Asperger's and learning
We have just joined in here. We have just written about it here: Getting to know each other
My friend would like to ask about this:
How does Asperger's affect on learning? She knows that there are actual learning difficulties like for example dyslexia. However she is speaking about on how does Asperger's itself affects on learning. So what kinds of things makes learning difficult? Reason my friend is asking about this is that she has to figure out how she could explain why she needs special education.
My friend would like to ask about this:
How does Asperger's affect on learning? She knows that there are actual learning difficulties like for example dyslexia. However she is speaking about on how does Asperger's itself affects on learning. So what kinds of things makes learning difficult? Reason my friend is asking about this is that she has to figure out how she could explain why she needs special education.
So aside from asperger's coming with co-morbid learning disabilities, asperger's itself?
Well there are hyper sensitivity and hypo sensitivity, difficulty in presenting or doing speeches (if that's part of the coursework or anything, I always did bad at those, got an E

Also, it can take us far longer to process information. Also, people on the spectrum often feel they have to know everything about a topic, and therefore struggle with prioritising information. As they struggle with prioritising information, they can also struggle with writing essays, etc.
Yeah, processing definitely is a problem for me. If I get asked a question it's hard to answer it. How did I forget that one?
Oh that reminds me: bad short term memory. May have problems remembering homework (if I don't write my down in my planner it's just not going to be remembered), and may be more likely to lose things (I don't personally but I know a lot of people here have that problem).
Verbal instructions are ineffective due to bad short term memory, slow processing and affected sense of sound (hyper, blends into background. Hypo, may not register anything was said)
Yep, big issue for me. If the topic doesn't interest me it's just not going in.
For me it is understanding teacher(you won't believe how many metaphors and indirect language they use during lectures) and figuring out what information is important and what is not.
Inability to multitask is also problematic. When I focus on solving an example I won't hear what teacher is saying and the other way around. Therefore I miss a lot of information(including informations about appointments and homeworks) or I am too slow at solving my examples and get stressed out.
And one more thing - I tend to fixate about a detail and prevent teacher from continuing lesson because I constantly ask questions about the small piece of information that got me interested. If I am unable to get an answer I will wonder about it myself and miss the further part of lecture, lost in my own thoughts.
I was recently reviewing some of the scores from my neuropsych testing. I scored quite low for Immediate Memory (13 percentile), Delayed Memory (14 percentile), Visual Memory (12 percentile) and Auditory Memory (25 percentile).
I am beginning to sense, that these memory issues impacted my ability to learn new, complex things.
I also beginning to sense that I am slower at learning new things compared to others. Furthermore, it takes me longer to understand the “gist” of things. And, I am thinking that this may explain why I prefer to stick with what I know than to learn new things. Well, let me clarify that. I don’t mind learning new things if I can continue to learn more and more and more about that particular area. But, I am not really good at learning one thing and then moving to something else and then still moving on to something else again. It’s just too much work (for me). Rather, I like to learn about one thing and gain expertise in that one area.
I think this, maybe, also can explain why I did so well in school at math, but just OK in other subjects. As math seemed to repeatedly build upon older information, one layer at a time. Once I had expertise in one layer, learning the next layer was relatively easy.
nick007
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Aspergers can cause problems interacting with others & may lead to being bullied which can majorly distract for learning.
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Welcome to Wrong Planet. Before I begin, this may be a good topic to put in the school section, as many people who go on there will be thinking about the affects of Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and Autism have on learning in particular.
AS e can effect the way a person learns both directly and indirectly.
One of the most direct effects is that the ability of a person to give there attention to a topic. If they are interested in what is being taught, it will probably be easy for them. It will be harder to concentrate if they are bored, although it does get easier if they can link the focus of their activities to their interests in some way.
Then there are issues related to sensitivity to stimuli. For me, I always needed to be at the front of the classroom so that I wouldn't be as easily distracted from the teacher by movements and chatter of my classmates. Furthermore, even upon learning after learning the material, students with AS can still do poorly due to being distracted on tests, when they need an even greater level of concentration. I needed a separate location to take tests.
There is also the issue that it takes us longer to process information and learn it. I think this is because people with AS care about having all the facts more than the average student and want to be sure they are right. I know that, personally, when I am thinking about a fact I come up with it, then ask myself, before opening my mouth, am I sure that's right and try to double check myself. By the time I'm ready to accept my thought and speak it aloud, most people would have already responded.
Then there is the social issues that come with AS. Classmates are a distraction. People can be mean, especially children. This means that a kid who is unusual, such as someone with AS, always diverts some of their attention to being on the lookout for what other people are doing that pulls attention away from learning.
There are several more nuanced ways that AS impacts learning, but it would take a long time to go through all the ones I can come up with and I think this is a good start for things to think about and I am also confidant that other people here will probably touch upon these issues. I hope this forum helps you out.
