Dinosaurs 24/7: Understanding The Special Interests of Children with Asperger's Syndrome - Part 4

Mary Ann Winter-Messiers, Maitrise (Universite de Paris-IV, La Sorbonne)
Research Assistant, Department of Special Education
Cynthia M. Herr, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon, USA
Email: messiers@uoregon.edu

How Can Parents and Teachers Get the Most Out of Children's SIAs?

SIAs can be powerful motivators for children and youth with Asperger's. Parents can take advantage of the strong connection their children have with their SIAs by using them to motivate or to reinforce children for completing or trying less desirable activities such as chores or to entice children to engage in social activities with the family. For example, a child with an SIA in horses might earn a horseback riding lesson for keeping her room clean for a week, or a student with an SIA in aviation might earn a trip to the local airport after helping his parents wash the family car.

SIAs provide children with Asperger's with a way to relax, de-stress, and cope with the world. Children and youth with Asperger's often arrive home after school tired and stressed after a day of working hard to stay calm and focused at school. Allowing a child to spend some time engaging in her SIA after school can help reduce her stress level so that the child can then participate more willingly in the family's evening activities.

In order to facilitate communication and encourage interaction between the child with Asperger's and his family, parents could arrange outings focused on the child's SIA or arrange for friends who share an interest in the child's SIA to participate with the family in an activity focused on the child's SIA. Parents could encourage a child to participate in a community organization that is related to his/her SIA as a way of increasing the child's socialization skills. For example, a youth who is interested in farm animals might join a local 4-H group and learn how to raise and care for a lamb, cow, or pig. A child with an SIA in trains could join a local model railroad group and learn about and share his/her own expertise about trains.

In the Asperger's community, many adults have developed careers based on their personal SIAs. These individuals can be a source of encouragement for parents, children with Asperger's Syndrome, and educators alike. For example, Dr. Temple Grandin is an associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her passion for cattle has prepared the way for her career as an expert designer and consultant in humane cattle management and slaughter techniques. ⁴⁹   Gilles Trehin, a young French man who created the fictitious city of Urville, has published a complete book of intricate drawings of Urville as he has imagined it since the age of 12. ⁵⁰   Dr. Dawn Prince-Hughes, adjunct professor of anthropology at Western Washington University, has turned her identification with and passion for gorillas into a profession as a consultant and educator about their history, culture, and needs. ⁵¹

Parents could use a child's SIA to motivate the child to cooperate with necessary daily living activities such as going to the dentist, shopping for groceries, or getting a haircut. Following such stressful events with free time to engage in the child's SIA may encourage the child to behave appropriately in order to hasten access to the SIA.

Because SIAs are such a vital element in the self-image and motivation of children and youth with Asperger's, it is imperative that they be welcomed and encouraged at school. From our data we learned how deeply participants and parents feel about educators respecting their insights concerning making room for SIAs at school. We also learned how strongly the participants wanted teachers to incorporate their preferred methods of gathering information, particularly reading, into the curricula. We cannot afford to ignore students' SIAs, or withhold engagement with them as punishment for misbehavior. With little additional effort, teachers can integrate SIAs into all core academic areas, including English, reading, writing, spelling, math, science, speech, and history. Students with Asperger's are much more likely to demonstrate their true levels of ability in academic assignments when SIAs can be included in the assignments. For example, students can be encouraged to practice reading skills by reading books about their SIAs. Teachers, with parents' help, can embed areas of special interests into assignments such as math problems that use examples from a child's SIA in order to motivate the child to practice solving math story problems.

For a middle school or high school student with Asperger's, an opportunity to shadow a professional in a field related to the student's SIA could promote a career interest for the student. For example, the student who is an expert on Disney films might shadow or interview a character animator to learn how animated movies are created and what kind of training is required for a career in film-making.

Students can also benefit from simplified versions of their SIAs to deal with negative emotions, reduce anxiety, and calm themselves in stressful situations. Students identify with their SIAs; therefore, a favorite small airplane, stuffed frog, photograph of a prized goat, sheet music of a revered composer, cover from a preferred DVD or video, or recent anime drawing may help the child in calming himself and reducing disruptive anxiety-driven self-stimulation or other behaviors. We must see SIAs for the gold mine they are in helping our students progress toward their academic, social, emotional, communication, and behavioral goals.

Unquestionably, making the shift to inviting SIAs into the academic arena requires effort on the part of parents and teachers. They must each be willing to think creatively to find ways in which to insert the SIA effectively and appropriately into the curriculum. Parents and teachers must be flexible, looking beyond the strict limits of the lesson plans and assignments to ask, "Is it our goal that Samantha write about summer vacation, or is it that she learn to write, even if she chooses to write about carnivorous plants?" Teachers must partner with parents, seeking their input on their children's SIAs, their ideas for how to integrate the SIAs into the curricula, and even their practical help in modifying assignments to incorporate the SIAs. Parents can integrate SIAs into countless areas of their children's home and community lives, increasing children's motivation, interest, and cooperation. (See Table 2, below.)

Children with Asperger's Syndrome can achieve far beyond expectations when they are allowed to be involved in their SIAs. Educators and parents must embrace SIAs as a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Over fifty years ago, Hans Asperger (1991/1944) already knew what we are just coming to see: special interests are the key to fulfillment and maximized potential in children and youth with Asperger's Syndrome. We can find reason to hope for significant and meaningful futures for children with Asperger's in his stirring words that call so clearly to us today:

"Able autistic individuals can rise to eminent positions and perform with such outstanding success that one may even conclude that only such people are capable of certain achievements. It is as if they had compensatory ability to counter-balance their deficiencies. Their unswerving determination and penetrating intellectual powers, part of their spontaneous and original mental activity, their narrowness and single-mindedness, as manifested in their special interests, can be immensely valuable and can lead to outstanding achievements in their chosen areas."  ⁵⁴

Other Sections:

• Part 1 - Dinosaurs 24/7: Introduction
• Part 2 - How Did We Conduct This Study?
• Part 3 - What Did We Learn?
• Part 4 - How Can Parents and Teachers Get the Most out of Children's Special Interest Areas?  (current section)