Working With Asperger in The Classroom PDF

Working with
Asperger
Syndrome
in the Classroom
of related interest
The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome
Tony Attwood
ISBN 978 1 84310 495 7 hardback
ISBN 978 1 84310 669 2 paperback
Asperger Syndrome – What Teachers Need to Know

Matt Winter
ISBN 978 1 84310 143 7
Written for Cloud 9 Children’s Foundation
Asperger Syndrome in the Inclusive Classroom

Advice and Strategies for Teachers
Stacey W. Betts, Dion E. Betts and Lisa N. Gerber-Eckard
Foreword by Peter Riffle
ISBN 978 1 84310 840 5
Addressing the Challenging Behavior of Children with

High-Functioning Autism/Asperger Syndrome in the
Classroom
A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Rebecca A. Moyes
ISBN 978 1 84310 719 4
Working with
Asperger
Syndrome
in the Classroom
An Insider’s Guide
Gill D. Ansell
Jessica Kingsley Publishers

London and Philadelphia
First published in 2011
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
116 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JB, UK
and
400 Market Street, Suite 400
Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright © Gill D. Ansell 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any

material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by elec-
tronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other
use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright
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right Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London
EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to
reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.
Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work

may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Ansell, Gill D.
Working with Asperger syndrome in the classroom : an insider’s guide /
Gill D. Ansell.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-84905-156-9 (alk. paper)
1. Autistic children--Education. 2. Asperger’s syndrome. I. Title.
LC4717.A57 2011
371.94--dc22
2010025673
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 84905 156 9

ISBN pdf eBook 978 0 85700 353 9
Contents
Preface 7
Introduction:
Working with Asperger Minds 15
Part I: What is Asperger Syndrome? 21

Chapter 1: Autistic Spectrum Disorders 23
Chapter 2: Understanding Asperger Syndrome 27
Chapter 3: Literal Thinking 31
Part II: Working with an Individual with

Asperger Syndrome 33
Chapter 4: The Beginning 35
Chapter 5: Individual Work Stations 39
Chapter 6: Behaviour Management Sessions 44
Chapter 7: Small Group Work and Working
One to One 52
Chapter 8: Breaktimes and Lunchtimes 57
Chapter 9: Restraints 59
Chapter 10: Role-Play and Puppets 61
Chapter 11: Worksheets and Word Searches 65
Chapter 12: Acronyms 67
Part III: Dealing with Feelings 69

Chapter 13: Anxieties 71
Chapter 14: Managing Anger with Exercise 73
Chapter 15: Emotions – The Feelings Book 76
Part
IV: Ideas for Visual Learners 79
Chapter 16: Visual Learners 81
Chapter 17: Oops! Cards 83
Chapter 18:The Strategy Book 85
Chapter 19: Cards and Rewards 90
Chapter 20: Sand and Egg Timers 94
Chapter 21: The Home/School Diary 96
Chapter 22: The Good Book 100
Chapter 23: Visual Conversations 103
Part V: Assessing Children with Asperger

Syndrome 109
Chapter 24: Record Keeping 111
Chapter 25: Graphs 123
Part VI: Everything Else You Need

to Know 127
Chapter 26: Choices and Standing
Your Ground 129
Chapter 27: Bullying 132
Chapter 28: The Translator 134
Chapter 29: Finding Solutions 136
Chapter 30: Keeping Sane – Seeing the Glass
Half Full 140
Chapter 31: Jake 144
Chapter 32: Learning Curves 149
Index 173
Preface
Having recently visited France, and my French being

far from fluent, I realised, yet again, how difficult it is
to try communicating with people who don’t understand
what is being said or expected of them. Fortunately, I
had my little magic book (le livre de magie) in the guise
of an English/French, French/English dictionary to help
me. But what about those children with Autistic Spectrum
Disorders (ASDs) who have difficulty understanding any
language, even the language of the country they live in?
What help is there for them in mainstream education?
Some of them get extra support from education staff, but
so little appears to be known, in the mainstream sector,
of strategies and ways to interact appropriately with
these children. I have realised that it is more important
than ever for me to write a book that aims to help those
teaching assistants and teachers working with children
with Asperger syndrome, to find and help develop ways
which will enable these students to understand the world
around them a bit better so that they are more able to
function appropriately in school, with peers and in society
in general. After all, what is the use of knowledge if it
is not shared in a good way? I have been lucky enough
to have some experience of working with children with
ASDs and have seen successful outcomes for children on
the autistic spectrum, where perhaps others feared there
was none. A little knowledge can go a long way, if used
7
8â•‡ /â•‡ Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom
in the right way, and I would like to share with you some
of the strategies I have put into practice and used over the
past 14 years.
Also, I have included some small snippets in the
book (see Chapter 32) because I believe these help us to
understand how children with ASDs behave. They are a
useful tool, quick to read and easy for us to process. I have
been given books to read which have loads of technical
jargon in and, to be honest, I get lost after a few pages
and although they may well contain useful information, I
do not have the time, or patience, to read further.
I hadn’t sought to work with children with Asperger
syndrome. It was just, sort of, thrust upon me. I’d known
from when I had been working with children in a pre-
school setting that I got most of my job satisfaction from
working with children with special needs and it progressed
from there. The children with challenging behaviour gave
me a challenge and I liked that.
However, before I start, I think it is important that you
know something about me so maybe you can understand
a little of why I feel I can offer some advice to you.
So, this is me: after leaving school and doing several
different jobs, including various hotel jobs, farm work, and
a few years in the army, I had my own children. While they
were young and able to attend pre-school, I worked as a
pre-school supervisor and later, in another pre-school, as
a deputy supervisor. Whilst being the deputy supervisor
of a pre-school, I spent a lot of time with a student who
exhibited challenging behaviour: spitting milk in my
face at snack time, flitting from activity to activity like
a whirling dervish, and dragging other children off one
of the two go-carts because he wanted it! (The go-carts
were almost identical, same colour, same size, except one
had a different bumper.) This child also liked having the
Prefaceâ•‡/â•‡9
same rhyming story read time and again and I was usually
the one who read and reread it to him each morning. I
knew the words to No, No, Charlie Rascal inside out, but
fortunately, over time, I have forgotten them. When I
say time and again, I don’t mean several times a week,
I mean several times each morning, cover to cover, over
and over again. No matter how hard I tried to change the
storybook, he wouldn’t settle until I’d read him this story.
At home time, he’d hide under the piano at the end of the
church hall and his mum had to persuade him to come out.
We had someone from the medical profession come out to
visit him and autism was mentioned, but we (playgroup
staff) knew nothing about this condition or what to do to
help him before he moved on to infant school, which he
was due to do a few weeks after the assessment. Although
I enjoyed working with all the children, I found myself
more interested in working with the children who had
special needs and/or behavioural problems. I decided
that this was an area I was more interested in. So, as my
own children got older, I made the decision to broaden
my horizons and try working solely with children with
special needs.
I then found the nearest special school and rang them
up and asked for a visit. It catered for junior school aged
children with autism and I began working, as one of two
special support assistants, in one of the classrooms of six
children, shortly afterwards.
I was really enjoying this new challenge and learning
about the condition, through experience and reading
informative (though easy to understand) books about
autism, but then the school moved premises and the
distance for me to travel each day was too far as I still had
two young children myself. So, I transferred to another
local school, this time catering for junior and secondary
school aged children with Asperger syndrome. It was a

big change for me, in such a short space of time, as I
had gone from working with children aged two and a
half to working with Year 10 students in four months. I
was not sure of how capable I would be in my new role,
working as a special support assistant for 14 and 15-year-
olds. I was out of my comfort zone but determined to do
well and get as much experience as I could with such an
interesting condition. I was lucky because the training I
received at this school was ideal – up to date, informative
and relevant – and the staff I worked alongside were
extremely helpful and supportive.
After working at this school for a while, I learned
about the ability to ‘think outside the box’. This is where
you are able to think outside the normal way of thinking,
coming up with ideas that may not have been tried before
but that may have a chance of working if you just have the
courage to give them a go. For example, a child is unable
to enter the maths classroom for some unknown reason.
The average way of thinking would be ‘Well, all the oth-
ers can go into the room without a problem so there’s
no reason why he can’t. Let’s keep bringing him along
and I’m sure he’ll come in sooner or later.’ In the mean-
time, the child, who has difficulty with language skills
and expressing himself anyway, not only misses out on
maths lessons, but gets more anxious about going to the
room each time as well. This alone can cause negative be-
haviours and heighten anxiety levels, something children
with ASDs are susceptible to.
By thinking outside the box, you are able to come up
with more, maybe unusual ideas of why the child cannot
enter the room. For instance, it could be that the teacher
has a particular aroma or scent and the child does not like
this smell. It could be that the child had a bad experience
in a maths class before he came to your school and this

upsets him and reminds him. It could be that someone has
great expectations about his maths capabilities and he is
afraid of not living up to them. Then, of course, are the
ways to tackle it. Is the child over-sensitive to smells? Is
he capable of doing the maths work set? Could he do the
work in another room, perhaps by moving a table outside
the main classroom? Could the teacher try having a re-
laxed and informal chat with the child in a neutral place
at some time? This could give the child the chance to see
the teacher in a non-threatening environment and to have
a casual chat, maybe finding some things out about each
other, for example that they both support the same foot-
ball team or share a similar hobby. If none of these ideas
work, keep thinking and don’t give up. If everyone went
along with the norm of what everyone else believes and
thinks, then nothing new would ever be invented. For me,
this is all part of the challenge – where others have been
unable to make a positive change to a negative behaviour,
I want to find one, not to prove others wrong but because
I feel that the child has to be given every opportunity to
function and be happy in their day-to-day life.
I stayed with this school for five years and started to
feel I was no longer making a difference to the children
I was working with, so I decided to leave and have a
complete break from working with children – I went to
work at a small jam factory! However, after one month,
I saw an advert for a teaching assistant (TA) to work
afternoons with a child with Asperger syndrome in a local
mainstream school, preferably with some knowledge of
Asperger syndrome. So, I ended up in a junior mainstream
school for three years, initially working one to one
with a child with Asperger syndrome and challenging
behaviour, though I soon started working with more
groups of children with learning difficulties and taking

Emotional Literacy sessions for small groups of children
with difficulties in making friends and functioning in the
classroom setting.
After some success with the child with Asperger syn-
drome, he was able to manage his behaviour better in the
school day, and it was then suggested by the educational
psychologist for our school, that maybe other teaching
staff from local schools could come to visit us and we
could tell them what we had achieved and how we had
achieved it. At this point, I must make it clear that I did
not achieve this success alone – it was done with team-
work, hard work, determination and the child wanting to
achieve. The educational psychologist, Sue, had encoun-
tered many other mainstream schools in her catchment
area that were having similar problems to us but some had
not yet achieved much success.
Throughout the past 11 years, I have worked with
children who have sworn, punched, kicked, spat, pinched,
bitten, thrown things and much more but I can honestly
say it hasn’t got to me. I have always made a point of
seeing the positives of every situation, even when it has
been very difficult to do so at the time and I think it is
important to be able to do this. I can remember being very
cross about having a painful knee ligament injury caused
by a child who fell to his knees as I was taking him from
class (using a recognised restraint used by many schools)
for behaviour reasons. At first I was cross at him (although
I was mindful not to let him know this), and my thoughts
were that if he hadn’t been silly and dropped to his knees,
then I wouldn’t be sitting with my leg elevated watching
daytime television for the next four weeks!
However, as I sat at home with my leg up, a pair of

crutches close by, I thought through the incident from the
antecedent to the actual time I felt my knee crack. Now I
was more relaxed I was able to analyse more honestly and
see past my painful leg. The incident occurred because the
teacher was, albeit inadvertently, winding this student up,
making a point of telling him he was ignoring him and
then laughing (perhaps nervously, as he was quite a new
teacher) as the boy got more agitated. The child was then
unable to control his frustration and I ended up taking him
from class and getting myself injured. So really, it was not
the boy’s fault. This teacher could have handled the situ-
ation differently, and the outcome of this incident could
have been much more positive. This can be the case for
so many incidents when you actually sit back and analyse
exactly what led up to it. The important thing is that we
learn from our own, and our colleagues’, mistakes and try
to ensure the same things don’t happen again.
Only by analysing ourselves, and the part we, as
adults, play in children’s challenging behaviours, can we
remain positive and move forward for a new day, every
day, with the child. You will need to accept that you will
make mistakes. It is all part of our learning to be better
at the jobs we do, and thinking again on a positive note,
we will probably remember something better if we made
a mistake with it the first time. Just pick yourself up, dust
yourself down and get back to it. You will no doubt make
more mistakes in your lifetime, but you will also do a lot
of learning.
From when I was quite young, I have always had the
belief that if someone tells me I can’t do something, I will
find a way to prove them wrong. This idea has served me
well with the challenges I have had in my working career
so far and I firmly believe that sometimes, when the usual
methods of achieving the goal seem unobtainable, I have

to find other ways of achieving it (otherwise known as
thinking outside the box). This is something that can be
achieved by yourself or by talking with your peers, pool-
ing ideas and deciding on the best way forward.
Introduction
Working with
Asperger Minds
I wrote this book because I felt there was something

missing on the bookshelves: a book which would be
useful for teaching assistants (TAs), teachers new to
working with children with a diagnosis of Asperger
syndrome (AS), pre-school workers, or anyone working
or living with someone with AS. It is not meant as a long,
in-depth book about AS – I will leave that to the experts.
That’s not to say I’m not an expert, because when you
have worked intensely with children with an Autistic
Spectrum Disorder (ASD), I think you become an expert
on the condition merely through the process, not through
research. My book is meant as a book of little ideas that
could make big, positive changes to a child in mainstream
education. If you are a parent or carer of a child with
AS, there could well be some ideas here that could help
your child at home, or at their school. It is meant to show
that these are ideas that can work, as I have tried them
all and found that they can. It is also meant as a guide,
not a book that is guaranteed to work for every child,
as it won’t do that. It is meant to give you some ideas
to get you started, and ideas that you could adapt to suit
your needs, your school’s needs and the child’s needs (not
necessarily in that order!).
15
I was prepared to work hard to get results and I un-

derstand that sometimes we need to think outside the
box. I am just an ordinary, hard-working mother, trying
to make ends meet, but I am also confident that methods I
used in classrooms have worked and helped children with
AS understand the world a little better. In short, I am your
typical TA, whether mainstream or special needs.
I worked, as a special support assistant and TA, with
children with AS, for about 11 years and, I have to say,
every child has been different. Currently I am working as
an ASD adviser for an advisory and support group.
I think it is important to remember at this point that
AS is a syndrome, and the definition of a syndrome is: a
group of signs and symptoms that together are characteristic or
indicative of a specific disease or disorder. That means that
to have a diagnosis of AS, a person must meet certain
criteria in their behaviours but not necessarily all the cri-
teria. So, forget any hearsay about people with AS not
understanding sarcasm, because some do. Forget also that
people with AS don’t show empathy, because some do.
And forget that people with AS can’t read body language,
because again, some do. Remember to treat each child
with AS as an individual, because they are. Try also to
understand their way of thinking, as it can be very logi-
cal. After all, if we all thought the same way, and all had
the same likes and dislikes, how boring would that be?
Information in this book is based on strategies and
resources that I have personally used successfully in as-
sisting children with AS to manage inappropriate class-
room behaviour and which have also, over time, helped
them manage their own behaviour in other situations
outside school. Many of the strategies I write about are
not necessarily solely for use with children with an ASD
though, as many of the strategies can be used for other
Working with Asperger Mindsâ•‡ /â•‡ 17
children where deemed appropriate. Some of the strate-

gies are ones I have adapted myself from experience of
other strategies, whilst others are ones I have learnt from
reading some of the valuable resources now available on
the market. Where necessary, I have named the resources
I have used.
An important point concerning any information is
that you take what is relevant to you, use it and adapt it
for your own needs and that of the child you are working
with.
I must add that the success of these strategies would
not have been possible without support from my fellow
TAs, headteachers, teachers, educational psychologists
and the parents of the children. Therefore, it is my belief
that the following strategies will be much more effective
if all-round support is available to you and your ideas.
The support needed is to back up what you are doing
but also to be there when you try a new strategy for the first
time and it doesn’t go exactly to plan. Remember to take
constructive criticism as a positive thing and learn from
it. You also need to have some hardy staff who are brave
enough to go against the grain and allow a child to be
removed from lessons for behaviour management or even
to complete their work outside the main classroom. In the
UK, where so much emphasis is put on national results
and positioning in league tables, it is often the children
with special educational needs who get forgotten. This
should not be allowed to happen. All children deserve
an equal chance to achieve their full potential (see Every
Child Matters, a government programme of change to
improve outcomes for all children and young people). In
fact, most schools have a Vision Statement, which includes
something similar about helping all children achieve their
full potential. If this is true of your school, then you can
take pride in playing your part to help them to achieve

this.
Some education staff may be reluctant to allow a child
time out of the main classroom because it’s not what is
supposed to happen in mainstream education. What we
should be asking ourselves is this: what is the point of
having a disruptive child in the classroom for four years
if they are going to disrupt the learning of 20 or 30 or
so other children and not be able to access the curriculum
themselves either? Surely it is better that they have several
months, if required, out on their own with one-to-one, or
small group support and are then able to be gradually re-
integrated into the classroom with others. That way, every
child has the opportunity to succeed, and the disruption
of the whole class is limited. Not only is this a good way
for all the children to be able to access the curriculum, in
their own way, but it is an excellent use of the TA. It is
also about differentiation, which all educators should be
doing for all children anyway, whether the child is behind
academically, has a special need, or is very gifted and tal-
ented. It is part of Every Child Matters, because actually,
every child does matter. The policy document states that
the aim of the Every Child Matters programme is to give all
children the support they need to:
•â•¢ be healthy
•â•¢ stay safe
•â•¢ enjoy and achieve
•â•¢ make a positive contribution
•â•¢ achieve economic well-being.1
1 Department for Children, Schools and Families (2009) Aims and Outcomes. Available at
www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/about/aims/aims, accessed on 16 August 2010.
Working with Asperger Mindsâ•‡ /â•‡ 19
Although the roles of both the TA and the teacher are, in

reality, very different, they are both striving for the same
outcome for the children in their care – to enable them
to achieve in the best way that they can. For children to
have any chance of achieving their full potential, teachers
and TAs must work closely together as a team, with each
having an understanding of the other’s roles and respon-
sibilities. The teacher’s role is to take overall responsibility
for the education of the child, whereas the TA’s role is to
help the teacher achieve that. Both needs the other, and
for that there needs to be a mutual respect for each other’s
roles. Whereas the teacher has to teach a whole class, the
TA is able to work outside the classroom with one child
or a small group of children, normally under the guid-
ance of the teacher. This is because the role of the TA has
changed considerably over the last few years. They are no
longer the ‘mother-helpers’ they once were, but are now
trained to help their teacher deliver the curriculum more
effectively and have a better understanding of curriculum
matters as well as child development.
When the teacher and TA work as part of a team this
can benefit the children and help them feel that things in
class are consistent, when perhaps in other areas of their
lives, there is nothing but inconsistency. How confusing
would it be for them if the TA and teacher both had very
different ideas and both voiced them and never seemed to
agree on anything? If you are a teacher, take a moment to
imagine how your life in the classroom would be without
your TA, or any stand-in support, to help with your chil-
dren, resources and display boards, for a week. If you are
a TA, take a moment to think about how your life would
be without the teacher in your class for a week, if you
were solely in charge of all the children and responsible
for their education and behaviours. Perhaps then, you will
see that both needs the other to enable the classroom, and
all that goes on in it, to function most effectively.
The support from colleagues is also needed when you
decide you want to try something never tried in your
school before. I was lucky in that one headteacher and
senior TA were always keen for me to suggest new things
and try them out. Fortunately, with this support, I was
able to work closely with a child (who had been perma-
nently excluded from a previous mainstream school be-
fore they arrived with us).
When this child first started at the school in Year 3,
aged seven, she only attended in the mornings with one-
to-one support and had daily tantrums and aggressive
outbursts. After a term she attended for the afternoons
(which is why I was initially employed) as well but went
home every lunch hour because of her behaviour and the
way it impacted on her peers. However, after several years
of consistent teamwork, she was able to attend all day,
including lunches, and successfully managed to attend
school residential trips with no major incidents. If ever
there was a way to measure success, this is surely it.
If you have a child with AS and/or who has chal-
lenging behaviours coming to your school, be excited at
all that you can learn from him or her, and all the new
challenges that will face you and your colleagues. Look
forward to the success you and your team can achieve
when working together. It can seem a daunting time, but
you are not alone, you have a team who can work through
this together with you and support you when you need it.
It can also be a new learning curve for you, if you have
not encountered a challenge like this before.
Note: For ease of reference I have alternated the use of
male and female pronouns for each chapter.
Part I
What is
Asperger
Syndrome?
Chapter 1
Autistic Spectrum
Disorders
There are many books out there about Autistic Spectrum

