Language Goals for Teenagers With Asperger's
Teens with Asperger's Syndrome struggle with developing language skills which may come more easily for the average teen. They may have difficulty with relating to people, starting conversations and making relevant comments. These language issues can become barriers to good social interactions with others, says Kathryn Stewart, Ph.D., with Orion Academy, an Asperger's-NLD high school. With therapy and practice, teens with AS can improve their language skills and speak more confidently with their peers and authority figures.
-
Starting a Conversation
-
An important language goal for a teen with AS is simply starting a conversation with another person. The teen may want to be more social and make friends, but he can lack the skills necessary to initiate a conversation. Good goals for this scenario would be to look the person in the eye and come up with a few sentences that are relevant to the current situation. A teen with Asperger's has difficulty being aware of his environment, so you may need to teach him how to look around and come up with ideas for comments that make sense to share. For example, if he sees clouds overhead, he could say something about the possibility of rain.
Fleshing Out the Conversation
-
Once the teen has engaged another person in conversation, another language goal is to work on her story-telling skills. An AS teen needs to focus on creating a beginning, middle and end to her conversational stories, if she wishes to make a good impression on others. With practice, your teen can learn how to stick to the relevant details of a story, instead of relating every single detail about the event. This skill will help the teen to feel more confident about opening up to others, and sharing about her life.
Cooperative Conversation
-
When talking to peers, parents or teachers, an AS teen may struggle with one-sided conversation -- meaning, he speaks in repetitive sentences without taking the other person's ideas into consideration. This can be issue if the teen is trying to communicate his needs, and can only repeat the same sentence over and over, rather than taking in the other person's suggestions. It can also be a social hurdle, if the teen's friends and peers feel as though he is only interested in himself. A solution to this is to practice "cooperative conversation" which means that each person takes his turn to speak. If an AS teen can develop the skill to pause and let the other person respond, he will have much more successful conversations.
Understanding Non-Verbal Cues
-
In the development of language skills, it is important that an AS teen work on learning non-verbal cues and their meanings. Non-verbal cues can indicate when your teen should start or end a conversation and can be a good indicator of humor in an exchange between teens. Failure to pick up on non-verbal cues can leave a teen with Asperger's susceptible to teasing from other teens who may not understand why the AS teen does not read those cues as well as they do. To avoid that scenario, a teen with AS can review common non-verbal cues, such as someone rolling her eyes or smiling at a certain comment. The better the AS teen can read non-verbal cues, the more appropriately she can respond in social and academic situations.
-
-
The preteen years are some of the most difficult, trying times for parents and children alike. Preteen girls are just beginning to experience bodily and hormonal changes that might make them more self-conscious, less confident and increasingly concer
-
Theres no official age for kidulthood. Its a more of a cultural phenomenon and a term used to describe a period of prolonged adolescence, where individuals experience some of the hallmarks of adulthood (like having a job) but still rely on parental s
-
Cierco, Illinois is surrounded by some of Chicagos most violent neighborhoods and is home to a high percentage of disadvantaged youth, according to the Cierco Youth Task Force. Community organizations and volunteers work together to provide a wide va
