awareness amongst the "regular" student body, or involve them in some activities so students in the group can branch out and make understanding friends. I find the biggest problem is that when I was in high school, some (but not all) people dismissed my behavior as deliberately annoying. A club promoting understanding can go a long way.

I actually like the idea of a sports team. Not something uber competitive, but just sort of a rec league within the club (or with other similar clubs in neighboring school districts) is a very useful idea. Growing up, I was rather sedentary because I felt like such a failure in P.E. classes, pinned against the super jocks. I never understood the rules of sports nor how to play them, but if someone patient had taught me, perhaps I'd be a bit more athletic now. It would have meant a lot to be able to have fun playing floor hockey or soccer with other similarly non-coordinated individuals in a no judgement zone. I don't think the focus of the club should be just sports since most of us are nerds, but occasional games should definitely be worked in there somehow.

It would also be great to have group chat sessions about common problems, like finding a job, choosing a college, negotiating issues with friends, etc. A lot of people might be reluctant to join the club if its aim is helping people manage their disorders, so these sessions should be very chill, with food, music, etc., so students don't feel like they're going to the psychologist's office. Perhaps the first few meetings should be more of a fun, get to know you sort of deal before the club dives into the heavy stuff. Maybe this could be accomplished by voting on a movie everyone wants to see, having organized time for everyone to share their interests (in hopes that someone else has the same one), or deciding together on an outing of interest to the whole group.

Bring in professionals such as doctors, business people, architects, lawyers, engineers, etc, etc, and let the students ask them questions.

Please remember (I'm sure you know), people on the Asperger's / Autism Spectrum can accomplish a great deal.

Where we're more likely to run into trouble is with 'middle jobs' and artificial corporate environments. (And the funny thing is, a lot of people have trouble in these environments.)