Disorder (ASD), autism, Asperger syndrome (AS) and
high-functioning autism. I will briefly explain what an
ASD is. For more in-depth explanations I suggest you
visit your local bookshop or library.
Autism was a word I’d heard of before but knew very
little about. The first book I was advised to read on the
subject was Autism: The Facts by Simon Baron-Cohen and
Patrick Bolton2 and it really was a book which explained
autism to me in an easy and understandable way. It was
my first insight into understanding something of the con-
dition and a book I would recommend. After reading it,
and after briefly working with children with autism, I de-
veloped a strong interest in the condition.
People with ASDs have difficulties in three main areas
of their lives: communication, socialisation and inflexibil-
ity of thought. This is known as the Triad of Impairment.
Communication is something most of us take for
granted. We learn to communicate from a very young
age, learning from our parents how to interact with each
2 Baron-Cohen, S. and Bolton, P. (1993) Autism: The Facts. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
23
other, that if we say something to someone, the other

person is likely to respond. When the majority of us com-
municate with each other, we also use body language as
a way to express ourselves – raised eyebrows, screwed-up
noses, lip curls, hand waves and various hand movements,
body stance – and we can read more into what a person is
trying to say with these gestures. However, a person with
an ASD will not necessarily notice these visual cues or un-
derstand their meanings and will therefore not get the full
meaning of what, or how, something has been said. Tone
of voice is also something which is misunderstood and
people with an ASD often have to be taught about tone
of voice and what different tones could mean, both when
used by them and by others. Socialisation is also some-
thing we learn to do at a young age, when we visit rela-
tives and friends, start school and go to parties and make
friendships. Turn taking plays a big part in both of these
skills. However, a child with an ASD will not understand
the way either of these works. He won’t pick up on social
cues, for example, that we take it in turns to talk, known
as a conversation, and that it is thought to be rude not to
give eye contact when you are being spoken to, that we
don’t interrupt and monopolise the conversation with a
special interest (for example talking non-stop about trains
and how they work). He won’t understand that someone
may be showing signs of being bored with his constant
talk of computers – arms folded, raised eyeballs looking
to the sky, fidgeting, foot tapping – and may well con-
tinue to talk for a long time before the other person walks
off, particularly if it is children talking to children as they
may well have not learned yet that this is not the socially
acceptable thing to do. They may well have to be taught
this in a very clear way.
Autistic Spectrum Disordersâ•‡ /â•‡ 25
Inflexibility of thought is something many of us have

but we can be swayed with simple argument – for ex-
ample, someone else has used the cup I always like at
coffee break, but I can reason with myself that it is not
life threatening to me if I don’t use it today. However, a
person with an ASD could well see it as the one thing that
upsets the rest of his day. He always uses a particular cup
and therefore he can’t have his morning drink because he
doesn’t have that cup to put it in and he may well think
that the person using the cup knows he wanted that cup
but used it anyway. This could then upset his ability to
think, as this incident, although minor to most of us, will
over-ride his thought process and make him unable to
think clearly. If he knows he always uses that cup, then
he may well believe everyone else should know he always
uses that cup, making him feel rejected because someone
has used it knowing it would upset him. This brings me
to ‘theory of mind’. Again, there are many books around
which talk in great depth about this subject but I will just
give a brief explanation.
A little about theory of mind

In simple terms, the theory of mind is where we can think
we know what another person may be thinking or feel-
ing by reading his body language, his facial expressions
and his eyes. We can guess what his next move may be,
what he intends to do next given the information he has
just received, or given his previous behaviours. Theory of
mind is not a psychological theory, it is something that
the majority of people develop in order to understand the
minds of other people. It is known as a theory because it
is not a fact, because we cannot actually know for certain
how another’s mind is thinking, unless that person tells
us. Most of us will use our theory of mind daily, without

realising it – that driver wasn’t happy with me because
she looked angry when I took the last parking space; the
assistant in the cafe was pleased with me because I had the
correct money and they were probably short of change in
the till; the lady was upset with me because my trolley
bumped into hers and even though she smiled at me, her
eyes told me she was annoyed. For someone to develop
theory of mind, he first has to be aware of his own emo-
tions, desires and self-awareness. However, a child with
an ASD may not have developed this theory of mind (a
condition often now referred to as mindblindness) and he
will therefore find understanding the world around him
even more complicated than it already is. Please bear all
these things in mind when working with a child with an
ASD and try to show him ways to make the world around
him less scary by explaining things he finds confusing in
a clear way that he can understand. It may take more than
once for him to understand but be patient, it is well worth
the effort to see a child progress and be happy and know
that you played a part in making that happen.
Chapter 2
Understanding
Asperger Syndrome
Even in today’s society, with all the information available

to us, some people have still not heard of AS, and some
that have know very little about it. If you are going to be
working with a child with this condition, and the staff at
your school have limited knowledge about the condition,
it may be an idea to invite a parent or parents of a child
with AS into your school to give staff a talk about it. It
can be very enlightening, because what we read in books
about the condition may well be very different from how
an individual child actually is. After all, the parent is liv-
ing with someone with ASD and will no doubt be a foun-
tain of knowledge. They will be able to give you a good
insight into the difficulties faced as well as the benefits of
it. Knowing how a child reacts at home can also be very
informative – bedtime routines, mealtimes, sibling friend-
ships, etc. all give a better understanding of the impact
AS can have, not only on an individual child, but also on
the whole family. Knowing what the family goes through
every day may make you a bit more understanding the
next time the parent (of a child with AS) phones up com-
plaining that her child is upset because of something that
27
has happened at school. It could also enhance the parent/

school partnership which is always a good thing.
If the child with AS does not know a great deal about
AS, it can be a good idea, with parents’ permission, to do
a series of Behaviour Management sessions covering the
topic. After all, if the child has the syndrome, surely it
can only benefit her if she understands it, and therefore
herself, better. A child I worked with knew she had AS,
and that her dad had it too, but she did not realise other
people had it as well and when we researched it on the
internet, she was amazed, and really focused on reading
about them and their difficulties. Suddenly, she knew she
was not alone and this had a positive effect on her and
her outlook.
The internet is a great place to find out about famous
people with AS. I have worked with many students with
AS who see Microsoft’s Bill Gates (believed to have AS)
as a hero. If he can achieve and be as successful as he
has been, they see no reason why they can’t. It was quite
interesting for me too, seeing these stars and realising
that they may have AS, and seeing what they can achieve
in their adult lives. AS doesn’t have to be all doom and
gloom and I think many people would not have achieved
all they have without their AS. When doing this though,
you need to be careful about what you are allowing the
child to read. Some information can be quite negative and,
though it may be good for the child to get more informa-
tion on her condition, you need to remember too, that she
is a child, and too much information can be a dangerous
thing. A lot of these children have high anxieties and I am
certainly not suggesting you allow them free rein over the
internet or access to the many available books, but that
you allow them to understand a little more of their condi-
tion. I have found information on the internet, printed it
Understanding Asperger Syndromeâ•‡ /â•‡ 29
off and cut out the parts that I have felt were relevant for
them, deliberately omitting parts that were not beneficial
for them to read.
I have done scrapbooks with children where they can
do their own work on the condition, write their own sto-
ries about a child with AS (these can be quite enlighten-
ing), write facts they have learned, recap on things that
have helped them, or information they have obtained
from the internet.
Sometimes I have talked to children with AS about
the Triad of Impairment and this alone has been enough
to allow them to understand the condition more. Informa-
tion on this can also be found on the internet or your Spe-
cial Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) may have
information. The local library will also be a great source
for information on ASDs and associated conditions.
At one school where I worked there were several chil-
dren with AS, and some that were older than the child I
was working with. We (the staff) decided that it might be
a good idea to involve one of the older children with AS
in some of the younger child’s Behaviour Management
sessions. So, we asked an older child with AS, who also
had behavioural problems, if she would be interested in
doing some work with the younger child and she was
only too keen. I was amazed at how well they got on and
how easy it seemed for them to talk to each other. It was a
great success and the two of them discussed how they felt
about getting angry and how certain things upset them.
The older girl told her that she used to get angry and
have disruptive outbursts but that she rarely had them
anymore as she could control them much better.
I took a step back and listened to them and I learned a
lot from them. It was lovely to see two very anxious girls
be so relaxed in each other’s company. I believe it gave
them both a much needed confidence boost as they both

had something in common that few of the other chil-
dren in their school understood. Plus, my young charge
then had a new role model and one of her peers to go to
with her problems. At a later date, during another of our
one-to-one sessions, I asked her what she would like to
achieve by the time she went into Year 6 (age 11). She
replied ‘I’d like to be as successful as [her role model] is
with managing her own behaviours.’
Another idea for helping this kind of peer friendship
is to find another school, or even your own school, where
the child has email links with another child with AS. Your
school educational psychologist may be able to help you
set this up. This is something we talked about setting up
but never actually got around to doing because the child
we were going to do it with left the other school, though
I’m certain that, if properly monitored, it could be a suc-
cessful activity.
Chapter 3
Literal Thinking
I never realised just how strange the English language

could be until I spent several years working with children
with ASD. Now I find myself getting cross after analys-
ing headlines in papers and thinking how badly they are
worded and how they can be misleading. Try reading
through a national newspaper and looking at statements
and see for yourself how they can be misinterpreted.
The English language is a complicated one on the
best of days but now, for me, after spending time with
these children, I find myself analysing what I say, or
write, all the time and thinking about how it could be
misinterpreted. Some of the everyday things we say can
be quite confusing.
Here are some examples, some of which you may use
yourself. If so, always check that the child understands
what you have said and ask him what it means in his own
words, then, if he has misunderstood, you can tell him
what it means.
•â•¢ Pull your socks up •â•¢ Hold your horses
•â•¢ Play it by ear •â•¢ I’ll have that done in two
•â•¢ Keep your hair on shakes of a lamb’s tail
•â•¢ We take two steps •â•¢ A leopard cannot

forward and one step change its spots
back •â•¢ A man after my own heart
31
•â•¢ A fate worse than death •â•¢ Bob’s your uncle

(if a child is terrified •â•¢ I’ve got green fingers
of death, then telling
him that if he’s late for •â•¢ Blow your own trumpet
class this will be a fate •â•¢ Born with a silver
worse than death could spoon in one’s mouth
mortify him and throw
him into a blind panic.) •â•¢ Blood is thicker than
water
•â•¢ Like a fish out of water
•â•¢ Come on, shake a leg
•â•¢ You’re all fingers and
thumbs •â•¢ Straight from the
horse’s mouth
•â•¢ We’ll have that done
before you can say Jack •â•¢ A bird in the hand is
Robinson worth two in the bush
•â•¢ Time flies
By looking at, and analysing, these statements and having
the ability to understand them when they are used, it is
easy to see how confusing they can be to someone who
already has difficulty in understanding language. That is
why it is important to try to think about the words you
use before you actually use them. It could make things go
much more smoothly in the classroom.
I was sitting next to a child with AS once when the
teacher told the whole class what they were to do next.
I asked my charge if he knew what he had to do and he
replied that he did, repeating exactly what the teacher had
said. I then asked him what it meant and he replied, ‘I
don’t know.’ If I had not questioned him about his under-
standing, it might have led to him becoming disruptive.
Disruption can be a way of deflecting the fact that the
child does not understand what to do. He would rather be
thought of as being poorly behaved (which some children
find amusing as it stops a lesson) than stupid (the words a
child has used when explaining it to me before).
Part II
Working with
an Individual
with Asperger
Syndrome
Chapter 4
The Beginning
When I first started working in a classroom with students

with AS, I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do,
or what was expected of me. So, I just did what I did best
– I was myself. I was firm with the students but helped
them when they needed me to, I got to know them and
their little ways, I watched how others worked with the
students and picked up ideas from them, I learned about
the individual children and I read about the condition.
Training also played a big part. Fortunately, there was a
lot of in-house training available and the school had a
budget for training at outside venues, something many
schools have but not everyone is aware of – if you think
you need training, find out what’s available and get your-
self booked on a course relevant to your work. Although
I have enjoyed and learned from in-house training, I be-
lieve training outside the workplace to be invaluable for
several reasons. You get to meet people you wouldn’t nor-
mally work with and can exchange views, ideas and opin-
ions with them. You learn about new ideas and ways to
work with students that are fresh for your school and you
can then take these ideas back and share them as well as
put them into practice.
A good piece of advice is this – once you know you
are going to be working with a child with AS, accept the
challenge and reap the benefits and the feeling of success
35
when things go right. It’s such a great feeling to succeed

with a child, especially where others have failed for one
reason or another, often for a lack of perseverance or an
inability to think outside the box.
An important thing to remember right from the outset
is to get to know the child – what she enjoys, what she
doesn’t like, if she has a special interest (sometimes called
an obsession, like dolls or drawing), if she likes or dislikes
sport, if she has siblings, or pets, or extended family. All
these things can be a way in to the child’s life for you to
show an interest and make her feel special. If you know
a child has a special interest in dinosaurs, when she next
comes in to school tell her something about a dinosaur
that you know, or ask her about her dinosaur collection.
It’s much more personal than just saying ‘Good morning’
(and don’t be offended if she doesn’t show too much in-
terest in your life interests as being egocentric can be part
of their condition). It shows her that you have listened to
her and are interested in her as a person and it is a good
start to building up a positive relationship with this child.
Perhaps you could get her to tell you about her special
interest, or build in time during your sessions together to
chat about it or do a mini project on it. This can also be
used as a good motivator, for example: ‘When you have
done your maths, then we can do some of your personal
project.’
I would also like to add that we should never label the
child, but label the behaviour. This is something I was
taught early on in my role working with children with
AS. In my experience, the children that exhibit challeng-
ing behaviour have very low self-esteem so, by labelling
them as bad it only reinforces what they think they already
know – that they are bad. So, instead of telling them ‘I
don’t like you for doing that’ or ‘You are a naughty boy/
The Beginningâ•‡/â•‡37
girl’, try saying ‘I like you but I don’t like that behaviour’
or ‘I understand that you are upset, but we need to find
another way of expressing your anger.’ It may seem like a
minor thing, but it can make a huge difference.
After all, would you want to work with someone who
kept telling you they didn’t like ‘you’? The child needs
to know that she is OK, but that some of her behaviour
is not. It takes the emphasis off her and focuses on what
behaviour she is exhibiting.
One of the first things I noticed at a mainstream school
was that the parent/school relationship was not particu-
larly amicable – neither seemed to respect, or trust, the
other. This is quite common. After all, bear in mind what
many parents have gone through – their child may have
been temporarily or permanently excluded from another
school. That alone doesn’t sound too bad, but add these
other factors: the child probably wanted to be at school
and it probably caused him or her to feel upset about not
being allowed to go; these children are young and need
guidance and understanding to make sense of the world
around them; the reaction of other parents towards this
child and their family; the fight the parents have to go
through to get their child statemented (something that
helps them to receive the support they need in class to
enable them to function); and having to rearrange their
own work and lives around everything that gets thrown
at them. Is it any wonder that the parents feel upset? As
for the school, they should take what information they
have on a child, from the records passed to them, but
then make their own decision about how this child can be
taught. Although a child’s behaviour may be really bad in
one school, it does not mean that the child is really bad
– it merely means that the school staff have not yet found
what works for this particular child – and that in itself is

part of the challenge.
Keeping that in mind, it is a good idea to invite the
parents in to chat to staff about the child’s ASD, how
it exhibits in this particular child, what they like, what
makes them anxious, what sets off negative behaviours,
etc. so that everyone can have a better understanding of
what to expect. Start with a clean slate – you don’t know
this child and it would be wrong to judge her on what
others have said. This is where you can inform the parent
that you are going to try to make things work for their
child and that you may need to try several different things
before you find something that works. Be honest – if this
is the first time you have had a child with such challeng-
ing behaviours, tell them. It is better that they know now,
and know that you are learning with their child, than
believe you know what to do and then find out that you
are working in the dark and don’t have a clue. This would
only add to their distrust of schools and their staff. At
least if you are upfront at the start, they know you are go-
ing to try your best. After all, a parent knows their child
better than anyone – and this is the first phase of the par-
ent/teacher/TA relationship.
Chapter 5
Individual Work
Stations
Individual work stations (or bays) are secluded areas

which allow the child to have a safe, personal space where
he can have time-out and not be in full view of his peers.
I think there is a place for these in mainstream schools,
particularly in the UK since the introduction of the in-
clusion policy. The inclusion policy in the UK means
that children with special needs will be educated along-
side children without special needs, with some support, in
mainstream schools. However, this is not always the best
option and a more specialist provision is often needed.
If it means that the child is able to return to the class-
room less disruptive, then individual work stations are
well worth it. These do not need to be an added expense
as they can be made from equipment already in school. I
understand that space is limited, but if the choice is an-
other child being injured during a child’s aggressive out-
burst or the majority of the children in class having their
lesson interrupted, or finding a small corner big enough
to fit a table and a couple of chairs in, then there is no
comparison. Find the space, either inside or outside the
classroom.
39
A corner of an area outside, or inside, a classroom

provides two sides of a ‘bay’ and therefore, only a screen
is required for one side (if you have a good maintenance
man, he may be able to make one up if one is not readily
available). The back of a bookcase could even be made
use of as the third wall.
The idea of the screen is to give the child a place to
focus, without everyone watching them and their behav-
iours. A TA or teacher can then talk them through an
activity without the fear of being watched over by every-
one else. Also, other children can be quite a distraction,
particularly if the child has not understood the instruc-
tion and what is expected of him or her. It is important
to understand as well that children with AS often have
other conditions alongside it, to a more or lesser degree,
such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
which will also affect their concentration and behaviours.
Displaying negative behaviours can divert the focus of
others from their inability to do the work to the fact that
the child is behaving badly. Many children would rath-
er have people think they are being naughty than think
they cannot do the work that everyone else seems able
to do. Besides, admitting in front of everyone that you
do not understand what has been said can be a really
difficult thing to do. How many of us, as adults, have sat
in meetings where something has been said or asked and
we haven’t put our hand up to ask what is meant because
we were afraid that others in the room would think less
of us? It is no different for us than it is for the child, but
for a child with an ASD, who already has low self-esteem,
it is even harder. Also, when one person has been brave
enough to put their hand up and questioned what was
said, how many of us have breathed a sigh of relief that
we were not the only ones who didn’t know the answers?
Individual Work Stationsâ•‡ /â•‡ 41
When the child starts to use the bay, it can be a good

thing to do some fun activities in it to get him used to it,
particularly if he is reluctant to use it in the first place.
You could start with some colouring, or decorating it with
his own pictures or photos, or looking at a book together.
Then, gradually, intersperse work into it, so he gets used
to working in his bay. Don’t expect things to run smooth-
ly from the start as I’m sure they won’t, but persevere as I
have said before – it is so worth it in the end.
Figure 5.1 A typical work station (bay)
Figure 5.1 shows a typical ‘bay’, with a table, two chairs

and three walls. The chairs are for the child and the TA
or teacher. Other children quickly seem to realise that the
bay is for a particular child and readily accept, and respect,
this as part of the make-up of their school, provided it is
shown in a positive way, not as a place for the child to go
when he is ‘naughty’.
This is an area where the child with AS can go, for their
Behaviour Management sessions, or to do his work, or just
for time-out or talk time. It is his and, as far as the child
with AS is concerned, not somewhere any other child can
go unless he or she is invited in for a shared work session
or for a reward time. The child may want to decorate the
screen with his work, photos of his holiday or special
interest or just have them blank. Some children can find

too much decoration a distraction which can exacerbate
poor behaviour. So, although the bay may look blank and
bare to us, it could be exactly what this particular child
needs to be calm and to concentrate. Remember, it is his
area and his place to feel safe and relaxed. It could also be
a place to display Anger Rules (see p.46).
It is important that he is asked if someone else can go
in to use it, though often it is a good idea if it is not used
by others so that the child with AS realises that it is his
space whenever he needs it. It is an area that needs to be
respected so that the child understands the importance of
the space. If people respect his space, in time, it is hoped,
the child will learn to respect other people’s space. It is
also important that staff respect the child’s bay too. Don’t
rearrange his pictures, etc. unless you have discussed your
reasons for doing so with him. If he doesn’t want you
to, try to compromise. Sometimes, compromise is a very
powerful tool. It also shows the child that you are re-
specting him and his views.
With one child I was working with, sometimes, while
I did Behaviour Management sessions with him outside
the main classroom, the teacher would do circle time3
with the rest of the class and use the time to discuss their
concerns about the other child’s behaviour, sometimes
even explaining aspects of AS. Any issues that came up
in their circle time could then be covered by me in fu-
ture Behaviour Management sessions with him and me
3 Circle time is where the whole class sit in a circle, with the teacher included, and
discuss topical issues that may concern the children. An example of this could
be that bullying has been happening in school. Together, the children explore
why this may be happening and what they can do to stop it. Circle time is a safe
environment for the children to have their say. If the topical issue is about a child
with AS then his parents’ permission would need to be sought before discussing
this with the whole class.
Individual Work Stationsâ•‡ /â•‡ 43
or with him in the next class circle time. Although some

might see this as a breach of the child’s confidentiality,
it was done with his and his parents’ consent and it was
beneficial for these other children to gain a better un-
derstanding of why he sometimes behaved the way he
did. After they were told about what things triggered his
behaviours, they were able to help him by avoiding doing
things that might upset him, or by being supportive when
they saw he was getting anxious.
Chapter 6
Behaviour
Management Sessions
These sessions are probably best done by the same person