It's hard for me to take notes and listen to a lecture the same time. I fund if I'm writing notes I miss when else thd teacher is saying. I have trouble processing multiple information with multiple ideas and points. I always to to have in broken down into smaller chunks- and often need them written down on paper. When people tell me the directions in how to get somewhere without a pen and paper, forget it! This is due to short term memory struggle.
I also struggle with infering information- context clues- reading in between the lines when a limited amount of information is said. I usually have to ask a person to explain a given idea in several ways and give examples. If people explain somerging in one concise sentace, like in a small manua,l forget it!
I also struggle with paying attention. My mind drifts off easily and I often miss important points in a lecture. This part of my learning challenge is like an ADD trait. If main points don't get repeated, forget it because there's a high chance I'll miss an important point somewhere in a lecture, especially if it's long. If I have a lot on my mind, that's event worse.
Those are the main struggles which makes learning harder as a person with ASD.
I guess a few othe contributing factors is sometimes certain words are hard to hear. I also have a harder time hearing words if people talk muffled. General anxiety can cause me to have a harder time learning too being stress can make it hard to pay attention and process information.
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James Hackett
aspie quiz results; http://www.rdos.net/eng/poly12c.php?p1= ... =80&p12=28
mr_bigmouth_502
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I can honestly say that I have a really hard time learning about anything that doesn't really interest me. Even though I've often scored well on reading comprehension tests in school, I've struggled a lot with reading textbooks since the information is often quite dry and boring, and the indexes almost never point out where I'm supposed to find the information I'm looking for.
I'll admit, this probably has more to do with my comorbid ADHD, but I can see how the "special interests" facet of ASD can be at play here.
Aspies have uneven areas. For example, since one typical aspie might be thinking more and more about their one most favorite topic that it would take up most of the capacity of the brain to know about other important things like how to not get taken advantage of or how to handle money. So even tough he may have an above normal gifted IQ, if the intellectual area is sorted and isolated of social skills and how not to get taken advantage of, he would score at the equivalent of someone in the borderline to moderate intellecually challanged range. On yahoo answers, a grandmother told his Asperger son that he is just as vulnerable and naive to being preyed as an 8 year old. In one single knowledge area, an IQ based on knoeledge in that only one area is the equivalent of someone in the mild intellectually challanged.
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RAADS-14 score is 23.
How does Asperger's affect on learning?
Generally speaking there is a significant hinderance in the ability to intuitively receive schemas from other people.
This causes delays because the ASD individual most often has to assemble their own tool sets for learning, and that means a great amount of reduction and analytical type processing. It takes time to assemble these tool sets and then it takes more time for analytical type thinking.
The resultant learning style is very individual.
Trying to force ASD individuals into a group style learning with shared schemas is very problematic at best.
First of all my friend wasn't sure first where does this thread belong. She asked me to put it in this section because this is about how does Asperger's itself affect on learning.
My friend asked me to create this thread because she needed to figure out how she could explain why she needs special education. The school where she is applying is the kind of school where people go after they have finished actual school. My friend is not sure how would you call that educational level. That particular "school" is for disabled people. My friend had already sent all of the papers there and we just went to the interview there.
My friend says that if they won't give you enough information about things it might feel like you wouldn't know anything about them.
Also my friend has that issue:
I am beginning to sense, that these memory issues impacted my ability to learn new, complex things.
I also beginning to sense that I am slower at learning new things compared to others. Furthermore, it takes me longer to understand the “gist” of things. And, I am thinking that this may explain why I prefer to stick with what I know than to learn new things. Well, let me clarify that. I don’t mind learning new things if I can continue to learn more and more and more about that particular area. But, I am not really good at learning one thing and then moving to something else and then still moving on to something else again. It’s just too much work (for me). Rather, I like to learn about one thing and gain expertise in that one area.
I think this, maybe, also can explain why I did so well in school at math, but just OK in other subjects. As math seemed to repeatedly build upon older information, one layer at a time. Once I had expertise in one layer, learning the next layer was relatively easy.
When my friend was reading your meassage she got this thougt: In an ordinary school they may expect that when you learn something or you had already learnt it you could learn to do it better without any quidance.
My friend says that it is also so that if teacher tells you only verbally how to do something or shows it only shortly you should know how to do it yourself without any help. Of course you don't have those issues if you are in special education.
Generally speaking there is a significant hinderance in the ability to intuitively receive schemas from other people.
This causes delays because the ASD individual most often has to assemble their own tool sets for learning, and that means a great amount of reduction and analytical type processing. It takes time to assemble these tool sets and then it takes more time for analytical type thinking.
The resultant learning style is very individual.
Trying to force ASD individuals into a group style learning with shared schemas is very problematic at best.
What kind of schemas are you talking about?
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