Asperger's Schools

Private Schools supporting children with Asperger's Syndrome

For parents with children suffering from Asperger's Syndrome, private schools offer notable advantages over public schools including:

• smaller class sizes
• flexibility in budgeting for Asperger's support
• relief from (unfortunate) bullying
• in some cases, specialization in dealing with this syndrome

For children with Asperger's, schools listed below may offer a focus on their individual and emotional needs, learning gaps and unique learning styles. Some of the help they may offer might include discrete instruction, occupational or behavioural therapy, social skills training and more.

For parents considering schools with Asperger's support
For parents of children with Asperger's, schools may present wide variation in support they offer. As you consider schools, consider the following questions:

• How much experience does the school have in dealing with Asperger's Syndrome students?
• What successes with previous Asperger's students can they point to?
• What is the school environment in terms of bullying and social integration of special needs children?
• How well does staff understand the severity of your particular Asperger's Syndrome child?
• What gut feelings do you get as you investigate each of the schools?
• How does each school deal with other learning differences?

Asperger's Syndrome and autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
Asperger's Syndrome is often counted as one of several disorders in the autism spectrum. In the USA, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are often called Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). In the autism spectrum, Asperger's is considered a mild variant. While characteristics can vary widely between individual students, Asperger's typically manifests in poor social intuition, fixation on specific subjects and repetitive behaviour.

Asperger's Syndrome got its name from the Austrian physician Hans Asperger, who first described the disorder in a 1944 paper. In June of 2010, the journal Nature published a study positing that there exists no specific gene identifiably related to autism. All autism sufferers are genetically unique. Whether this helps at all in dealing with the disorder is unlikely, though.