each time, even though two people may be working as
the one-to-one assistant for the child (one in the morning
and one for afternoons). This is so the delivery is consist-
ent each time and the child knows what to expect.
The work you do in Behaviour Management sessions
should be recorded as evidence and will no doubt be
looked at during inspections by bodies such as the Of-
fice for Standards in Education (OFSTED), though this is
nothing to worry about. Your school may have their own
recording sheets for recording such sessions, and these
may be the same as for recording Emotional Literacy ses-
sions. If there is not a standard recording sheet, suggest
one that can be put in place. This is also a good way to
record how you think the session went and areas you be-
lieve the child needs to continue to work on or move on
to next. It also shows other people what you have cov-
ered, should you be away for any reason so that someone
needs to take over for a short while. It should be regularly
checked or overseen by the SENCO or your senior TA to
ensure you are doing things correctly.
44
Behaviour Management Sessionsâ•‡ /â•‡ 45
In order for these children to understand their be-

haviours and how to change them, they may have to be
taught what is acceptable and what is not and why it is
or is not.
Remember, their understanding of situations can dif-
fer from the majority of us and they may not understand
that the way they are behaving is not acceptable. Perhaps
their behaviour has never been challenged or explained
before or maybe they do not know there are other ways to
behave when we are not happy about something. Again,
this is something they may need to be shown how to do.
For a child with an ASD this could mean individual
sessions involving discussions and role-play, for example,
with their allocated TA. These are something that can be
done, initially, during the lessons that the child is most
disruptive in. Be aware, though, that this may mean that
the child is out of class for quite long periods of time each
day over a period of several months, but try to remember
the bigger picture – that this is an essential activity if
you are ever to stand a chance of achieving your overall
objective of teaching the child how to manage her own
behaviour in order that she can function in the classroom
with other children appropriately for longer periods of
time.
On occasion, it may be necessary to have impromptu
sessions. I have usually done one Behaviour Management
session a day though this time has been reduced as the
child gets older and more able to manage her behaviour
in class. However, if behaviour has been poor during the
day, I may take the child to her bay and play a simple
board game just so she can redirect her thoughts and
regain control. This means we can have a general chat
about anything and everything. This may have to happen
several times a day – there are no rules about how often
you do this. It will depend on what your team decides and

the needs of the child.
One of the first things to do in these sessions is to es-
tablish the Anger Rules. You can use current school ones,
make your own or use some from a book. An example of
some Anger Rules are:
Never hurt people.
Never hurt yourself.
Never damage property.
Always tell someone if you are upset.
These may also take into account some of the school’s
Golden Rules or that is something you could focus on at a
later date. Golden Rules are a strategy some schools use to
promote positive behaviour. The school sets the rules for
students to follow daily and students who follow those
rules throughout the week earn something called Golden
Time. Golden Time is a reward where the children can
do one of various fun activities offered, often on a Friday
afternoon, such as model building, drawing, drama, etc. If
a child has not followed the Golden Rules all week, she
may not earn her full amount of Golden Time but should
still earn some of it.
The child may like to make a poster with these rules
on to display in her bay or have them minimised to keep
in her pocket as a reminder. Again, this is something that
can be done during a Behaviour Management session,
giving you both the opportunity to chat and get to know
each other better. She may want to take a copy home as
these rules can apply at home as well. I usually laminate
the poster, if it’s no bigger than A4 (though if you have
an A3 laminator a bigger one could work well too) to
show the child that her work is special and can be kept in
a good condition for longer. It is also harder to tear up if

she is in a destructive ‘anti-rules’ mood.
It can be a good idea to put in her bay a pot of play-
dough and/or a soft, squeezy ball (both very cheap re-
sources) to be held in the hand and squeezed. Show the
child how it can be used to help her calm down when she
is angry, rather than hitting out at someone. One child I
used to work with would make the dough into a person
shape then tell me why she was angry with that particu-
lar person, before ripping its head off or squashing it in
her hands. She was then calmer and able to talk about
the problem. We were able to discuss ways to rectify the
problem, why it may have happened and how to try to
not let the same thing happen again. We also talked about
how it was OK to punch the playdough but it is never OK
to punch another person. At this point we referred to our
Anger Rules. It is important for the child to realise that
it is OK to have angry feelings but that we have to learn
how to deal with them in appropriate ways.
I have told children that when I feel cross I like to
squeeze the playdough until it is really flat and they are
often keen to prove they can get it flatter than me.
I have found that the child is often reluctant to give
you information if you are not prepared to share some
yourself. For example, if the child is bad-tempered first
thing, on arrival at school, and is reluctant to tell me what
has upset her, I might say ‘I can see you are upset this
morning. I feel like that sometimes. In fact, this morn-
ing I slept through my alarm and thought I was going to
be late and then I had to rush and couldn’t do my hair
properly and that made me feel angry with everyone else,
even though they hadn’t done anything wrong.’ Quite of-
ten, the child becomes attentive and is keen to hear about
why someone else might get upset. She may then be more
ready to enter the conversation and say what happened

to her that morning that made her so angry. I have felt
that, sometimes, the child has felt that she is wrong to feel
angry or upset and it is a comfort for her to know that
we actually have those feelings too. Remind her often: it’s
OK to be angry, but it’s how we deal with that anger that
is important.
I once worked with a child with AS every day for four
months before she actually told me she had Asperger’s. I
told her that I had worked with other children with As-
perger Syndrome previously, to which she replied, ‘Oh,
but I haven’t got that, I’ve just got Asperger’s.’ When I
told her it was all the same thing, it was as if a whole
floodgate opened for this child. She seemed amazed that
there were other children with AS and that I actually
knew something about the condition myself. It does take
time to build trust and a bond, but it is a necessity if you
are to have a mutual respect with the child. My father
always told me ‘Patience is a virtue which must be prac-
tised’ (and I am still practising!).
Whatever you say to the child, make sure you can al-
ways follow through as this will help the child believe
that she can trust you. For example, if you tell the child
that she will have to finish work during breaktime if she
does not finish it in lesson time, then make sure, before-
hand, that this is acceptable in your school, otherwise you
make yourself look incompetent to her and your credibil-
ity is gone for ever. If you say you will bring something in
to show her the next day, make sure you bring it in. Once
she knows you can, and will, follow through with what
you say you will do, then she can start to trust you. You
can help empower the child to understand ways to react
to anger that are more appropriate and she will be more
willing to try as she will trust you to be right.
Make sure you establish clear boundaries from the

start. If a child sees that you keep changing the bounda-
ries then she will lose faith in you. If a child was rude to
me, I would correct the behaviour every time because it is
a life skill to be able to tolerate and respect other people,
even if we do not always agree with them. However, I
once heard a child being extremely rude to another mem-
ber of staff and when I was next working with the child,
I asked why she was so rude to the other TA. She smirked
and replied, ‘Because I can be.’ I then said, ‘But you don’t
speak to me like that.’ To which she replied with a frown,
‘No, because you wouldn’t let me get away with it!’
All children like to have boundaries, even though they
push against them. Boundaries make them feel safe, pro-
vided they are enforced, because they know that we can
be trusted to help keep them safe. If you have one mem-
ber of staff not enforcing the boundaries, it can have a
huge impact on children’s behaviour and the respect for
that member of staff is lost. It also causes children to push
the boundaries even further, just to see who will win, the
member of staff enforcing the boundary or the member
of staff not. It is a way to play staff off against each other
and for the child this can be a source of power.
How many parents have known children try to play
Mum off against Dad (or vice versa) to see who the strong-
est one is? For the child it can start as a game, but it can
have far-reaching consequences. It could show the child
that there is conflict between the staff and that is never a
good thing. All staff should enforce the boundaries (and
Golden Rules, which most schools have these days) other-
wise the child will see this as a weakness and behaviours
can then deteriorate.
Ensure all staff are telling the child/children the same
thing, and that some staff aren’t allowing children to run
through the corridors, while you are constantly telling

your one-to-one student to stop running and walk. How
fair is that? If this is happening, bring it up at your next
staff meeting or with your line manager and see if some-
thing can be done to stop the inconsistency.
I have known members of staff who try to be the
child’s friend but this is not what the child needs. They are
children and have other children who can be friends with
them. The adults’ role is to act as positive role models,
and to assist the child in understanding herself and the
world around her much more clearly. If a child regularly
swears, and is not corrected, then the child is likely to
continue, or, worse, ‘up the ante’. That means that if she
is not getting noticed for her negative behaviour, such as
swearing, then the chances are she will do something else
that will get her noticed, and the attention she needs.
Ignoring the behaviour initially, in fact, does nothing
to encourage respect from the child for the adult, and the
adult is not helping the child. If the child then goes out
in public and swears, I believe the staff member would
be equally to blame for not teaching the child that this
behaviour is unacceptable.
I understand that confronting a child’s negative
behaviour can be a bit unnerving, particularly if the
child is likely to become aggressive, and it may lead to
an incident, but in order for the child to benefit from the
support she has then it needs to be done. How else will
this child learn that certain behaviours are not acceptable
in school or in society in general?
I have worked with children who think it is acceptable
to hit out physically at staff but assure me that they would
not do it in public. I’m not so sure they have that amount
of control when they are upset and so I have talked to
them about the consequences of that sort of behaviour
happening in public and how the police would be in-

volved, particularly when the child is aged over ten years.
One child I worked with was terrified of the police
but we did not know this until she had a violent outburst
when our school policewoman came on one of her routine
class visits. The child did not access the policewoman’s
lesson, which had been about ‘stranger danger’ but, once
the child had calmed down, we found out that someone
she knew had been to prison. We asked the child what
she thought the police did in their role and her total
understanding was that they just put people in prison.
We had several Behaviour Management sessions
talking about what the police role in the community
was, one of them being to visit local schools and talk to
children about different dangers. We then arranged for
the policewoman to return to the school just to talk to
the child and to allow her to see her in a different way
from the way they had previously perceived her. The
policewoman was brilliant with the child and talked to
her about the use of police dogs, helicopters, different
police cars and all the various jobs police officers do. At
the end of the meeting the policewoman presented the
child with some lovely photos of the police helicopters,
boats and cars as well as a special ruler for her pencil
case, something the other children were later envious of.
The next time the policewoman was due, we arranged
for this child to meet her at reception and escort her to
the classroom where the child sat and participated in the
whole of her lesson. Problem solved.
Chapter 7
Small Group Work

and Working
One to One
Small groups
Some children with AS know very little about the condi-
tion and often have the belief that they are only person in
the world with it, so when they realise that other children,
and adults, have the same condition, it can be quite good
for them. Emotional Literacy groups are a great place for
this discussion to be initiated by staff. The children no
longer feel so different or alone. They can relate to how
other children may behave. Often, they don’t know other
children with AS, and AS groups can be beneficial for
them, where they can talk about their feelings and how
things upset them, etc. Pick your group of children care-
fully though. Sometimes, it may just have to be with a
couple of children in the group as I have worked with
various children with AS who are very different. Merely
being in the room with a high-pitched or monotone child
can upset the sensitive ears of the others.
52
Small Group Work and Working One to Oneâ•‡ /â•‡ 53
However, it doesn’t just have to be children with AS

in your group. It could be that you have a small group for
Anger Management, where you discuss how to help each
other, get the children working in pairs, which children
with AS can find difficult as they don’t always like to
take on others’ views or opinions. Offer cheap rewards for
achievements – stickers or, I have found, a drink of squash
and a biscuit works really well at the end of a session.
Playing board games can also be a good way to get
the children talking and seeing the child with AS in a
different way. Getting children together who have previ-
ously had difficulties together can help them understand
the child with AS better. They may even have things in
common with them: pets, football, older or younger sib-
lings, being born in the same month, etc.
Working one to one

Quite often, the opportunity arises in a school where you
can work one to one, usually as a TA.4 If you want to have
more training, ask. Schools get a budget for staff training
and it will benefit you and the children, so find out about
enrolling on a course.
This is a hard job to do and at times it can feel that
you really are out there on your own but at the same time
it can be extremely rewarding although I wouldn’t rec-
ommend working one to one all day every day with the
same child. Not only do I not think it is a good idea for
the staff member to be with the same child for a whole
day, five days a week, but it is not always beneficial for the
child. The member of staff can lose touch with what their
4 Some children in the UK are given one-to-one support and receive this from one
TA throughout the day. Others may have two or more TAs throughout the day but
still receive one-to-one support. One-to-one supporting can become quite intense
and therefore TAs would normally be asked if they want to do this role.
TA role is all about (more than just one-to-one work). As

far as the one-to-one child is concerned, he can become
dependent on just one person, and possessive.
Ultimately, we are trying to teach these children the
way the world works and we are trying to improve their
understanding of it, so it is better for them to have other
people working with them too. After all, what if their
one-to-one person is ill, or decides to leave the school
for whatever reason? The child needs to be able to feel
comfortable with more than just one member of staff if
he is to become more independent. However, the role can
be shared so that one person does mornings and another
afternoons and this is a great compromise all round. It has
the advantage of allowing the child to get to know more
than just one staff member quite well and in turn allows
the staff members time to work with other children for
the time they are not working one to one.
In the initial stages of working one to one, the support
is there, but after a few weeks it can become as if you are
the sole person responsible for the child and his behav-
iour. Quite often, when a staff member starts one-to-one
work with a child, there is support from the class teach-
er, the head, the senior TA and perhaps other TAs. This
support can be in the form of guidance, giving ideas or
moral support and encouragement. However, sometimes
this support can gradually be withdrawn as the people
providing it continue with their own roles and make the
assumption that the one-to-one TA is managing indepen-
dently. It is during this time that you can be at your most
vulnerable, when things don’t go exactly to plan, and you
start to feel you are to blame for problems that arise. You
are left to deal with the minor difficulties whilst every-
one else becomes more involved with the rest of the now
settled class. However, this can also be very rewarding,
Small Group Work and Working One to Oneâ•‡ /â•‡ 55
because you have the time to build a working relationship

with one child, you get to understand his needs more
than anyone else on the staff list, and he gets to know you
and learn to trust you (provided you follow through with
things you say you will do). It also means that the rest of
the staff trusts you to do your job independently.
If you are covering the child’s breaks or lunchtimes, it
will mean that you take your breaks at other times in the
school day, meaning you will drink that cup of well-de-
served coffee alone, without being able to catch up with
your peers on what’s going on in the rest of the school.
Personally, being the unsociable person that I can be,
I rather enjoyed these quiet breaks and having time to
reflect on what I was doing right, or wrong, and decide
on my next course of action. If you are not like me, and
enjoy others’ company, make sure you have some time
during each day to catch up with everyone you want to
in the staff room, even if it’s just to chat about what you
watched on TV last night. It gives your mind something
else to focus on for a while, other than just one child.
Although you will no doubt build a good working
relationship with a child working one to one, it can be-
come a problem if the boundaries are not made clear. The
child may become cheeky if you allow your relationship
to become too friendly. Remember, you are not there to
be his friend; you are there to help him understand the
world around him more easily. He has plenty of peers he
can become friends with.
Over-familiarity can also make the child behave in-
appropriately toward you, perhaps giving you cuddles
(some children with AS do like cuddles). This can be fine
when the child is very young and needs some reassuring
comfort, but can become quite inappropriate as the child
gets older, and hormones start to kick in! Topics like this
can be brought up in Behaviour Management sessions,

perhaps using the ‘stranger danger’ heading, discussing
who it is OK to cuddle, etc. The TA is not one of them.
Working one to one and getting this close to a
child can leave you, and the child, with problems of
misinterpretation.
Chapter 8
Breaktimes and
Lunchtimes
Children with AS have difficulties with the Triad of

Impairment (communication, socialisation and inflexibility
of thought) and so they can have problems building and
maintaining friendships, particularly with their peers. It
may be that the child has problems at breaks because these
are less structured times but also because she is not sure
about how to keep and maintain friendships. In order to
assist the child, perhaps an isolated area could be sought
on the playground where this child plays with one or two
selected friends as she learns how to play, compromise
and share.
If it is difficult to find a patio or grass area, specifically
for this child, then perhaps it is possible to mark out an
area using cones. Other children will soon learn that this
is a no go area unless they are playing with this specific
child. Although children can be very cruel and blunt at
times, they can also be very accommodating to children
with behavioural difficulties.
If nobody wants to play with the child, perhaps offer
an incentive, for example: ‘Whoever plays with Gill today
gets an extra five minutes break time.’ This could be a
starting point for introducing others to Gill’s world and
57
for Gill to understand more about the friendship process.

Quite often though, you will find that a lot of the other
children want to play with the child, especially if she has
a designated area.
When the ultimate aim is for the child to be able to
be integrated into the main playground for breaks and
lunchtimes, there are a number of things we can do to
assist the child with this. One of them is to teach her the
ground rules for fair play. This includes taking turns and
initially this can be practised in small group work in in-
door activities such as board games, magnetic darts, dom-
inoes, etc. If need be, set up a roster with the child’s group
of friends stating whose turn it is to choose what to play.
If the child decides that she does not want to play when
it is not her turn to choose the game, explain to her that
it is then also fair for others not to want to play when it is
her turn to choose. Sometimes breaks and lunchtimes will
need to be well supervised for these children to enable
you to explain why certain things may be happening and
why certain children are doing or behaving a certain way.
It is important to know that many children with ASDs do
not understand how to read body language, facial expres-
sions and tones of voice.
I have had to stop games before to explain to children
with ASD that another child is getting upset due to their
rough play, and that I can tell this because of the way
that child is using her voice, or the look on her face or
her whole body language. Once these things are pointed
out to the child she is better able to understand what is
happening.
It is also important to remember that sometimes, the
child may want to spend some breaks on her own, simply
because she wants to do her own thing, and this should
be respected.
Chapter 9
Restraints
This is a controversial topic, but I believe that if restraints

prevent a child harming himself or others, then it is a
good thing to have them in place, provided, of course,
staff are properly trained beforehand.
Some children’s behaviour can be so challenging that
to prevent injury to himself or others, it may be neces-
sary to restrain the child for a short period of time. I have
never yet met any member of staff who likes having to use
this method of behavioural control but at times it seems
the only way if everyone is to be kept safe. Strategies for
Crisis Intervention and Prevention (SCIP) is a safe form
of restraint to be used with children who are no longer in
control of their behaviour. Training can be through the
local council or through in-house training if there are peo-
ple trained to deliver it. Although it is not an ideal course
of action to have to physically restrain a child in this way,
it can be essential if he is in danger of hurting himself or
others due to his inability to control his behaviour.
A problem with using restraint in mainstream schools
is that for mainstream children to witness a child being
restrained can be quite frightening. The likelihood is that
they will then go home and tell their parents what they
have seen which could cause some concern amongst par-
ents and this in turn could then snowball into something
quite serious for the school’s reputation. On the other hand,
59
of course, there is the point that the school is being seen to

include children with special needs and is using safely rec-
ognised measures to ensure that all children are kept safe.
However, if a child needs to be regularly restrained in
a mainstream school, then perhaps mainstream is not the
right place for him in the first place, and this is where it
can be argued that the inclusion policy in the UK is failing.
I have had problems with using restraints when doing
it with another adult who is not confident or totally happy
about using it. This can lead to people getting hurt because
the restraint is not doing what it was designed to do. I
have been bitten numerous times because other restrainers
have not held the child securely and safely. Some staff I
have worked with have felt obliged to undergo the train-
ing, even though they have not felt comfortable about hav-
ing to use it if the need arises. This should never be the case
in mainstream schools. If a member of staff feels unhappy
about using restraint they should be allowed to say ‘No!’
and not have it held against them. The staff should have the
right to refuse.
When using SCIP, I have found that I am able to use
it quite proficiently, (I’ve done it for over 12 years now)
but even now, after the incident is over, the adrenalin rush
goes and there can be a feeling of exhaustion and almost
always that feeling of ‘Could I have done something dif-
ferently?’, ‘Should I have used the restraint when I did or
should I have used it earlier/later?’, ‘Why didn’t I rec-
ognise the antecedents?’ or ‘What were the antecedents
in that incident?’ In every case, I try to learn something
positive about the incident, how I restrained, what the
antecedents were, what I would do differently next time.
Could the incident have been prevented? Nobody has all
the answers to these questions, just know that you did
what you believed to be the safest course of action at the
time and move on from that.
Chapter 10
Role-Play and Puppets
Role-play
At first role-play can be quite intimidating, but lots of
children enjoy it, especially if they get to be the one tell-
ing you what to do. It can be used to help explore prob-
lem-solving: it takes the emphasis of the problem away
from the child and you don’t have to be a drama student
to try it! Role-play with children can be great fun, espe-
cially in small groups or one to one and this can be done
in Behaviour Management sessions or Emotional Literacy
sessions if your school does them. It gives the child time
to practise strategies, and gives you time to allow her to
be the adult while you practise the strategy also. It can be
a very embarrassing thing to do, especially if you don’t
like amateur dramatics but try it out and enjoy the fun.
The child will learn a lot from role-playing these situa-
tions as she is more able to tell you what you should do,
when you play the child’s part in the role-play and she
plays the adult.
Also, it can give them a visual way of seeing how not
to behave. For example, if the child has a problem taking
turns, pretend to play a game, using a dice, and say it is her
turn. Tell her it is role-play and you are not going to re-
ally play the game, but that you are going to do something
61
wrong to see if she can see what it is you do wrong. As she

is about to go, take the dice away and say that you want
a go and proceed to roll the dice and move your counter.
Then ask her how she felt about not being able to have her
turn when it should have been her turn and how others
might feel if they had to keep missing their turn because
someone else kept pushing in and taking a go when it was
not their turn. By taking the initial emphasis away from
her she will be much better able to see what problems not
taking turns can cause.
Role-play can be used for practising many situations
in one-to-one work or small group work. For example,
situations to practise could include asking other children
if they (the child with AS) can join in, visiting another
teacher on an errand, or lining up without pushing in –
especially if she gets to be the person doing it right.
It is often a good idea for you to role-play a situation
and ask the child what you are doing wrong. Suppose
the problem is that the child is constantly calling out and
interrupting in class. You take on the role of the child and
allow her to take on the role of the teacher, perhaps tell-
ing a story to the class. As she starts telling the story, you
keep calling out. The child then tells you what you should
be doing. In doing the role-play like this, you often find
that the child knows what to do in such situations (she
may tell you to wait and put your hand up) but may need
help in achieving it, giving you both the opportunity to
explore strategies further. It could also be another one for
the Strategy Book (see Chapter 18).
Another use of role-play is to act out a situation with
the child being the one that has had an injustice done to
her, and then ask her how she felt about it. For instance:
you and the child are lining up to go into the dinner hall,
and the child is first in the line. You decide you want to
be first in the line and push in front of the child, perhaps
Role-Play and Puppetsâ•‡ /â•‡ 63
telling her ‘I want to go first today!’ Then, sit down with

the child and ask her how it felt to have you pushing in,
when she had been waiting patiently at the front. After
she has told you, ask her how she thinks other people
would feel if she pushed in.
Role-play can be a great way to help prepare the child
for a visit outside school, or another situation, which may
be coming up, for example: a visit to the library, a mu-
seum trip or a theatre group visiting your school to put
on a pantomime.
Puppets
As with role-play, using puppets can be quite a scary
thing for us to try when we first start, as we are never
quite sure how the child/children will react – will she
think we’ve completely lost the plot, not believe in the
character, or will she play along with it? I prefer to use a
puppet in a one-to-one situation where the puppet ‘talks’
only to me, or with a small group of children, again, with
the puppet only ‘talking’ through me. If there are other
puppets available, perhaps after the session, the children
could have a go with them, but try to keep your puppet as
yours, that way, the mystery of its character is still there.
Puppets are particularly good for using with younger
children. They can be used solely by yourself, or as a re-
ward to help the child complete an activity.
Shy puppets can work well with noisy younger chil-
dren (I used a turtle puppet that stayed in his shell if the
child was too noisy or misbehaving) and can encourage a
child to quieten down. Sometimes, just putting a puppet
on the child’s desk may help her to settle and work as she
believes the puppet is watching her. It sounds unbeliev-
able that she can believe this, knowing that it is a puppet,
but if it works, why not give it a go?
When I have used puppets before, I have told the

child that the puppet only talks to me, so making it more
intriguing for her. I have got the puppet to ‘whisper’ in
my ear, making it more believable to the child, that the
character only speaks to me. (It also means that you don’t
have to try your hand at being a ventriloquist!)
Puppets can also be used to discuss some of the prob-
lems a child or children may have – for example, if the
child is having difficulty in the playground, the puppet
could be used in a small group. You could get the puppet
to whisper in your ear that she or he is very sad because
they don’t know how to join in games with others in the
playground. Children in the group could give the puppet
ideas of how to join in and the emphasis is then taken
away from the child with this difficulty. Or maybe the
child in question is too rough and the puppet could then
take on the persona of a child who wants to play roughly.
The children are usually very good, and kind, in giving
advice in this way. Again, it takes the emphasis of the be-
haviour away from the child and enables her to feel less
threatened about the issue being discussed.
Sometimes, the child may not want to talk directly to
you, but will talk to the puppet, even though it is on your
hand. She might want to talk to it about a problem or
worry she has and you can then use a voice for the puppet
to help the child solve the problem.
There are a huge number of puppets on the market but
if money is limited, car boot sales and charity shops are a
great place to start looking for some. Or maybe even your
own attic. Schools often have summer and Christmas fetes
so maybe you could have a stall to raise money for puppets,
or maybe the Parent Teacher Association, or your school’s
equivalent, could allocate some money from monies raised
at such events to go towards purchasing your puppets.
Chapter 11
Worksheets and
Word Searches
There are many books on the market available to assist

with Behaviour Management sessions. However, some-
times it can be possible to make up your own individual
ones adapted for a specific child, for example, using the
computer, create a table to make your own word searches
using words that are relevant to your child. (There are
also websites where you type in the words you want to
use, the size of the word search and it makes it up for you!
Try typing ‘blank word search’ into the search engine.)
These can be used for Behaviour Management sessions or
time-out, fun activities. For example, if your child has a
special interest in Pokémon, put his favourite characters
in a word search. It is literacy related! These can be a way
for the child to calm down and refocus.
Worksheets don’t have to be boring either, so try to
make them fun and interesting to read and do. When
printing them off the computer, you could put a small
colour picture on to brighten them up. Put cloze state-
ments in them. A cloze sentence is where part of the text
is missing and the student is required to put in the miss-
ing word. For example:
65
The child wore a _____ on his head to keep his head

warm.
On a worksheet of cloze statements, the missing words
may be listed in a jumbled order at the top of the page.
Or maybe you could put the answers in anagrams for the
child to rearrange. For example:
1. You use this to help you calm down – YS-
GTTREA KOOB
The answer you want him to find is ‘Strategy Book’. It
just makes the learning more fun and helps him to con-
centrate for slightly longer periods of time, as well as re-
inforcing his learning.
2. You use these to help you stay out of
trouble – GRAEN LUSRE
The answer is ‘anger rules’. You can use the things you
have been working on, and if he finds that too easy, try
some anagrams for things you are going to be working
on.
You can also make up question worksheets about a
particular problem, using another name for the child. (I
asked the child I was working with what name he would
like me to use for the character.) So, if George, for exam-
ple, has a problem queuing for the dinner hall, make a
worksheet saying something like this:
It was lunchtime and Addy really disliked
having to wait for his dinner. He always used
to push to the front of the queue and other
children got really cross with him. Write
some strategies for Addy to help him learn
how to queue like the other children. Talk
about how you think the other children could
help Addy.
Chapter 12
Acronyms
Acronyms are a fun way of helping a child to realise her

behaviours in a private sort of code. I have worked with
several students with AS who have a problem with being
bossy, which upsets other children and makes her less ap-
proachable by peers. Bossiness is a word everyone seems
to understand. I had noticed that a particular child did
not like being called bossy and it often made her more
upset if someone called her that. So, during a Behaviour
Management session, I mentioned to this pupil that I felt
she not only had AS (which, incidentally, she already
knew) but that I thought she had MOSS. She looked at
me, puzzled, and then asked ‘What’s that?’ I explained
that it was Member Of Staff Syndrome, where a student
thinks she is a staff member and therefore feels she has
to tell others what to do. She laughed at this and from
then on, instead of being called bossy, staff would say
‘Are you having MOSS today?’ to which she would smile
and reply that she wasn’t, and ultimately she stopped the
bossy behaviour. She would also point out to us when she
thought other children were having a ‘MOSS’ day!
Another acronym I have used is PTB days. These are
when the child is having a day where she is Pushing The
Boundaries, often when a supply teacher is in or the child
is working with new staff or pupils, or with a member of
staff she knows will not be firm with her. It was a code
67
that the child and staff understood and the other children
were eager to understand but were only told if the child
with the problem agreed to divulge to peers what the
code meant. Not telling the other children maybe made
her feel special, that she knew something the other chil-
dren didn’t. I would not have a problem with her keeping
our code a secret – these children are often made to feel
like outcasts and if it makes them feel special then it’s
surely worth trying, but I would let other staff know what
the code was.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell the difference be-
tween the AS behaviour and the average naughty child
behaviour and there is a difference. During times when I
have felt that the child was opting out because she didn’t
want to do the task as opposed to not being able to, I
have called these Double O days or OO days – Opting
Out days. Again, the child has understood that there is a
difference and one particular child has even told me when
it’s a Double O day!
Perhaps you and the child you are working with can
come up with your own acronyms.
Part III
Dealing with
Feelings
Chapter 13
Anxieties
The anxieties of a child with AS can be more severe than

the average child, due to the way he perceives the world
around him. It is therefore our job to help lessen those
concerns for him and we can do that in a number of ways.
Initially, we need to start to build a positive relation-
ship with him. This can be by doing fun activities, per-
haps during breaktimes, such as a board game or reading
a book or favourite comic together, and this time can be
built into the timetable so that you both get the chance to
get to know each other better. Allow the child to choose
the activity but also make sure that he goes along with
your ideas for an activity too. This will help him when
turn-taking with peers.
It may be that the child has anxieties about certain ar-
eas in school, perhaps the school hall or the library. This
can be eased by taking photos around the school of all
the areas, ones that cause anxieties and ones that do not,
and making a kind of scrap book or photo album with the
pictures. Together you could type a few sentences about
each photo, and take occasional trips to the rooms when
they are quiet to get the child used to the room. Perhaps
he could show the album to his class or to a new child at
the school. This would help build his confidence and self-
esteem. Visit the different classes or rooms with the child
at various times of the day, perhaps for trivial things like
71
collecting a book, or delivering a written message (pos-

sibly prearranged by you) to someone in the room, just
so he gets used to going into that room and can see that
nothing bad is going to happen.
It may be that the child is anxious about certain
members of staff. In this case, arrange a time when the
child can have an informal chat with the staff member
and talk about fun things, like their pets or hobbies. This
allows the child to see the member of staff as something
other than this person he is afraid of. It may be the person
has a moustache (worrying if it is a female teacher!) or is
very tall or has a loud or deep voice or that he or she just
reminds him of someone else. It could be any number
of things and by having an informal chat with the staff
member it can help to lessen the child’s concerns.
Chapter 14
Managing Anger
with Exercise
As I have said, many children with ASDs may also have

another diagnosis attached, such as ADHD. I have found
that, on occasions, these children can benefit from getting
extra exercise to help them calm down and focus more
easily. Exercise can also help reduce physical incidents.
If you imagine a child who can regularly go from being
very calm (let’s call that a ‘0’) to very angry (let’s call that
a ‘10’) within seconds, then by the time she has reached
the ‘10’ stage she has completely lost control and is in-
capable of listening to anything you say. It is therefore
futile to try to reason or redirect her at this stage and you
will have to wait until she has calmed down to discuss
anything with her. However, if you build some form of
physical exercise into her daily programme (preferably in
the mornings) when she does get cross, it takes her longer
to reach a level 10, therefore giving you a bit more time
to redirect her or reason with her before she totally loses
her self-control.
If the child is becoming over-excited before a lesson
or seems to have a surplus amount of energy, why not take
her outside onto the playing field and let her run around
the track for five minutes to burn some of it off? It may be
73
that there is a set time of day when she has extra energy
and is unable to sit quietly to do work without disrupting
the other children. In this case you could make exercise
part of her daily routine. So, for example, if the child is
unsettled before maths each morning, build it into her
timetable that she has a ten-minute run before each maths
lesson. If she does not like running, how about skipping,
or a musical aerobic-type exercise or using a hoop around
the waist and keeping it up or kicking a football back and
forth to you?
It may be that there are several children who could
benefit from this type of energy release and it could be
used for a group of students for five or ten minutes each
time.
There are also many smaller exercises that children can
do to help them remain on task and again, these can be
used for more than one child. They are called Brain Gym®
activities (see www.braingym.org.uk for information) and
many schools now use them for whole classes, particularly
for the younger children. They involve stopping the class,
if they have become a bit fidgety for example, and doing
tasks like standing up behind a chair in silence, writing
their name in the air with the right index finger, then the
left index finger, an elbow, a knee and finally with their
bottom. It’s a fun way to help the children refocus. After
several different exercises like these (and there are books
out there on a wide range of Brain Gym activities) the
children then return to their work and are better able to
concentrate.
There is also training on Brain Gym exercises and
maybe this is something that your school could look
into (details can be found by putting Brain Gym in the
computer search engine). They are great fun to try yourself
and see what your co-ordination is like!
Managing Anger with Exerciseâ•‡ /â•‡ 75
If exercise is not an option but the child is becoming

increasingly unsettled, try redirecting her attention
elsewhere. You could use one of her Space Cards (see
Chapter 19) to call her out of class and get her to run an
errand such as taking the register back to the main office,
or holding some work while you put it up on a display
board, or even helping to tidy the PE cupboard. These are
all just ideas that I have used and that have worked, but
adapt them to suit your child, yourself and your school.
Get your imagination working. It’s fun.
Chapter 15
Emotions – The
Feelings Book
The Feelings Book is a cheap exercise book and can have

a smiley face and a sad face coloured on the front of it.
Inside, you put the date and leave the book where the child
knows they can find it. It is a private book for you and
him to use to communicate. Like most of us, sometimes the
child with AS does not feel able to verbalise his feelings.
Therefore, the idea of this book is to allow him to draw a
picture of a sad or smiley face in the book each morning
or afternoon to show how he feels. If he draws a sad face
it means that he is not happy that day for whatever reason
and therefore it would be a good idea to take him out for
a chat. Some staff may not think this is a good idea, as the
child will miss part of the lesson. But surely it is better to
sort the child’s worries and concerns as early as possible
before they escalate.
If the child is unable to tell you verbally what is wrong,
encourage him to draw, or write, what is troubling him.
You can give him confidence by allowing him to know
that it is safe for him to tell you what is wrong, and by not
telling him off when he does. For example, if the child
tells you he is upset because he hit his sister that morning,
and then Mummy told him off and took his computer
76
Emotions – The Feelings Bookâ•‡ /â•‡ 77
game away, don’t tell him that you would have done the
same if your child had behaved like that, even it is true.
Tell him that there are other ways of dealing with issues,
and reinforce the Behaviour Management strategies and
Anger Rules (see p.46). Give him other alternatives to
think about if the sister upsets him again. What he needs
from you is support and guidance, not for you to be their
parent or carer. They have them already.
It may also be said that maybe all children need time
for this, but my point is that the behaviours of the child
with AS can become quite extreme if he feels that he is
not being understood, or cannot work out a way to deal
with his anxieties alone, whereas the average child is able
to wait and put his feelings on hold a while, perhaps until
breaktime.
Sometimes, just the fact that the child is unhappy can
be the antecedent, which, if not addressed soon enough,
can escalate into a full incident. Why put yourself and the
child through a bad day just because you didn’t spend a
few minutes finding out how he was feeling that morning?
Part IV
Ideas for Visual

Learners
Chapter 16
Visual Learners
Many children with an ASD have poor auditory process-

ing skills and benefit from visual cues. Some children
prefer to see their daily timetable in pictorial form, as
shown in Figure 16.1, as it aids their comprehension of
the activities for the day.
English Maths Breaktime
Geography Science Lunchtime
PE Storytime Hometime
Figure 16.1 Example of a timetable in pictorial form
81
The timetable can be made up using pictures from clipart

on the computer, using photographs taken at the school,
or by using a specific computer programme for visual
timetables, such as Communicate In Print (www.widgit.
com/inprint). The pictures and timetable will last longer
if laminated. Each picture should be cut out as a separate
piece and Velcro stuck on the back. In each square of the
timetable should be stuck the opposite pieces of Velcro
to attach the lesson pictures when in use. If it is used by
the whole class, the timetable could be a monitor’s job to
change on a daily basis.
Other visual cues can include clearly and concisely
written class rules, rules for games, or reminders of what
to put in their school bag each morning which can help
develop their independent organisational skills.
Chapter 17
Oops! Cards
Many children with AS find change extremely difficult to

cope with. This is where the Oops! Card can come into
play. I had never heard of these before going on a course
about AS when I was told about a school that had used
them with their children. I immediately went back and
we tried them out and they proved to be very effective.
Again, they can be made up on the computer to your own
design and are used by the adult but the child could be
involved, if you so choose. They are useful for all children
in the classroom, not just the child with AS. If you decide
on using the Oops! Card, maybe you could take the child
out of class for a short time and he could help design the
card. He might then be keener to see it used effectively.
For example, see Figure 17.1.
Figure 17.1 Example of an Oops! Card
83
These cards can be used if there is a change to the timeta-

ble, or if there is a change to staffing or if an unexpected
visitor is arriving which had not been scheduled. This
allows the child time to understand that something is not
going to be the same that day. An Oops! Card is used on
a visual timetable by putting it in the place of the activ-
ity that will not be happening. This can be placed on the
timetable by the teacher, or by the child with AS at the
request of the teacher or TA. If there is more than one
change to the day’s activities it may be necessary to use
more than one Oops! Card on the timetable at the same
time. If the teacher or TA chooses, they can involve the
child in displaying the cards on the white board, giv-
ing him a monitoring role and giving his self-esteem a
boost. If there is a change to the afternoon timetable then
display the Oops! Card as early as possible so the child
can use his strategies to enable him to deal with the situ-
ation more effectively. It may be easier for the child to be
taken aside and told of the changes verbally before asking
him to display the Oops! Card and the teacher telling the
rest of the class of the change. This is a strategy that can
help everyone in the class, including the staff! Remember
though, that all these strategies will take time to get used
to so don’t get upset if they don’t work every time. Some-
times, we ourselves have to adapt our own strategies in
life and this is no different for the child with AS.
Chapter 18
The Strategy Book
Children with an ASD may have difficulty, as we may all

have at times, understanding different ways to do things
which may be more appropriate and acceptable. There-
fore, the Strategy Book can be a cheap and effective way
to show them.
The book shows the child that she has other choices
than using an unacceptable behaviour. A child with AS
(and some without) is not always able to understand ini-
tially that there are other ways to solve a problem, other
than to lash out, and is often keen to be taught other ways
and be shown other ideas. Eventually, the plan should be
that the child herself can come up with her own ideas and
strategies, initially writing them in her book, then, over
time, adapting them and being confident and competent
enough to think one through and use it without the need
to see it visually on paper.
So, bearing all that in mind and using a cheap exercise
book (every school should have one somewhere), draw a
shape in the middle of the page. If, for example, the prob-
lem is that the child has hit someone when she was cross
with him or her, write in the middle of the shape an alter-
native statement, such as: ‘Instead of hitting someone when
I am angry, I could…’ Then draw lines, usually about three
or four, out from the shape in different directions. For each
line, help the child to think of a different way she could
85
have managed the situation better. Initially, she may not

know any other way than to lash out, in which case it will
be down to you to give the child some strategies.
This will then form a visual strategy the child can
refer to each time the situation arises. The child must be
allowed full access to the book at all times, either at her
table or in her quiet area. Each time a new problem arises,
add another strategy page to the book. For examples, see
Figure 18.1.
Instead of hitting
my brother I could
walk away tell Mum
find something
ignore him
else to do
Instead of shouting
at other children
I could
tell a member of
walk away staff so they can
help
count to ten ignore them
Figure 18.1 Examples of pages in a Strategy Book

The Strategy Bookâ•‡ /â•‡ 87
The child can even decorate the cover and colour in each
shape as it gets filled, so it feels more personal to her. Col-
ouring with coloured pencils (felt pens often go straight
through to the next page) can also be a relaxing and calm-
ing activity. It may be that several problems arise at once.
This is not a problem, it just means drawing more shapes
for each problem in the book.
The main picture does not have to be a shape. I am
not particularly artistic, favouring matchstick men to bod-
ied characters, and so I chose a shape but if the child
you are working with likes dinosaurs and you, or she, are
artistic and happy to take the time to draw the outline
of a dinosaur, then try that. Or maybe they like bouncy
castles, then you could draw a bouncy castle with the
towers at the top, which could point to the strategies. The
possibilities are endless. If the child likes sport, you could
draw different types of sports balls, or if she likes nature,
draw some flowers with the strategies in the petals. Be
creative and work with the child – it’s great fun and can
help keep you young!
I have worked with children who have had over 40
strategies in their book, for things like:
Instead of spitting, I could…
Instead of picking my nose in public, I could…
If I do not understand my work in class, I
could…
If two people give me different instructions
at the same time, I could…
Instead of swearing, I could…
If there is a supply teacher in class, I could…
If my brother upsets me before I come into

school, I could…
If I am sad, I could…
If I am worried about something, I could…
When there is a change in my timetable, I
could…
…and many others.
Then, as she becomes more adept at using different strate-
gies, she will get to a stage where they are all covered by
one strategy:
Use my strategies without prompts.
One of the strategies I worked on with one child was:
‘Instead of swearing, I could … say the word in my head.’
I asked the girl if she could try that using some role-play,
bearing in mind she had recently used the ‘f ’ word in the
playground. She said that she didn’t think she would be
able to do that. I told her to give it a try, and to imagine
I had upset her and to swear at me in her head, but not
let the words come out of her mouth. As I looked at her,
her face and mouth went very rigid, her cheeks puce, her
eyebrows furrowed and her eyes bore into mine, but she
said nothing. I then asked her if she had just sworn at me
and she smiled and said ‘Yep’. I then congratulated her for
using a new strategy and told her that although she had
sworn at me it had not come out of her mouth and there-
fore, since she hadn’t actually said it, I couldn’t tell her
off for it. A strategy some adults could do with learning!
Knowing and testing a child’s abilities to problem
solve can be a case of trial and error. We can help empow-
er children by enabling them to understand ways to react
to anger that are more appropriate and they are likely to
The Strategy Bookâ•‡ /â•‡ 89
be more willing to try as they trust us to be right. This is

where the real test of the Strategy Book comes in.
After working with a child for over a year, she was
extremely rude to me and then demanded I help her. I
told her that I had no intention of helping her until she
had put right the fact she had upset me. She shouted at
me that she didn’t know how. I then silently handed her
her Strategy Book as she sat under a tree in the school
grounds. I walked away, but watched her from a distance.
After reading through all her strategies, she shouted ‘That
was no help, there’s not one in there for that!’ I briefly
told her to adapt one of them. After several minutes flick-
ing through her book, she called out, very calmly ‘OK,
I need some card and some crayons though.’ I gave her
what she required and sat back and waited. Some time
later, she came out from under the tree and handed me a
hand-made card, which said ‘Sorry for being rood’ (rude).
This was the first time she had adapted one of the strat-
egies for a slightly different problem and we discussed
how well she had done in achieving that and reinforced
that strategies could be adapted if necessary.
Chapter 19
Cards and Rewards
Cards are another cheap but effective resource.

Firstly, the Space Card: so called as it refers to the
child being given space and often has the picture symbol
of something relating to space, such as an astronaut or
planet, or a field or an ocean. This card is adult initiated.
The cards can be laminated and should be about the size
of a credit card so they are able to fit in pockets. If the
child does not like astronauts, then a picture of a field
with a rabbit or pony in could be used instead. These can
be made up on the computer, put onto card and laminated.
Figure 19.1 shows examples of pictures you could use.
Figure 19.1 Examples of Space Cards
90
Cards and Rewardsâ•‡ /â•‡ 91
Each member of staff working with the child should have

their own Space Cards that the child can recognise. They
may all have the same picture on them or there may be a
different picture on each card, but ensure the child knows
what the different pictures are when you make them so he
knows that when they are used it is for him to take time-
out. For example, if planets are used, there may be one card
with a picture of Venus on and another of Jupiter on.
These cards can be used to redirect a child and can
also be a way of earning a reward. If the child is becom-
ing cross, the teacher or TA can hold a Space Card up and
alert the child to the fact it is being shown. It may be a
case of calling the child’s name, though not at the top of
your voice in front of the whole class, or just placing it on
the table in front of him. The idea is that the child calmly
goes to the person holding the card and is spoken to in
order to find a solution to what is troubling him. It may
be that the member of staff asks him to go to his bay for
some time-out. If the child responds appropriately to the
card and goes to the member of staff then he earns his
reward, whatever that may be. Remember, rewards do not
have to be expensive. It may be that the child likes comput-
ers. Therefore, it may be that you make up a card with 20
pictures of a computer on, and each computer has to have
an earned sticker (or stamp) on. When the child has earned
20 stickers or stamps for responding to the Space Card be-
ing used, he can go, for example, on the computer for 20
minutes and play a game of his choice. It may be that he
loves playing football, in which case the card could have
20 balls on and once each ball has an earned sticker or
stamp on, the child has earned 20 minutes playing football
with a friend during lesson time. What better incentive for
him to achieve than that! Some cereal packets still give free
gifts in them and these could be used as rewards. Get the
rest of the staff to collect them too.
To get the child to respond to the cards to start with,

it is important that they are seen as a positive thing. For
example, use one to get the child to receive praise for a
piece of work, or perhaps just to return the register, or ask
him a question about his choice of reading book. Always
ensure he receives his sticker to put on his card to enable
him to achieve his reward, whether it is for responding to
a positive thing or responding to the card when he is up-
set. And always remember to make sure he gets his reward
when he has earned it so he can see the result of his good
behaviour and, again, trusts that you will do what you say.
Then there is the Referee Card or Time Out Card. This
is a card of similar size but is child initiated. It doesn’t
have to be called a Referee Card and the child could de-
cide what he wants to call it. Again, the design of the card
could be changed to suit the child, for example, use pink
card for a girl if they feel the card is not girly enough.
Again, these can be made up on the computer, using
a picture symbol, or using pictures from a comic or maga-
zine. One child I worked with wanted pictures of Rugby
World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson (I was quite happy with
his choice too!) and we managed to get some from the
internet, stuck them each onto a piece of card and laminat-
ed them. Make sure you have enough spare copies in case
they get lost, or left at home. For examples, see Figure 19.2.
These cards are child initiated, for when he requires
help, wants some time-out or needs to talk to the teacher
or TA. There may or may not be a reward for these but
if there are too many rewards available they become less
effective.
Cards and Rewardsâ•‡ /â•‡ 93
Figure 19.2 Examples of Time-Out Card and Referee Card
The child may need reminding to always have a card in

his pocket or available at his table. Therefore, it is useful
to have a good supply handy in case he forgets or loses
them and get into the habit of checking with the child
each morning that he has a card in his pocket or pencil
case.
We had several different pictures of Jonny but the
child knew that each card was for the same thing – get-
ting our attention in an appropriate way.
For these cards to be used effectively, you might con-
sider seating the child as near to the door as possible so
he has a quick and easy exit route to go for his time-out
and the adult can then follow. If the child has to manoeu-
vre past a member of staff or their peers, in order to gain
exit, he could become more anxious due to being more
noticed and this in turn could disrupt the rest of the class.
This is a simple, but effective, strategy to put in place
right from the start.
Chapter 20
Sand and Egg Timers
Sand timers or egg timers can often be found in amongst

the maths resources and can be used effectively for timing
an activity the child finds difficult. If you do not have any
in school, egg timers in all sorts of shapes can be found
quite cheaply at car boot fairs or yard sales.
They are visual and the child can understand that time
is moving. They can be bought for various times, for ex-
ample, 30 seconds, one minute, five minutes and ten min-
utes. If, for example, a child never attends music, tell her
that she is required to do so for five minutes in the next
music lesson. After she has done that, she can leave and
go to her bay. She could do another activity, or this may
be a good time to do a Behaviour Management session
(see Chapter 6).
Sand or egg timers can also be used for when the child
needs some time-out from a game, for example. So, if the
child is becoming unsettled in a playground game with
their peers, suggest she goes to an area, not necessarily
her bay, and uses a sand or egg timer. When the sand has
run through, or the timer pings, and provided the child
has calmed down, she can then return to the game. This
could be used for all the children in the game as it may
not be just the child with AS who is getting over-excited,
as many school-children are unable to cope with losing in
a game and may become cross and unsettled. If the timers
94
Sand and Egg Timersâ•‡ /â•‡ 95
are used for activities like this it can show the child that
she is being treated the same as her peers.
A well-used statement I have heard, and used myself
successfully, is: ‘When you have done this, then you can
do that.’ The use of the sand timers is great for such times.
Often, a child cannot see the point of doing a par-
ticular piece of work, for example she may not see the
point in doing maths. The trick is to try to find a practical
reason for doing the activity, such as learning how to tell
the time. If she can’t tell the time she will be late getting
to work when she is older, then she won’t be able to earn
enough money for those nice things she likes to eat. Or,
if reading is a problem, find a topic she is interested in.
Many children do not like this activity, but without being
able to read how will she know if she is buying the cor-
rect things in the supermarket, or whether her favourite
TV programme is on that week, or if she has been invited
to a party or won a competition or know what her latest
certificate is for?
A child I worked with absolutely loathed reading and
avoided it as much as she could. So I brought in the sports
pages of a national newspaper, which had been covering
the Rugby World Cup (which she and I were doing a
project on during lunchtimes), and she read some of the
reports without actually realising she was reading! An-
other good way to get children reading is to show them
the Guinness World Records book, which is full of small
fascinating facts. Just flick through and get the child to
read a piece about something that interests her. Again, use
the five-minute sand or egg timer to start with.
Chapter 21
The Home/
School Diary
This is a very important, yet cheap, resource that can

be made in school and adapted for each child. It allows
communication between the parents and school about the
child. It is a book that goes home every evening and is
returned to school each morning. The staff dealing with
the child throughout the day enter relevant comments in
it. It may be that the child does not like what has been
written in it, particularly if it has comments about his
negative behaviour in it. So it may be that instead of it be-
ing put into his school bag, on some days it might be best
to hand it to whoever is collecting the child from school.
Many children, not just children with AS, are often
unable to understand that parents and school staff com-
municate about them. Therefore, there can be a tendency
for the child to play one off against the other. With the
use of the Home/School Diary this can be minimised. It
builds a relationship, and understanding, between the par-
ents and staff dealing with the child. It means that both
sides can inform the other of difficulties and achievements
on a daily basis, with both being able to support the other
and sometimes advise on how they have dealt with par-
ticular problems. At this point, I would like to point out
96
The Home/School Diaryâ•‡ /â•‡ 97
that the children who I have seen progress the most are
those whose parents work with the school and where the
school works with the parents. If they disagree, they must
do it out of earshot of the child as this will only add to his
anxieties. Figure 21.1 is an example of a primary school
child’s Home/School Diary.
The parent comment can go at the start or end of the
page. Both school and parents need to acknowledge what
the other is saying.
If you are working with an older child, then you could
make the diary look more like a Filofax by adding dif-
ferent sections. For example, a section for school notes,
another for the parents’ notes and a further section for the
child’s notes. Again, it is simple enough to make, it just
takes a little thought and time. TAs should be allowed time
to prepare resources during their normal working day.
This is an excellent way to communicate, along with
regular parental meetings, which can also be beneficial,
particularly if the parents are not very literate or the teach-
ing staff are not very clear in their handwriting. This could
be done on a particular day each week when the teacher/
TA can explain how the child is doing to the parent and
each could exchange ideas and thoughts. The child may be
invited in for some of the meeting to give his views.
The idea of these meetings and the diary is that the
child understands that everyone is working at trying to
help him to achieve his full potential.
ACTIVITY Staff comments SIGNED BY
Register Settled well and came up with Mr A

good ideas for Brain Gym activity
Assembly Fidgeted but managed to stay in Miss B
for half the time. Good progress.
Lessons 1 and 2 Started well. Problem over hand- Mr A
writing but used Referee Card
and took herself out to her bay.
Returned and completed work.
Breaktime Played alone as did not want to Miss B
play what others were playing.
This is an area we need to work
on so she can make friends.
Lessons 3 and 4 Worked really hard in maths Mr C
and earned a credit for complet-
ing her work and for it being so
neat.
Lunchtime Was brought in for being too Miss B
rough. We talked about how
we could change this behaviour
so that she would enjoy breaks
more.
Lesson 5 During Behaviour Management, Miss B
we talked about how she could
make more friends. New strategy
in book.
Breaktime Wanted to walk round and chat Miss B
with me so we chatted about our
weekends.
The Home/School Diaryâ•‡ /â•‡ 99
Lesson 6 Seemed to enjoy DT but got Mr A

cross when unable to use equip-
ment as others were there first.
Space Card used and she calmed
quickly.
Parent Com- Have suggested G having a Mum
ments friend home for tea as we
thought this might help with
the friendship/turn-taking prob-
lems. Any ideas who might be a
good choice?
Figure 21.1 Example of a Home/School Diary

Chapter 22
The Good Book
Children with AS often have very low self-esteem and put

a lot of pressure on themselves to get things right every
time and without making any mistakes. Quite often they
have been bullied by peers, or adults, due to their lack of
understanding of the social world around them, where
others have failed to appreciate just how difficult this ac-
tually is for them. They may also have been told they
are stupid, or bad, whereas it would have been better for
others to have labelled their behaviour, not them. They
develop low self-esteem and are reluctant to understand
that they do actually do a lot of things right.
This is where the Good Book comes in. Again, an-
other exercise book, and by now you may be thinking,
‘Crikey, where are we going to keep all these books and
surely it will be confusing for the child to have them all?’
If you introduce them all at once then it probably will
be. However, each book is a very important one and each
serves its own purpose.
Allow the child to decorate the book with pictures of
their choice: fast cars, footballers, flowers, dinosaurs, etc.
– as it is their Good Book. If you have some sticky-backed
plastic to cover it in, so much the better, as it will help to
preserve this valuable self-esteem boosting book.
Every day, put the date in the book. At the end of
every day, under the date, write something good that the
100
The Good Bookâ•‡ /â•‡ 101
child has done that day. Even if the child has had a foul
day, there is always something she has done well. It could
be that she hung her coat on her peg when she came
into school that morning. The fact that she then caused
mayhem in school the rest of the time and had to be sent
home is irrelevant. The fact is, she had done something
well and it needs to be recorded. Often, a child with AS
feels very negative about herself and her poor behaviour,
and she is unable to see the good in herself. This book
helps her to see that, actually, she is doing a lot of things
right.
Never, ever, put negative comments in this book. It is
a book to boost her self-esteem and morale and is some-
thing that the child can look at when she is taking time
out, feeling sad or just wants to feel good.
It may seem that this, and the other resources and
ideas are time consuming, but if your school policy has
anything in it about ‘helping everyone to achieve their
full potential’ then surely they are worth trying and giv-
ing a little bit of time to.
Over time, this book becomes a catalogue of events
that are all about the child doing things the right way.
So, no matter how bad a day the child seems to have had,
there will always be at least one thing she has done right.
For another example, she may come into school and push
past others in the cloakroom, then shout at people and
swear at someone, but she may have only used one swear
word today, whereas yesterday she used three. It doesn’t
take long to build up the contents in this book but if, one
day, you are stuck for something to write in it, ask your
peers if they have seen the child doing something positive
today – the dinner lady, teachers, secretary, and mainte-
nance man. Table 22.1 is an example of what the inside
of a Good Book could look like:
Table 22.1 Example of a section from a Good Book

12th July Gill only called out once in class today which is a great
improvement.
13th July Gill waited in the lunch queue today with the rest of
her class.
14th July Gill stayed in for ten minutes of assembly this morning,
which is five minutes more than she has ever managed
before. Huge progress.
15th July Gill played nicely with two children during morning
break and they both want to play catch with her at
break again tomorrow.
16th July When another child accidentally pushed into Gill at
breaktime and apologised, Gill smiled and said it was
OK.
17th July Gill played a board game with another child today and
took turns equally. She also let the other child throw
the dice first.
As with the Strategy Book, the child could decorate it

with pictures cut out of magazines or drawings if she
wants to personalise it, again during Behaviour Manage-
ment sessions. It is a nice tool for a child to look at when
she is feeling down about herself or her recent behaviour,
and serves as a visual reminder to show her that she does
manage to do good things every day. Not only is it posi-
tive for the child and staff to see this book get longer and
longer as more things are added, but it is a good tool to
show parents as well. Quite often they have had a lot of
negative feedback about their child so to have someone
make a point of finding something positive about their
child can be a huge boost for them, showing them that
their child is making some progress.
Chapter 23
Visual Conversations
Another powerful tool for visual learning is visual conver-

sations. These are a way to show a child or young adult
that something is not right and to let him see it without
the initial emphasis being on him.
I learned how to use visual conversations at a special
school I worked at. They are an excellent way of enabling
the child to see a situation through an observer’s eyes and
therefore gain a better understanding of how others view
his behaviours. The aim is to get the child to recognise
the behaviour without any blame being put in his direc-
tion – once he can understand how others behave and
how his behaviour is viewed by others, then he is better
able to understand the impact his own behaviour has on
the people around him. Here is an example of one visual
conversation held.
The child I was working with had been having prob-
lems with outbursts and other children had been upset
about them. I had a small white board and pen and drew
a picture (Figure 23.1) on the board whilst he was look-
ing around the room at others. He was an inquisitive
child and, though I had said nothing, he was interested
to know what I was doing. He watched as I drew (not my
forte!) and asked what it was.
103
Figure 23.1 Visual conversation: Picture 1
I told him that the little girl in the picture had had an
argument at home before breakfast and had come into
school really upset and angry that morning, but she
didn’t tell anyone. I told him that she went into class,
and found the children were doing Design and Technol-
ogy. Immediately, the boy folded his arms across his chest
and said quite firmly, ‘Well, I don’t think that was a safe
thing to do with tools around.’ I told him she was still
really cross and left the room and went and found a class
that were doing PE. The little girl took their ball away. I
asked the boy what he thought the other children in the
PE group would have been feeling. He huffed a bit and
shook his head and said, ‘Well, they’d be upset because
they wouldn’t be able to play their game because they no
longer have a ball and they only get PE twice a week.’ At
this stage I sensed that he was getting cross at this girl’s
behaviour. I then told him that after she had thrown the
Visual Conversationsâ•‡/â•‡105
ball away, the girl had gone into an art class and torn up
a picture another little girl had painted for her mummy.
I told him that the girl with the painting, and her friend,
had watched the other girl tear her painting up. I asked
what he thought the little girl and her friend would think.
He replied, ‘Well, the girl would be really upset because
she had spent a lot of time doing a picture for her mum
and her friend wouldn’t like seeing her friend upset so she
would be upset too.’ He continued looking at the picture
but moved back a couple of feet. After a few seconds, he
asked, ‘Is that what I’m like?’
From then on, we were able to talk about how his ac-
tions impacted on others and he was able to understand
this because the visual conversation took the ‘blame’ away
from him. He was able to see how someone else’s behav-
iour affected others and was then able to understand his
behaviour better.
Most schools do visits outside in the local commu-
nity and this can be a time when inappropriate behaviours
can be exhibited. Visual conversations can also be used
to show a child how the public view certain behaviours,
again, using the same idea as above.
During a Behaviour Management session, draw a vis-
ual conversation making sure the child is not the person
in it. For example, if you are working with a girl, make
the pictures of boys, or vice versa. Use a problem that can
happen, though not necessarily one that has happened
with this child.
The visual conversation in Figure 23.2 shows a child
pushing another child. Watching what is happening is an
old man across the street.
Figure 23.2 Visual conversation: Picture 2
Your conversation could be something like this:

Some school children are out in the local
high street doing a survey with the rest of
their class and teachers. Child A wants to do
the writing for their group but Child B had
been chosen by the rest of the group to do
the writing. Child A was not happy with this
and, when the teacher wasn’t looking, pushed
Child B to the ground. Child A did not notice
the old man across the street watching them.
•â•¢ What do you think the old man (and anyone else
who was around) was thinking?
•â•¢ How did Child A’s behaviour reflect on the school?
•â•¢ What do you think the man thought of Child A?
•â•¢ What do you think the old man did? (Phone the
school, phone the police, etc.)
Visual Conversationsâ•‡/â•‡107
•â•¢ How do you think Child B would feel, after the

rest of the group had voted for him to do the
writing?
•â•¢ How do you think Child A felt?
•â•¢ How do you think the rest of the group felt about
what had happened?
•â•¢ What do you think would happen when they got
back to school?
•â•¢ What could Child A do differently?
•â•¢ What do you think Child A achieved from pushing
the other child?
If the child is unable to come up with relevant answers,
help him by telling him what you think would be the an-
swers. By talking about issues in this way, the child is able
to get another perspective on happenings around him.
Part V
Assessing
Children
with Asperger
Syndrome
Chapter 24
Record Keeping
Once you start working with the child, keep notes,

and clear records, of behaviours shown. Not only is it
beneficial for yourself to look at what behaviours have
occurred and how you or others have dealt with them,
but it is also a good record for the parents. For your part,
it may prove really useful should you decide to do any
training relevant to working with children or attend any
training courses where you could put your views across
and have the paperwork to back up your work and ideas.
As for the parents in the UK, it may be because the parents
want to go for a Statutory Assessment of their child’s
needs in order to get them a Statement of Educational
Needs that will enable the child to have the support they
need in school. Statements are legal documents and what
is stated in them should happen. Unfortunately, some
school staff believe that because a child is academically
able she does not need a statement. I do not necessarily
agree. Children with an ASD have difficulties in social
and communication skills and inflexibility of thought,
and this can be detrimental to their whole well-being if
not acknowledged and worked with. It can also affect
an individual’s adult life – if she has masses of academic
qualifications but she cannot hold down a job or friendship
due to a lack of social and communication skills and her
rigid way of thinking, then the exam results will not
111
necessarily benefit her. Therefore her qualifications were

possibly more for the school’s needs than the child’s.
Schools need to be seeing the child as a whole – not just a
machine to acquire knowledge for tests and exams which
look good in league tables. You are dealing with people,
little people who are vulnerable and need your support in
more than academic ways.
Another common problem, where the school refuses
to accept the parent’s wish for a Statutory Assessment, is
when the child exhibits little or no negative behaviours
in school but does so when she gets home. This can be
because the child has struggled all day at school to be
good and understand what is going on around her. Then
by the time she gets home she is fit to burst with sheer
frustration, and knows that at home, someone under-
stands her needs and understands her enough to accept
her even when she temporarily loses her self-control. Un-
fortunately, parents and siblings often suffer emotionally,
and physically, because of it. Schools should be talking to
parents when parents express this concern. They should
support what they are saying by trying to give the child
an outlet at school to express her worries so that they
can alleviate (1) the child’s anxieties and (2) the stress
this causes at home. It may be that the child is struggling
with the work or finding it too easy, or she has problems
finding suitable friends at breaks and lunchtimes, or that
she is upset by the level of noise around her or in certain
classes, or she could be confused about what is expected
of her as a pupil or as a friend or classmate. Remember,
these children have deficits in social and communication
skills and just because they are quiet and well behaved at
school, it does not mean they are happy or comfortable
with their surroundings. Teaching these children is not
just about teaching them academically, it is about gently
Record Keepingâ•‡/â•‡113
explaining the world around them and how it works. It is

about differentiation which, from the amount of calls I get
at work from anxious parents, is not happening as often
as it should be.
Recording of incident reports

It is a good idea to write reports of incidents that happen
so that you can build a picture of the child’s behaviours.
For me, an incident would be where the child had an out-
burst involving any of the following behaviours:
•â•¢ Verbal abuse (VA): this can be anything from telling
staff to shut up, to swearing.
•â•¢ Physical attack (PA): this can be pushing, hitting,
kicking, throwing an object, spitting, etc.
•â•¢ Absconding (A): when the child leaves school
grounds or the areas where she is allowed.
•â•¢ Non-compliance (NC): when a child deliberately re-
fuses to comply with the instruction of the staff.
•â•¢ Disruptive behaviour (DB): this is when the child’s
behaviour disrupts the learning or activities of
others.
These are just some of the behaviours and your child may
have others that she exhibits which you could put on your
forms. Some people find it easier to type up their reports.
They should always include certain information; this in-
formation can then be used to help determine key areas
of concern.
A few important things to remember when dealing with

incidents
•â•¢ Don’t take them personally: although the child is
upset and you are dealing with it, it is probably
her understanding of a situation that is making
her upset, not you. Deal with the incident and
move on positively.
•â•¢ If the child is shouting at you to say or do some-
thing, tell her calmly, ‘When you are calm, then
I will talk to you.’ If she continues, repeat your
statement again, calmly, until she is calm. Remem-
ber though, it could take some time for her to
calm down enough for her to stop shouting and
listen. During her shouting episode, remain quiet
and calm, only saying, ‘When you are calm, then
I will speak to you.’ Once she has calmed down,
talk to the child but if she starts to get cross again,
repeat the phrase and walk away a few paces until
she is ready to try again.
•â•¢ It is best if only one person is doing the talking
to the child. If two or more people start saying
things to the child then she can become confused
and more anxious. When she has calmed down
enough to talk reasonably again, then another
person can join the conversation. Ideally though,
let the person dealing with the incident in the first
place deal with it. If you disagree with what that
person has said or done, then discuss it with him
later, not in front of the child, or call him over for
a quiet chat and discuss your concerns.
•â•¢ Know your child: if the child likes spending time
at home, make sure that the behaviour is not just
a ploy to get her parents to pick her up for an

exclusion/suspension. This could reinforce poor
behaviours. If the child does not like being sent
home, then the child is unlikely to use poor
behaviour as a tool to be sent home and therefore
there will be an underlying reason for the
behaviour.
School staff can make up the incident report themselves
and then a supply can be photocopied. They should in-
clude the following information:
•â•¢ Day
•â•¢ Date
•â•¢ Time of incident
•â•¢ Lesson
•â•¢ Type of incident
•â•¢ Pupils involved
•â•¢ Staff involved
•â•¢ Witnesses
•â•¢ What happened?
•â•¢ Why do you think it happened?
•â•¢ What, in your opinion, could be done to prevent
this happening again?
When you have this information, you have the data need-
ed for the graphs to be used at reviews and assessments,
but more of that later.
The members of staff who witnessed the incident
should write their unbiased account of what happened.
By unbiased, I mean that you write exactly what you
saw and heard, not what you interpret it to be and not

why you think it happened. That comes later. Therefore,
you shouldn’t be writing ‘I saw Gill hit Fred because…’
You don’t know the reason Gill hit Fred, you are only
speculating. Unless of course Gill said ‘I’m hitting Fred
because…’ which is highly unlikely.
Try not to speculate about a child’s AS either. For ex-
ample ‘It was due to Gill’s AS that she hit Fred.’ This is
your opinion and, though the incident may be due to
Gill’s AS, it is not necessarily a fact. The AS itself does
not make the child have an incident, but it is the way the
child interprets things, because of her AS, that can make
her unsettled. It is important to remember that the AS is
a condition that can be understood, if we try, and not a
condition that means the child is unwilling to play by the
rules.
You may have ideas as to why it happened, perhaps
Gill had a previous disagreement with Fred in class, or
maybe the two of them never seem to get on. This should
be recorded in the relevant area on the incident report.
An idea to help prevent this kind of incident happening
again may be that Gill and Fred no longer play together,
or that they have mediation to try to help resolve the is-
sue. This could be during a Behaviour Management ses-
sion, perhaps playing a board game or an outdoor game
together, with the staff member present, pointing out the
good things that are happening between them, however
small those things might be.
Pupil views
After a child has had an incident or big issue where staff
have needed to intervene, then it can be a good idea to get
into the practice of taking pupil views. Often this is best
done by someone not directly involved with the incident

as the child may still be cross with the member of staff
who was involved or is dealing with the incident.
Often a child with AS can have a very logical reason
for her actions. It may just be panic and she may not
know what else to do. In that case, strategies could be
useful. It may be that she merely misunderstood what was
happening. It could be that other children are not confi-
dent enough to tell the child that she is too rough and
they don’t like it so the child with AS therefore continues
to behave in that way, unaware that she is upsetting peo-
ple until it is too late.
By taking pupil views, we gain an insight into the
way these children view the world. It can be quite logical
and we need to be able to understand them. Recording
pupil views is a good way of doing that and then helping
them to help themselves. It is also a good way for us to
view our own practice and see how we can help a child
with AS more by the way we do, or say, things.
It is important that, when taking pupil views, it is just
that, and not an interpretation of what you think hap-
pened or what you think the child may be saying. If she
uses a swear word, then write it down. It could be really
relevant. If the child says ‘Charlie called me a bastard’
don’t write: ‘She said the child swore at him.’ It is impor-
tant that you record exactly what is said because the word-
ing is relevant. It could be Charlie calling her a ‘bastard ’
was the key word that was the antecedent to the incident.
That particular word may be a trigger for the child, for
one reason or another, and once that is known, it is easier
to try to defuse problems in the future.
If the views merely state that she was sworn at it could
be misinterpreted and other staff could imagine all sorts
of things that could have been said but they are actually
none the wiser to finding out what the reasons were for
the child to react in the way she did. It’s a bit like gossip,
you’re not quite sure exactly what was said so you fill in
the gaps with your own interpretation and get the truth
completely wrong. Take a look at the two examples below
and see how differently a statement can be interpreted.
Pupil views 1 Child: Gill Ansell

Gill said she was in the classroom and the teacher had asked them
to get their maths workbooks out and this had upset her as Gill
had wanted to do English and then she lost self-control.
Pupil views 2 Child: Gill Ansell

I was sat in class and Mrs Hallett told us to get our maths books
out. Well, I wasn’t having that because we were supposed to have
English and Miss Scott had told us yesterday that we could carry
on writing our stories first thing in English today. We weren’t
meant to be doing maths so I carried on and got my English book
out and started the next part of my story and Mrs Hallett told
me to put it away and when I said ‘no’ she started shouting at
me so I threw the books across the room and left the classroom
and slammed the door on my way out. It’s all her fault and she
shouldn’t be there anyway and she’s an old bat.
The first statement is clearly an interpretation by the adult
as it has been written in the third person, and is a brief
version of what Gill had said; it is not what the child had
actually stated and is therefore not their views. If another
person was reading that statement and trying to discov-
er what led to the incident, it would be very difficult to
glean any real information from it.
However, the second statement is written in the first
person and it contains a lot more information, such as the
following:
•â•¢ Gill was sure they should not be having maths –

why was this?
•â•¢ Gill had been told by another teacher that she
should be having English – why was this?
•â•¢ Gill said that Mrs Hallett had shouted at her –
why did Mrs Hallett do this and was it a regular
occurrence?
•â•¢ Gill has identified that she threw the books across
the room and left the classroom and slammed the
door – Gill is being honest about her behaviour so
it is very likely that she is telling the truth about
the rest of the incident.
•â•¢ Gill said that Mrs Hallett shouldn’t be there any-
way – why did she think that?
•â•¢ Gill clearly does not like Mrs Hallett on this occa-
sion – is this a normal reaction for her toward this
member of staff?
Before writing the child’s statement as in ‘Pupil views 2’
above, I would make it very clear to the child that I want-
ed her to tell me exactly how things happened and that
I was not going to tell her she was right or wrong, that
I needed to be clear about what happened and I would
only write exactly what she told me. This tells the child
that she is being listened to and that what she has to say
is important. After taking a statement, I would re-read it
to the child to see if she agrees this is what she said.
By looking carefully at the information in Gill’s state-
ment, we can see that there are a number of things that
have been highlighted. On further investigation it is
found that Gill’s usual teacher Miss Scott, who had actu-
ally told her the day before that they could continue with
their English during first period, had phoned in sick that

morning. A supply teacher, Mrs Hallett, had been used to
cover Gill’s class that morning. Gill does not like change
anyway and has never been good at accepting supply staff
as she does not know them and therefore feels anxious
because they in turn do not know her, or about her condi-
tion. Gill had not been given any warning that Miss Scott
would not be in and therefore had no time to prepare for
the changes that morning. Gill has had Mrs Hallett for
cover lessons before and Mrs Hallett had not been pre-
warned about Gill’s behaviour or her AS on her first time
at the school so they had a very poor relationship from
the start, sometimes leading to Mrs Hallett raising her
voice to Gill.
Having read both statements and seen the difference,
it is possible to see where Gill’s anxieties arose and get
a better understanding of why she behaved the way she
did. Therefore, it would be easier to prevent such an inci-
dent happening again with a little forethought from staff.
Next time, Gill could be taken aside and told about the
changes to the staff that morning, and the changes to the
lesson. Also, it highlights that Gill and Mrs Hallett have
a negative relationship and maybe something could be
done about that. For example, maybe Gill could tell Mrs
Hallett about some of the things she has been doing in
Behaviour Management to help her to understand her
own behaviour, and to understand that changes do hap-
pen, and maybe Mrs Hallett could apologise for shouting
at Gill and explain that she had not understood why she
was so anxious. I understand that all these things take up
time, but again, we are working in schools because we
want to help children, and by doing these little things,
we could be helping a child in a big way. After all, every
child matters.
Antecedents
Sometimes there appears to be no reason for the incident.
On talking to the child later, when she is calm, it may be
possible for you to understand the incident better and
note little changes to her behaviour prior to the incident.
She may have broken a pencil lead, or her fountain pen
ran out of ink, and this could have just been the final
thing for her that resulted in her lack of control. These
are not necessarily things we would normally notice in
a child as, to the majority of children, a broken pencil
lead or empty fountain pen is just one of those annoying
things that happens sometimes. However, for the child
with AS, it could be one of a catalogue of little things that
have upset her throughout the morning or day and she
might feel that she really can’t deal with any more.
Just imagine this: the child is a few minutes late
getting up and then has to rush her breakfast. Her sibling
is also upset at having to rush and the siblings have a
disagreement. The parent then gets upset with them but
manages to calm them both before school and they arrive
early enough for the start of school. Then, on arrival in
class, the child realises she has forgotten her handwriting
pen, but manages to write with a pen borrowed from
the pencil pot on the table. Then, later, the class move
to another room for their next lesson but the child does
not take the pen with her and there is not a spare one in
the pot on the table now. The teacher asks the children to
get on with their work while she sorts out the overhead
projector, which is making a clicking noise. The overhead
light is also flickering and another child is chatting to you
about the work he is doing. The first thing you notice to
show that something is wrong is when the child throws
the book across the room and starts shouting about how
the work is rubbish. However, for the child, this is not the
start of the incident – it is merely the final thing in a list
of factors that have not gone right that day and she has
been unable to communicate that to you.
When talking to a child after an incident, try not to
get answers before she is really calm. This could lead to
the behaviour escalating again. It may be several hours or
even the next day, before you get to talk to her about it.
Then all you can do is learn from the incident and try to
look out for the antecedents the next time to help prevent
a similar incident.
Children need to know that once an incident is over
and finished it is not going to be brought up again in a
negative way. For example: ‘You did this last month and
you ended up getting yourself into trouble over it.’ This
will only help them to feel negative about themselves and
make them feel they are not progressing. I have brought
up previous incidents when a child has had another similar
incident but dealt with it in another way, but would only
ever do this when the child is calm and open to talking
to me. For example: ‘Do you remember when you had
a problem like this before and you didn’t know how to
deal with it? Well, this problem was like that but you
have learned to deal with it much better so well done.
You are doing really well at learning to manage your own
behaviour.’ She may not have noticed anything positive
in the fact she has had another incident, but pointing
out that she has done something right in spite of it can
only help her fragile self-esteem. Try not to take incidents
personally and remember, it is not the child’s fault, it is
the way her brain is programmed and we can help her
to learn strategies to cope with such issues. In turn, she
can help us to understand AS a little better, so enriching
our lives.
Chapter 25
Graphs
From the details entered on the incident reports it is fairly

easy to make graphs, which highlight certain problem
areas all at once. For example, using a computer spread-
sheet, enter the days of the week that each of the in-
cidents happened over a period of time, for example a
half-term. This can help to see the incident data clearly,
whereas you may just remember the one that involved
you getting a book thrown at you. A graph will clearly
show which days have more incidents and which have
less (see Figure 25.1). Using this information you may be
able to highlight certain factors such as that the incidents
mainly happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays which happen
to be the days the child goes to after-school clubs. This
could be a reason for the incidents and could be brought
up in parent/teacher meetings. Perhaps the child gets re-
ally excited about going or perhaps he hates going but it
could give you an insight as to why the child behaves the
way he does. It may also be easier to notice an anteced-
ent during those days. The parents may know of another
reason for the behaviours on certain days – perhaps it is
the child’s sibling’s turn to choose what to watch on TV
after school, or maybe there are no computer games al-
lowed on certain days. By working together with parents,
we can achieve so much more for the child.
123
Incident Reports
10
9
8
7
6
Number of incidents
5
4
3
2
1
0
ay
ay
y
ay
y
da
id
sd
sd
rsd
on
Fr
ue
ne
hu
M
ed
T
T
W
Days of the week
Figure 25.1 Incident data spreadsheet: Example 1
Remember, you are learning, along with the child, about

how to help him to help himself. If you can intervene in
a positive way before things go wrong, then the child
will have learned another strategy to cope with a certain
situation.
Graphs can also help you determine what behaviours
are most common during incidents (see Figure 25.2).
Incidents3rd
Incidents 3rdJan
Jan––17th
17thFeb
Feb
14
12
10
Number of incidents
0
A bsconding Verbal abuse Physical attack N on- compliance Disruptiv e behav iour
Type of behaviour
Figure 25.2 Incident data spreadsheet: Example 2

Graphsâ•‡/â•‡125
It is clear from the graph in Figure 25.2 that the child’s

behaviour is very disruptive. It may be that, although the
above graph makes it look like there are 36 incidents,
there may have been only 13 (although that is still a
large amount!) because some incidents may have involved
more than one type of behaviour. For example, the child
may have refused to do his work (non-compliance) then
thrown his pencil case, which hit someone else (disrup-
tive behaviour) and then sworn at someone (verbal abuse)
as he ran to get outside and down the school drive (ab-
sconding). By showing the incidents in graph form it is
easier to see which behaviour needs to be worked on first.
It may seem to you that the child has incidents ran-
domly, but on inspection of the graphs, you may be able
to notice trouble spots. For example, he may have most in-
cidents during particular lessons, or at unstructured times
of the day. If this is the case, try to work out why they are
happening and find ways to help overcome that. It could
be that the incidents happen mainly in English classes
– and the reason could be easily sorted by, for example,
sitting him near to the door so he can go to his time-out
area, or ensuring that he understands exactly what the
task is – don’t forget, just because he may be verbally well
spoken, it doesn’t always mean he understands vocabu-
lary as well as you think they might. If it shows up on
the graphs that the times he has most incidents are during
unstructured sessions, for example playtimes and lunch-
times, try to think of strategies to help him – a circle of
friends could help, or a separate play area where he feels
less threatened by everyone else’s noise, etc.
When I have created graphs, I have collated the data
every half-term and have used four each time. These are:
1. Days of the week.

2. Type of behaviour.
3. Activity/lesson.
4. Morning or afternoon (I always do this as a pie
chart).
Over a period of a school year, the graphs can be a use-
ful tool for showing progress (or not as the case may be)
in behaviour. Graphs are also a good tool for showing in
reviews. The child may like to see what progress he has
made and the graphs can help him understand a bit more
about his behaviours and how often he has outbursts. A
child I used to work with liked trying to get fewer in-
cidents the following term after reading his graphs for
the previous term and I would occasionally remind him
how well he was doing as this seemed to help him stay
focused. It could be that the child is given a small reward
if he is able to have fewer incidents in the forthcoming
term. If he does not achieve it, do not make a big thing
out of it, merely move on to the next term with a clean
slate or make the reward for progress in certain lessons he
struggles in so that even if he does not achieve improve-
ment in one subject he can still be rewarded for achieving
in another. Any rewards must be achievable by the child
and over not too long a time.
Part VI
Everything
Else You Need
to Know
Chapter 26
Choices and Standing

Your Ground
Whereas many of us can make choices from a wide range

of things available to us, children with ASD can often
find this difficult and if they have too many choices life
can become more confusing. Also, these children can have
difficulty in understanding language. Therefore, limit the
number of choices you give to the child. For example, if
a child is having lunchtimes inside for the time being,
and you tell her she can do art, or games, or go outside,
or play on the computer, or look at a book, she can be-
come overpowered by the number of choices and so many
things to try to remember. She then becomes anxious and
unsettled as there are too many choices and, because she
may like all the activities offered and she is unsure what to
choose, it could well lead to unacceptable behaviour. So,
it can be better to give her a choice of two things. First of
all, you decide what two things can be offered and sup-
ported well by yourself or other staff. Then give the child
a brief speech.
For example: ‘Joanne, you can have the choice of
painting or going on the computer this lunchtime. Which
would you like to do? Painting or using the computer?’
129
If the child then decides to choose something differ-

ent, perhaps going to games club, I have found it better to
say that perhaps she could do that another day, but today
the choices are painting or time on the computer. By do-
ing this you are enforcing that you are the one giving the
choices and that you are prepared to stand by what you
have said. This also helps the child to realise that you do
what you say you will do and so she gains confidence and
trust in you. It will also show the child that you are listen-
ing to what she has said if you tell her that you will find
out more about her going to games club for another day.
You can do this by being firm, but not aggressive, in the
way you talk to her.
I was always taught to be firm, fair and friendly and if
you can be these three things and consistent as well, you
are likely to be someone the child can learn to trust.
Also, be brave enough to have the courage of your
convictions. If you believe something could work or
should change or be tried, then say so. Just because
nobody else is thinking like you, it doesn’t mean it can’t
work or isn’t right. I remember sitting in the staff room
while a teacher was talking about how (average) students
could do this or that for a particular day we had coming
up at school. Everyone else sat and agreed with her but
I asked how the children with special needs would be
involved with it. She replied, somewhat curtly, ‘Oh, take
your special needs head off for once, Gill.’ I was rather
embarrassed by her sharpness but knew I had a point so
argued it with her, something that is not always easy to
do as I am aware that there are schools that do not value
their TAs’ opinions readily. The outcome was that the
aspect of including children with special needs more fully
was then considered. The same strategy can be applied to
giving instructions to a child. Stand your ground.
Choices and Standing Your Groundâ•‡ /â•‡ 131
Try not to give too many instructions at once. This can

become confusing for the child and may cause anxieties
to rise because she may not be able to remember all the
instructions, then she may forget to do something. This
could be seen as a failure on her part and will not help
her self-esteem. It may also be a good idea to write the in-
structions down for her, using bullet points, in which case
the child could have more than one or two instructions.
Chapter 27
Bullying
Children with AS, and in fact any child who is different,

can be prone to become a victim of bullying behaviour
from others, even from adults supposed to be looking out
for them. This can obviously lower their already fragile
self-esteem.
As part of one of the courses I undertook, I had to
carry out a child-related project. I decided to make a bul-
lying awareness video to show the different types of bul-
lying.
Before I started making the video, I surveyed 43 chil-
dren with AS, individually, and found that every one of
them had encountered incidents of being bullied. Hor-
rifying to think that every child I asked had been bullied.
Sometimes it happened in the streets where they
lived, in the many schools they had attended or at clubs
they had joined or just at the park. Some even got bul-
lied walking out of their houses onto the street. Usually it
seemed to be by small groups as bullies don’t often oper-
ate on their own. Even if the other children with them are
just watching, they are guilty by association.
Since their behaviours are often regarded as ‘odd’,
peers can easily select children with AS as easy prey, and
a source of fun for bullies. It is down to us to be particu-
larly vigilant.
132
Bullyingâ•‡/â•‡133
Children with AS are renowned for being anxious,

and therefore it would not take much to see them react to
situations most children would take in their stride. For in-
stance, another child may know that by sitting in the AS
child’s chair, he can provoke an immediate outburst from
the child, which may seem to others to be an exaggerated
reaction. If the bully laughs, then so do others – it’s the
way bullying seems to work.
Therefore, make yourself aware of the school anti-
bullying policy and take all bullying seriously. Perhaps
your school has, or could have, some kind of programme
where children have a place to go if they witness bullying,
or are the subject of bullying, or maybe there are specific
‘safe’ ways for children to report incidents of bullying.
Maybe your one-to-one child could help come up with an
idea that could be used in your school to help victims of
bullying. This could also help build his self-esteem.
Another problem with bullying can be that some chil-
dren with AS can hold grudges and retaliate, and unless
they can see that a situation, or bully in this case, has been
properly dealt with, they can feel it is unresolved and
therefore try to sort the situation themselves. This isn’t
just true of children with AS, but remember, children with
AS do have difficulty in reading situations, and knowing
that things are being done without them actually physi-
cally seeing them being done. This is another instance
where their trust in staff to deal with things is vital.
Chapter 28
The Translator
As I mentioned on page 31, the English language is

complex and one of the first things I learned when I
started working with children with AS was that my job, as
a special support assistant, was to be a translator. I wasn’t
quite sure what was meant by that; after all, I only spoke
English and my French was limited to ‘Bonjour’, ‘Au
revoir’ and ‘Je m’appelle Gill!’ I needn’t have panicked,
because what this actually meant was that, although the
child with AS may be very capable verbally, she may not
always understand the meaning of what has been said. I
cannot emphasise enough how much misunderstanding
language causes distress to children with AS and this is
why it is important that we are clear in what we say to
these children.
Therefore, when the teacher gives an instruction to
the class, check that the child understands what has been
asked. Simple words and phrases are not always under-
stood correctly by the child with AS and can often be
taken literally. I think this is an area that we, without
AS, don’t fully appreciate. These are the times that I re-
alise how complicated our language must be to someone
with AS and some days I find myself constantly trying
to analyse what I say before I say it. I once heard a child
explain that having AS was like going to France and not
being able to understand anything anyone was saying.
134
The Translatorâ•‡/â•‡135
She could see the lips moving and words coming out, but
it actually meant nothing at all to her.
It could be that the child has been given the instruc-
tion and done exactly what was asked because she may
have been unable to understand the unsaid expectations
of the teacher, which the other children did understand.
Imagine this: a child with AS may have been fidgeting.
The teacher then tells her: ‘Go to your place and sit there
until I tell you to move’, then thinks no more about the
instruction as the child has gone and sat at her place. The
teacher may then explain what the class are doing for that
lesson and then tell them to start work. The child with AS
may sit there for several minutes before the teacher asks
why she isn’t doing her work like everyone else, to which
the child replies, quite rightly, ‘You told me to go to my
place and not move until you told me I could. You haven’t
told me I can move yet.’ Exasperating for the teacher, but
even more so for the child.
It is not her fault that she understands the world this
way, just as it is not our fault that each of us is the way
we are. But, we chose the jobs we do, and get paid for
doing it, so we need to make all lessons accessible for all
children. If it means that we check the way we talk to
children each time we ask them to do things, then so be
it. After all, schools should be practising differentiation for
pupils. This is a small price to pay to help a child fulfil
her full potential.
Chapter 29
Finding Solutions
Solutions are things that can be either very hard to find or

very simple. It depends on whether it is just you looking
for a solution to the problem or whether you have some-
one with you. I’ve been quite lucky in that I have usually
had other people working quite closely with me and we
have been able to bounce ideas off each other and endeav-
our to find an answer. However, I went to one meeting
where we discussed specific difficulties we had with vari-
ous children and a lady was given umpteen possible solu-
tions to try, but to each she replied, ‘We tried that once, it
didn’t work.’ Or ‘No, I don’t think that would work.’ Or
‘Yes, it might work but I don’t think they’d go for that.’
At times like that I question how much the adult wants
to find a solution for the problem. Be positive. There will
be a solution out there somewhere, and if the ones that
have been suggested don’t work or you think they won’t,
adapt them and keep bouncing ideas off colleagues.
Some common problems and solutions I have tried
and that have worked successfully:
•â•¢ A child is intolerant of noise: remove him from the
room to work in another area; use headphones or
ear muffs to lessen the noise; use a personal stereo
with soft music; give him some time-out.
136
Finding Solutionsâ•‡/â•‡137
•â•¢ A child is fidgety: walk him round the hall a few

times or the playground or school field; take him
for some skipping or a run around the sports
track on the school field; or do some Brain Gym
exercises.
•â•¢ A child wants your attention but is shouting at
you: walk away and tell the child, firmly, ‘When
you are calm, then I will talk to you.’ Repeat again
after several minutes if the behaviour continues.
•â•¢ You can see the child is getting anxious in class:

use the Space Card and take him out of the room;
ask him to write down what the problem is if he
does not want to talk to you; or prompt him to use
a Referee Card (see Chapter 19 for information
about cards).
•â•¢ A child has problems coming into school each
morning: meet him by the front office, allow him
to say his quick goodbyes to parents or carers and
give him a task, perhaps taking the registers round
to all the classes, switching on the computers, and
maybe have a colouring activity ready for him, or
a puzzle.
•â•¢ A child does not like the work set: differentiate
the work by putting on a picture of, for example,
a dinosaur if that is his special interest, or by
making the dinosaur part of the lesson by making
up questions such as: this dinosaur has 12 spikes
on his back, if you colour five blue, how many are
left? Put the questions or sums inside a picture
of his special interest, such as in a bouncy castle,
a monster, or a train. Make the work interesting.
Sometimes just words and numbers on pages isn’t

enough. (Remember, there are different types of
learners, we are not all able to read a whole sheet
of work and be inspired.)
•â•¢ The child gets anxious when he sees the amount
of work he is required to do: break it down into
smaller chunks and give him part of the work to
do first before presenting him with the rest. May-
be give him a few minutes break in between each
piece.
•â•¢ When the child has problems in class and he wants
to leave, and doesn’t have a direct exit, he may
disrupt all the other children: move the child so he
always sits near the door so he has an exit available.
The same thing applies for attending assemblies, sit
him at the end of the row.
•â•¢ The child does not want to attend assemblies: try
to introduce him to assemblies slowly. Sit him on a
chair round the corner from the assembly room so
he can still hear what is being said but nobody can
see him. Then maybe use a sand timer and sit him
right at the back, but near an exit, for five minutes
and then allow him to leave quietly. Gradually in-
crease the time in the session. You could also use a
reward system (see Chapter 19).
•â•¢ The child plays too roughly: get the children the
child is playing too roughly with to tell the child
that he is being too rough and that they do not
like it. I have had children tell me a child is too
rough and I have spoken to him only for him to
continue being rough. The child told me ‘but
they haven’t told me it’s too rough’. I then got
Finding Solutionsâ•‡/â•‡139
the children to tell the child, with me there, that

they did not like the rough play. The child replied
‘OK’ and then continued playing appropriately.
This same idea can be used for other problems
where other children are upset by the behaviour
of a child with AS.
•â•¢ Something goes missing and you know or suspect
the child with AS has taken it: do not confront
him directly, but put the problem in another way.
For example, ‘I wonder if you can help me, be-
cause I’ve been told that Freddy has lost a pen that
was very special to him. Could you help me look
for it?’ If you take him to the empty classroom or
cloakroom and give him some space he may ‘find’
it and then enjoy the praise for being so helpful.
Chapter 30
Keeping Sane – Seeing

the Glass Half Full
After every incident, or problem, no matter how difficult

it has been, it can be very easy to get into a negative
frame of mind and convince yourself that you are not suc-
ceeding in your task. However, if you take a little bit of
time actually looking at what has happened that day, it is
possible to see something positive. This can be extremely
beneficial for your emotional well-being and help you
avoid becoming too negative about things, particularly
the child.
It may be that the child had a physical outburst that
day – which could be deemed negative. But looking at the
positive side of things, she may have calmed quicker than
she has before, she may have apologised, or she may have
gone to her area without prompting. These are just some
examples. I have been in weekly meetings about a child
where others have only seen ‘the glass half empty’ and
have focused on all the negative aspects of the child’s be-
haviour. Yes, she may have sworn 23 times that afternoon,
but the day before she swore 24 times. She may have
thrown a chair, which hit you last week, but when she
did it this week she missed you. She may not have been
140
Keeping Sane – Seeing the Glass Half Fullâ•‡ /â•‡ 141
in for the music lesson again today, but she did whistle at
her bay instead. This is progress and must be seen as such.
However tiny the step may be, it should be celebrated.
The child is probably trying really hard for such a small
achievement and it should be recognised and she should
know that you have recognised it. This is how she will
learn that you value everything she achieves and she will
respect and trust you for it. It will also help to build her
self-esteem. Some of the most rewarding times I have had
have been with the children who are more challenging and
to just have them say ‘Thank you, Miss’ one day, makes
it all seem worthwhile and as if I have achieved my aim.
You could even get yourself a Good Book (see Chapter
22) and put in your achievements on a daily or weekly
basis, though remember, only put in positive things. You
may have had an horrendous day with a particular child,
but she smiled at you when she came into school that
morning, so write it down.
It can be very demoralising when you work with a
child with challenging behaviour on a one-to-one basis.
You can feel very isolated from the rest of the school staff
who are talking about lots of children, whereas your focus
as a one-to-one worker is limited to just one child. The
other children may be doing lots more academic work than
your charge, for the time being, and you may feel that you
are on your own, but this need not be the case. Believe it
or not, you are gaining a lot of knowledge and experience
on challenging behaviour because you are dealing with
it, and you are also learning more about ASDs and how
to help children with them, whereas the other staff are
not. You will be gaining a wealth of knowledge that you
will one day be able to share with others. Not having the
support of someone to talk to about whether or not you
have done the right thing with the child that day can also
be difficult but it can be remedied. Make a time slot with

your teacher, or senior TA, to meet regularly each week,
to discuss your concerns, achievements and way forward.
A school I worked in (mainstream) had an educational
psychologist (who I must say was extremely supportive,
helpful and approachable) who set up termly meetings,
during the school day, for TAs and teachers working
with ASD children to attend and discuss problems, ideas,
resources and sometimes we even had an outside speaker
come in to talk to us about autism or AS. These meetings
were held alternately in our schools, for a whole morning,
and they allowed us to talk about what we sometimes
thought of as our failings. We were able to support
each other and exchange strategies and thoughts on
approaches we had tried or could try. We also exchanged
email addresses and telephone numbers so we could give
each other support before our next meeting. This also
can boost your own self-esteem if you are feeling a bit
beaten down by your day but are able to offer advice to a
colleague on something you have tried. Especially if they
come back to you at a later date and tell you your idea
worked with their student.
Or, you could phone your best friend and sound off
at them about what a foul day you’ve had and get it out
of your system. It is not healthy to keep all your anxie-
ties in and chatting is a great way to feel better. Others
will no doubt give you ideas to try next or tell you what
a wonderful job you are doing. It all helps. We could all
do with a self-esteem boost sometimes so go for it. Then
treat yourself to a glass of wine or a bar of chocolate. You
deserve it.
I can remember doing some training with a lady who
said that we all get to work with, or are occasionally
around, people who irritate us at times. I smiled to myself
Keeping Sane – Seeing the Glass Half Fullâ•‡ /â•‡ 143
as I knew exactly what she was talking about. She said

that the next time you see this person coming down the
corridor towards you, instead of getting uptight, imagine
there is a treat (whatever treat you like) perched on top
of their head and be pleasant to them. Your reward for
being pleasant is whatever you imagined on top of their
head. Sounds weird but I thought I would give it a try as
I was experiencing feelings of sheer frustration toward a
member of staff who I felt was making life difficult for me
at work. So, the next time I saw this person walking down
the hall towards me, I imagined I saw a chilled glass of
chardonnay on their head. I passed the time of day with
them and was amazed at how calm I felt. Later that even-
ing I rewarded myself with a glass of chilled white wine
and told myself it was all in a day’s work and I’d earned
it! (I would make a point of not passing this person too
many times in the day though or you will probably sleep
through the next day! Try a bar of chocolate or a maga-
zine instead sometimes.)
Chapter 31
Jake
To help others to get a better understanding of what AS is

like, I wrote the following poem, entitled ‘Jake’. It is not
based on any one particular child I have known, but sev-
eral, and I have used different traits and experiences from
various children I have had the pleasure of working with.
I also wrote it, originally, for children, but I believe it
gives adults a small insight into the life of a child with an
ASD. By having this insight, I believe we can understand
the condition a little better, and therefore, by understand-
ing it better, we can endeavour to help that child more.
Jake
Jake was not a happy boy, ’cos although he’d
really try,
He couldn’t understand the world, his
parents weren’t sure why.
He had a dreadful temper, over things
that seemed quite small,
He’d shout and scream and holler, and
throw things at the wall.
At the school where Jake had gone, he’d
upset all his peers,
He’d failed to make a single friend, which
confirmed to him his fears.
144
Jakeâ•‡/â•‡145
He really was an alien, that no one un-

derstood,
He was alone, on Planet Earth, and that
could not be good.
He didn’t seem to understand, words oth-
er children used,
And then when they explained to him, he
just got more confused.
In class they would say silly things, like
‘Pull your socks up, Jenny’,
But when Jake looked at Jenny’s feet, she
wasn’t wearing any.
So was it Jake that seemed so odd, or
were the rest just fuddled,
For things Jake said were clearly fact,
but the rest were clearly muddled.
They’d said ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’,
so Jake looked out the window,
‘There are no animals out there, it’s
raining H2O!’
He also had his set routines, each day
they were the same,
If people dared to alter them, then they
would get the blame.
For he’d go into a dreadful rage, there’s
nothing they would gain,
For the routine had to happen, and he’d
have to start again.
Jake couldn’t cope, when things got
changed, he thought it most unfair,
Things changing almost every day, was
more than he could bear.
A different teacher in the class, was not
how it should be,
So Jake would shout and scream and cry,
for all his peers to see.
Perhaps he was an alien, who was sent

to change some things,
To sort Earth’s funny language, and the
problems that it brings.
The other children teased him, they
called him weird, and freak,
‘Who’d want to hang around with you?
You’re nothing but a geek.’
Jake found life frustrating, and took com-
fort in his toys,
He’d line up all his dinosaurs, but not
like earthling boys.
They had a certain order, it’s the way
they had to be,
Triceratops, Pteranadon, and big fierce
Rex, were always one, two, three.
He had over a hundred, of these prehis-
toric things,
If anyone upset his lines, then chaos it
would bring.
He’d go into a panic, hit out at who was
near,
Just why Jake couldn’t cope with this,
would soon become quite clear.
Mum took him to the doctor, who sent
him for some tests,
To find out what the problem was, they’d
started on a quest.
But then he saw a doctor, who wore
glasses made of chrome,
You’re not an alien, young Jake, you’ve
Asperger’s Syndrome.
He then went on to say, that it’s quite a
common fate,
And just because you have it, doesn’t
mean you can’t be great.
Jakeâ•‡/â•‡147
Just look at Albert Einstein, they think

he had it too,
He tested science theories, and found
them to be true.
When Jake heard what the doctor said, it
made things much more clear,
Jake now understood much more, it
helped to quell his fear.
So Jake was not an alien, he was filled
now with relief,
He was pleased the doctor talked to him,
and quashed his daft belief.
It was a common factor, that for someone
with AS,
They always liked to deal with facts, they
didn’t like to guess.
And Jake was also pleased, that there
were others just like him,
That some excelled in certain things, it
need not be too grim.
So Mum talked to the teachers, and some
strategies were made,
To help Jake fit in at school, some ground
rules now were laid.
Each day he’d have these sessions, to
help Jake understand,
About AS and friends and rules, and help
was now at hand.
Now Jake could choose a different child,
to spend time with every day,
And instead of having tantrums, he’d be
shown a different way.
He learned to talk about the things, that
made young Jake see red,
He was shown some other things to do,
good things to try instead.
Like squeezing pots of playdough, or

pushing a brick wall,
Or asking for some ‘time-out’, to calm
down in the hall.
Then, over time, young Jake became, a
much more popular guy,
He found that he could now fit in, so
waved the ‘alien’ goodbye.
Chapter 32
Learning Curves
The following are little snippets of important things I

have learned from my time working with children with
ASDs. I hope they will give you an insight into how chil-
dren with ASDs think and behave and will give you an
understanding of how difficult they sometimes find it to
communicate and understand our language. It should also
show how we need to correct our language and behaviour
to help them function better and become more relaxed
as they become happier in their knowledge of the world
around them. Often we will have to analyse what they are
communicating in order to understand what their needs
are. We need to remember that these are children who
have difficulty in three main areas – the Triad of Impair-
ment – and that if they are doing something we don’t
understand then it is not because they are necessarily be-
ing awkward but because it is the only way they know, at
present, to communicate their wants, needs or feelings. It
is up to us to help them find more suitable ways to convey
their message.
I remember working with a child with
AS on a practice test paper. The question
was something like this: if the candle
burns one inch in two hours, how much
will it have burned after six hours? To
me the answer was simple, three inches.
149
But to this child, who was very bright, it

was troubling him because the question
didn’t say exactly how long after six hours
the candle burned, therefore he could not
possibly answer the question. He spent
a long time looking at the question and
refused to move on for ages until I sug-
gested he return to it later. The reason for
his concern for this question had me puz-
zled. He left the answer blank.
It is situations like this where I have learned how difficult

things must be for some children. We tend to forget that
language is something they find difficult and I am con-
stantly being reminded of this when they have outbursts
or become withdrawn. In this case, he remained calm but
studied the question for a long time, losing valuable time
in a test. Sometimes, just re-wording what we say can
be of enormous benefit to a child. This is also helpful
for children with AS who are academically able. When a
child has the instruction, ask him what it means just to
clarify he knows exactly what has been said.
A child I was working with was asked if
he could describe what it was like to have
AS. He said that he felt a bit like how
a fish might feel if the rest of his shoal
of fish were swimming in the other direc-
tion.
I think this gives a good description of how he must have

felt, that everyone else was working towards the same
thing, but he seemed unable to do so because he had AS,
and that he was very different from everyone else, more
so when he was in a mainstream setting. At first this child
was angry because he had AS and was different from his
Learning Curvesâ•‡/â•‡151
peers but gradually he became happier with who he was

and felt that having AS was actually an advantage because
without it he wouldn’t be him. A big step forward in this
process was when he learned that the creator of Micro-
soft, Bill Gates, might well have AS and if Mr Gates could
achieve all he had with AS then there was nothing to stop
him achieving what he wanted to do.
Although children with AS may be very
articulate in their language skills, their
understanding is not always as advanced
and therefore their vulnerability not al-
ways recognised. When I was talking to
a 15-year-old about him being able to go
into town on his own for the first time,
he said to me: ‘My mum says I have to
be aware of strangers. Miss, how will I
know if someone’s a stranger?’
This question was asked of me from a boy who had reg-

ularly watched violent and sexual video films at home
(rating certificates were well above his age and under-
standing), yet here he was, extremely vulnerable in that
he did not know how to tell if someone was a stranger. I
told him that if he didn’t know the person then they were
a stranger. This information shocked him and he became
much more aware of the number of strangers he would
encounter in town when he went in alone or with peers.
Sex education lessons are always sessions
I don’t look forward to with children with
AS. During such a lesson with teenagers,
the subject was about women and men-
struation. One 15-year-old then told us:
‘But my mum doesn’t have periods and
she certainly doesn’t use those things
[tampons] because if she did, she’d have
told me about it and I haven’t seen any of

them about our house. Besides, it’s gross.’
It may sound funny, because we understand about these

things, but because this child’s mother kept her tampons
out of sight, and because he hadn’t seen them, then to
him, it couldn’t possibly be true that his mother had
periods. Even when staff carefully explained to him that
women have periods in order for them to have children,
he was not convinced. The whole idea disgusted him and
because he loved his mother, he believed that she could
not possibly be subjected to anything so gross. In cases
like this, it can take a while for the child to learn about the
lesson being taught. Their learning may not necessarily
be instant or in one or two lessons.
Many of us have Asperger traits if we
are honest. For example, I used to park
in the staff car park where there were
about 80 spaces. When I arrived at work,
there would only be about seven cars in
the car park and I would always reverse
park in the same space. That was, until
a new maintenance man started work
and I went into work one morning to
find he had parked in my space! The fact
that there were about 73 other spaces
available for me made no difference to
the fact that I felt unsettled. A colleague
had also noticed that I had had to park
in another space that morning and joked
that she thought I must be very edgy with
my unplanned situation that morning,
and that perhaps I had AS. But then,
when she and I went into the staff room
for coffee later that day she said, quite
seriously, ‘Oh, blast! Anne’s sat in my

seat.’ I couldn’t help but laugh.
Next time you go into the staff room for coffee break,
look to see who has a regular seating place, and looks
perplexed when someone else is in it. If nobody else usu-
ally sits in it, it could be interesting for you to sit in it to
test out this theory (if of course, you’re brave enough and
provided it’s not the boss’). The same can be applied to
the car park.
For me, I like to write children’s stories in verse but
have to write 32 verses. My stories are not complete until I
have that magic number and I would not consider it com-
pleted until that thirty-second verse is done. Some friends
of mine, not diagnosed with AS, count the syllables in
road names and for them this is a habit, similar to some
of the traits in children and adults with AS. A few people
I have worked with like to smell the paper in new books
or packs of paper. It doesn’t mean that everyone around
us has undiagnosed AS, but merely that many of us have
funny little habits that make up who we are, the same
as for these children with AS. It is worth bearing this in
mind when you think the child you are working with is
behaving strangely. We all do it (and those who say they
don’t are lying!).
A child I had been working with had been
particularly rude to me and was asked,
by the teacher, to write me a letter of
apology. An hour or so later I was hand-
ed an envelope by the child. I opened the
envelope and read his very nice apology.
It was only when I turned the letter over
that I noticed he’d drawn a picture of me
on the back of it – dressed as a witch! I
thanked him and told him I accepted his

apology and the day continued as usual.
Knowing when to challenge a child, and when not to, is

something that is learned over time, when you know the
child well. This was a relatively new child to us. We could
have challenged the child over the picture he’d drawn, but
the fact was he’d apologised and he had compromised.
We, as the responsible adult, do not always have to chal-
lenge everything – he had done what was asked of him
and he had made his little protest but the day contin-
ued with little more disruption. If we had challenged him
again, the day could have resulted in a more disruptive
incident.
Always try to keep track of what you are
saying to a child who has AS. I once kept
a child back after a lesson to discuss the
meaning of his poor behaviour. I started
by asking him a question about his be-
haviour, but each time I said something,
he asked me to clarify what I was asking.
After several minutes of this conversation
he had managed to confuse me so much
I couldn’t remember what I had initially
asked him! He then went out to break
with a big smile whilst I sat there won-
dering how on earth I had got myself into
that mess.
When challenging a child, keep things simple – ask one

question and wait for the response. Clarify your question
if need be but try to remain the one in control of the
conversation and don’t allow him to divert you from the
question you want answered.
We had noticed a child’s behaviour

change for the worse over a couple of
days but, when asked, he always said he
was fine. Having no other explanation for
the child’s behaviour, we took him to the
school doctor who promptly diagnosed an
ear infection. After starting antibiotics,
the child’s behaviour returned to how it
usually was.
Children with ASDs are not always able to express their

discomfort appropriately when they are feeling unwell
due to having a high pain threshold. This particular child
had been tearful and grumpy and quite disruptive in class
for a couple of days, which was not typical behaviour for
him. He was unable to tell us his ear hurt and, having no
other explanation for his poor behaviour, it was up to us
to make the decision for him to go to the doctors. Fortu-
nately, we did it in time for the ear infection to clear up
before becoming worse. A similar scenario occurred when
a child complained when his arm hurt after he had it hit
by a football on the playground. He was taken to casualty
and the X-rays showed it had been broken before but
his parents and school had no record of it being broken
previously.
Sometimes children are more in control
than we might give them credit for. After
being hit several times by a child, I told
the child that he could not behave that
way in public. He replied, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t
do that in public, you’re staff, so it doesn’t
matter.’ It came as quite a shock to him
when I explained that I was a member of
the public, who just happened to work in
school!
Only when you know a child well are you able to tell
whether they are behaving negatively due to his AS or
just because he is being like any other child and being
naughty. Often, you are able to see an element of control
when he is displaying negative behaviour. For example,
if he is throwing things around the room, but leaves the
things that he likes alone, such as his belongings or the
computer he likes to use, then there is some control there.
A child has completely lost control when these things
are not considered during an aggressive outburst and he
is unable to consider the consequence of his actions or
hear any choices you may give him. A child I worked
with was about to kick me until I reminded him that the
last time he did I had to see the doctor. He then walked
away, showing an element of control and being able to
understand the consequence of what he was about to do.
Whilst marking a child’s maths ques-
tions I noticed that the answers he had
given were out by several thousand each
time. When I asked how he had got to the
answers he had, he said, ‘The book says
to “write your answer”, so I did.’ He had
not understood that he had to work out
the sum and not just write any number
he thought of.
This was a case of the way the question had been written
in the maths text book. The child had read the question
but it had not said he had to work out the answer. After
the teacher explained this to him, he was able to complete
the questions with the correct answer. This was a child
who was very literal in his thinking. Other children with
AS had used the same textbook but had understood that
they needed to work out the sum beforehand. Remember,
each child is different and just because one child with AS

understands something then it does not necessarily mean
the next one will understand or interpret something the
same. It is not because he is being awkward, his way of
thinking is just different.
One weekend, I was having Christmas
drinks with my children and siblings
and their families in a local pub. A
15-year-old, with AS, that I worked with,
walked into the same pub and sat down
next to me, and members of my family.
I said hello, and told him I was having
drinks with family. He asked if I would
buy him a drink. I had to explain to him
that as I was with family, it would not
be appropriate for him to join us. ‘Oh,’
he replied looking surprised and not re-
ally understanding what was expected of
him, ‘Should I go then?’
Although this was a family gathering, and he had not

been invited, the child thought it was OK to just sit down
and stay with me. There was no embarrassment on his
part. He had missed all social cues that it was not the
thing to do to just sit and join me. Back at school I ex-
plained to him that it was OK for us to say hello in the
street if we met, but that I was his TA and that socialis-
ing together outside of school was not appropriate. He
had his friends for that. Once he understood this, he was
happy about what had happened.
A child I worked with had a special inter-
est in films of a violent nature. As he was
only 14, we tried to divert his obsessive
talk about such films with other ideas.
So, every time he started talking about
these films, I would talk over him about

Disney films and tell him how exciting
they were. I emphasised how I really
liked The Little Mermaid film. He would
just shrug his shoulders and stop talk-
ing, for a while. Then, one day, he was
asking if I had seen the latest action film,
where just about everyone gets blown to
smithereens and every other woman gets
raped until the hero saves them. I inter-
rupted him and started talking about The
Little Mermaid and said how nice it was
and about the bad old octopus. Having
used this strategy with him for several
weeks, he looked me in the eye and, very
seriously, said ‘Miss, I think you have
a problem. You’re obsessed with Disney
films.’
We had told this boy many times we were not interested

in his obsession but he would state ‘Yes but …’ and con-
tinue to tell us about the bits in the particular film he
found exciting. Gradually, this boy came to realise that
not everyone was interested in the same things as him.
Sometimes I would interrupt a child’s obsessive talk by
talking about how I made a cake at the weekend, stat-
ing every detail from weighing the flour to the shape of
tin I used. When they asked why I kept talking about
boring stuff, I would answer that I found their talk of
computer games or violent films boring, but that I liked
baking cakes and talking about them. Only then did the
child start to realise that not everyone was interested in
his, or other people’s, obsessions and his talking about it
constantly.
Building a positive working relationship

with trust goes both ways. I once worked
with a child who had a pet hamster and,
after giving him several targets to help
him achieve certain things, he decided to
give me my own target. Knowing I was
terrified of rodents (and seeing me jump
on a chair when his escaped from its cage
one morning) he decided that I had to try
and hold his hamster for five seconds.
First, I had to just stroke the hamster
and after about a week, he decided I had
to put it in my hand and he would time
me. Not wanting to look like a complete
wimp, I stood there bravely holding this
hamster in my hand for what felt like an
eternity, before losing my self-control and
screaming like a baby for him to ‘Quick!
Take it back, Quick!’ This taught me a
very important lesson. Just because we
find some things easy to do, don’t assume
other people do.
It took me weeks and weeks to be able to hold this ham-

ster and it could be the same for a child to overcome his
reluctance to be able to do something. One child I know
would disrupt every music lesson he was in and it was
thought it was because he wanted to use one instrument
and to do his own thing, rather than work as part of the
group. It turned out it was because he was noise sensitive
and could not cope with 30 or so other children in the
room banging and playing all the instruments together
and it not having the structure of a melody. For several
weeks he would just spend five minutes in each music
lesson (watching an egg timer) and would sit outside the
classroom for the rest of the lesson, with the door closed
to begin with. Slowly, he was able to build up time in

the lessons until he was able to function appropriately in
the music lesson for the whole amount of time. Surely, it
is better to achieve over a longer period of time than to
not achieve at all by forcing the child to comply with the
normal routines.
Try to find fun ways to encourage a
child to get their task completed. One
child I worked with had heard me sing
in their music lessons and in assemblies
and always winced when I sang. When
I was taking him for a one-to-one com-
puter session, where he was using a daily
15-minute spelling programme, he start-
ed to get up and walk away from the com-
puter. I cleared my throat and told him I
would have to sing to him then. He looked
absolutely panic-stricken and, returning
promptly to his seat and the task, he said
‘No, Miss, anything but that’. This strat-
egy worked every time, and he even used
to test me enough for me to have to sing a
few bars before he settled to his work and
informed me he was doing it!
This child used to tell his peers to get on with work or I

would sing to them. It was a fun way to get the task done
(and I’m sure my singing isn’t really that bad). I used the
same tactic when he was constantly walking or running
around with his hands in his pockets. I would clear my
throat ready to start singing to him but before I could
release the first note he would have his hands out of his
pockets and be walking properly with a smile on his face.
His peers would even warn him that I would sing to him
if he didn’t act quickly!
After practising, for several weeks, how

to behave in a café, we then tried to put
it all into practice by visiting a local café
with the children. We told each child they
had £2.00 to spend. After queuing for sev-
eral minutes and talking to the assistant
behind the counter, one child returned to
us but had bought nothing. When asked
why, he replied ‘Because I have £2.00 and
there is nothing there that costs £2.00’.
We hadn’t explained that all the cakes
and drinks were less than £2.00 and
that he could get one of each and that he
would be given change. He’d assumed he
had to spend exactly £2.00.
It is only by witnessing these types of behaviours that

we can fully begin to appreciate how disabling having a
literal mind can be in our society. However, we learned a
lot about this child by doing this task. We had to check
that he fully understood what he could or couldn’t do in
certain situations and we were better able to prepare him
for such events in the future. During lessons, we had to
explain things more clearly and in more detail than we
normally do and we had to be aware of every part of the
language we used. For these children, our language is al-
ready confusing, so using any of the following types of
statements will be futile:
•â•¢ Pull your socks up (for what reason?)
•â•¢ Keep your hair on (will it fall off if they don’t?)
•â•¢ Hold your horses (do they have any?)
•â•¢ Play it by ear (is that actually possible?)
•â•¢ A fate worse than death (what is worse than death?)
These are statements we use frequently, without realising,

but they can cause a lot of worry to a literal child so try
not to use them or explain what they mean when you do
use them. I often ask ‘Have you heard the saying…’ and
then explain what it means, because they may well hear it
again from someone else but at least they will then have
the understanding of what we mean when saying it.
I asked a child to explain, in his own
words, what AS was like. After some
thought he said. ‘It’s a bit like a plastic
ruler, it can bend a little but if you bend
it too far it will snap.’
This gives a very good insight in to how a child with AS

feels and explains about his rigidity in some areas (inflex-
ibility of thought). When the child told me this I clarified
what he meant by asking him ‘So, when we try to show
you different methods of doing your maths, when you
already know a method, this makes you feel angry and
can cause you to be disruptive?’ He replied ‘Yes’. It took
a long time and a lot of patience to show him how to do
various mathematical problems in different ways, but we
accepted that if he would calmly try them a few times,
we assured him he could always return to his preferred
method. With this security available to him, he tried other
methods and even found some of them quicker and easier
to use than the methods he already knew.
One 15-year-old boy with AS once told
me that he was going to kill my children
when he was older and then kill me. Lat-
er, that same day, he offered me some of
his chocolate. I refused and told him I
was still upset about what he had said
earlier, and he told me, with all sincerity,
that he wouldn’t really do that, he had

just said it because he was angry about
his schoolwork. He then apologised and
re-offered the chocolate. It was the only
time he ever said he would harm my fam-
ily – he just swore at me thereafter!
Try not to take insults personally as the child doesn’t usu-

ally mean it – he is just angry for a short amount of time
and has not yet learned other acceptable strategies to deal
with this anger. It is up to us to show him other ways, but
not during an incident, only when he is calm. Showing
him when he is angry is futile as his brain is not accept-
ing messages he can interpret. Wait until he is fully calm,
which may be the next day or several days later, when he
is able to talk about what happened and how he could
deal with it better if the same thing, or a similar thing,
happened again.
Whilst sitting in his bay, helping him
with his maths, I noticed the 14-year-old
kept looking at me and smiling. I asked
what he was smiling at. He replied,
‘You’re sat in my bay because you fancy
me, don’t you miss?’ Needless to say, I
told him very firmly that I did not fancy
him at all and left him to do his maths
alone!
A short while later, I was able to talk with this boy and
explain that I was merely there to help him and that there
was no way that any of the staff would be employed if
it was thought they would behave inappropriately with
the children. I also explained that to help him with his
work, staff would need to sit with him, but that it did not
mean that staff fancied him, or any other boy. After this
explanation, he understood and I never had any problems

with him regarding this matter again.
I have found that using acronyms with
some children is a fun, and discreet, way
to work with them when they are hav-
ing problems and to remind them that
their behaviour needs adjusting without
bringing it to their peers’ attention too
much (see Chapter 12). I used ‘Double O’
for ‘Opting Out’ and ‘PTB’ for ‘Pushing
The Boundaries’ for example. One child
liked us using acronyms as his peers
were really keen to know what the codes
meant but we wouldn’t explain them to
them. In a mainstream class with about
34 students, the student I worked one to
one with was reluctant to start his work,
preferring to chat and joke with peers in-
stead. So I asked him to get on with his
handwriting and that we didn’t want a
‘Double O day’ or a ‘PTB’ day today. He
smiled and said, ‘No, I think it’s a KMA
day.’ I looked at him, puzzled as this was
a new one for me, and asked ‘What’s that?’
to which he replied, tongue in cheek, ‘A
Kill Miss Ansell day!’ Just as well I un-
derstood his humour!
Humour is a wonderful thing but it needs to be used with

care. Some children with AS do not understand humour
and think you are laughing at them. Once again, it is about
knowing your student. Some students I have worked with
understand and like sarcasm, but many do not. Humour
can be a great way to turn a child’s negative behaviour
around by using it as a distraction. One of the students
found out I had injured my leg hopping over a gate and
asked how I could have been in the army if I was so unfit I

couldn’t jump over a gate. I told him it was because I was
a double agent and needed to infiltrate the hospital so had
to pay a price for my job so as not to alert the hospital
staff to who I was. This joke became very popular with a
couple of the students. When one of them was having an
incident where he had thrown his chair across the room,
sworn at the teacher and walked out of class swearing
some more, I followed him. He stood by a tree and was
clearly very angry and was swearing at me, though not
about me. I interrupted him as I touched my ear, as if I
had an imaginary earpiece, and said, ‘Hang on a minute,
I’m getting a message from Barack (Obama) about my
next mission.’ The boy laughed and started talking about
whether it would involve a helicopter or jumping over
more gates to infiltrate more hospitals. After we chatted
about nonsense for a few minutes, and he calmed down,
I asked him what the problem had been in class; he was
able to tell me and we were able to sort the problem quite
quickly.
I used to use a hedgehog glove puppet
with some of the younger students.
I used to pretend that the hedgehog,
Hovis, whispered in my ear about how
the students were doing with their work.
One particular boy had seen me putting
the glove puppet in my drawer at the end
of each lesson, and therefore, I assumed
he realised it was not real. I had also
pretended that Hovis visited the boy’s
real guinea pig which was kept in a
nearby shed. However, I came into work
one morning to find that he had been up
quite early as he had set a trap by his
pet’s shed because he thought Hovis was

stealing his guinea pig’s food!
Never assume! I had believed, falsely as it turned out, that

this child knew the puppet was not real as he had seen
me put it on my hand after taking it from the drawer, and
later removing it from my hand and placing it back in the
drawer after the lesson. He had believed me when I had
said that Hovis had eaten some of his guinea pig’s food,
even though the puppet was clearly not real. The boy, al-
though aged about nine, had a low level of understanding
and I had not fully appreciated it.
I once worked with a child who had all
the classic symptoms of AS but because
his aunt had told him there was no such
condition, he firmly believed it did not
exist and so therefore, he thought, he
couldn’t possibly have something that did
not exist. I don’t think I actually helped
this child in any way and I feel that, al-
though he was entitled to believe what he
wanted, it didn’t actually serve him well.
Therefore, I don’t feel that I failed in this
instance. Sometimes, our best will never
be good enough because some people re-
sist the help we offer and so maybe we
should therefore concentrate on those we
can help and who want to be helped.
However, if I knew then what I know now, then maybe I

could have done some work with him about the syndrome
and maybe, just maybe…
I once asked a young boy with AS how he
felt about having AS. He replied, ‘I like
it, because if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t
think the way I think and I wouldn’t be

me.’
Having AS doesn’t have to be a negative thing, as this

young man had decided. On the computer, if you ‘Goog-
le’ search ‘famous people with AS’ it will bring up pages
of famous people who have, or are thought to have, AS.
Without it they would probably not have been as success-
ful in their chosen profession. I have used these pages to
show people with AS how it can be a positive thing – too
often they believe that because they have this condition
they will never achieve anything positive which is totally
untrue.
Sometimes the behaviours can be quite
complex. At a boarding school for special
needs, a 14-year-old came into class one
morning with a black eye. We asked how
he had got it (having seen him the day be-
fore without it, and not hearing anything
about it that morning in the daily brief-
ing) and he told us he had fallen in his
room the night before. Not quite under-
standing what had happened and won-
dering why the care staff had not picked
up on this at breakfast, I went across
to the care staff at morning break and
asked. They seemed as mystified as us,
stating that he had not had it at break-
fast. The care member then knocked on
the door and went into his room (the door
was open) to witness the young man ex-
pertly applying pink and blue make-up
around his eye!
After careful questioning by staff of the student, it turned

out that the student had wanted to get someone to notice
that he wanted to talk to them but he was unable to ex-

press this verbally.
Children with AS can be quite blunt
about things, not always understand-
ing social etiquette. One 14-year-old I
met when I first started work in a special
school, asked me, in front of the rest of
the class, if I had any children. I replied,
‘Yes, I have two.’ To which he replied, ‘So
you’ve had sex twice then?’
I did not answer his question – I conveniently took it as a

rhetorical question. This child was certainly unaware that
it is possible to have sex for more than the single reason
of having a baby.
Noticing a 16-year-old I used to work
with, out of class, I went to ask him what
was wrong. He told me that he had met
this girl at the weekend and they had
kissed, then she had complained that
she had tummy ache. He then went on
to say ‘that means she’s pregnant doesn’t
it? I know, because I’ve seen it happen in
films.’
After talking to him at length, and knowing that he had

problems distinguishing between fantasy and reality, I
realised that he had seen a film where the couple had
kissed, and in a few scenes later (probably several months
in the film) the woman had been pregnant. This is a typi-
cal example of the misunderstandings some children with
AS can have.
Just when I thought I’d cracked it!
Whilst working with a class (seven pu-
pils) of eight and nine-year-olds whilst
the teacher was in a meeting, I compli-

mented myself on how well I had settled
the class at their individual bays to do
their English work. It was so quiet you
could have heard a pin drop. Then, the
quietest, most well behaved of the boys,
leaned back on his chair and asked the
others ‘Hands up if you think Miss is a
lemon pie?’ The others were so surprised
by this question, the whole class erupted
in raucous laughter just as the teacher
walked back in.
That’ll teach me to be so smug! It taught me to remember

that things can change at any moment and to never get
ahead of myself and think I have got things sorted!
A child I was working with had left the
classroom in a rage over problems with
other children. When I went to the other
building to see if he was calming down,
he ran at me holding a wooden rolling
pin, then stood in front of me threaten-
ing to hit me with it. I chose my moment
and put him in a one-person escort (SCIP
hold), allowing him to safely drop the
rolling pin to the ground.
Immediately I could feel his whole body relax, as if to say

‘Thank goodness for that, I’m no longer in control of my
behaviour, you are.’ After I walked him to another room,
he calmed down quite quickly. Sometimes, these children
just want someone else to physically take control (in a
recognised way) and make them feel safe again and that
person could be you (as long as you are restraint-trained
of course).
I had driven to work with a colleague

one beautiful summer morning, the sun
was shining, the birds were singing and
there had been a jolly Rolf Harris song on
the radio entitled ‘It’s Gonna Be A Fine
Day’. As we got out of the car, I said to
my colleague ‘I wonder what sort of day
we’ll have today?’ and she smiled sweetly
at me. We then entered the garden to the
classroom where we worked and hanging
out of an upstairs window was a student
who shouted at us ‘And you two f***ing
horse f***ers can f*** off back to where
you f***ing came from.’
Quite simply, that was my question answered! In fact, al-

though this is how the day started, the young man in
question went on to have a really good day. He’d just had
a minor, verbal blip, but with staff support, he managed to
turn his behaviour around in a positive way.
I was having a few problems with a teen-
ager I was working with accepting me as
his previous class TA had been with him
for some time. He was very rude and off-
hand with me and, as I was quite new to
the job and his class, I wasn’t quite sure
how to handle it. I decided I had two
choices: I could either let him walk all
over me or I could confront him. I opted
for the latter, so when he next refused my
assistance I told him, somewhat firmly:
‘Look, I don’t really care whether you like
me or not but Miss V. has gone now and
you’ve got me and I have no intention of
going anywhere, so you either deal with
it and let me help you with your work or
you get on and do it on your own. Your

choice.’ He looked at me with a rather
shocked expression on his face and said
‘But I like you Miss, we’re friends aren’t
we? And I could do with some help with
my maths.’
From then on he accepted me and was happy for me to

help him with his work. He had had difficulty accepting
the change that had occurred and he was unsure of the
role I played. Explaining it to him was all he needed.
Always treat each child as an individu-
al as every child is different, even every
child with an ASD. I remember learning
very quickly not to tell a particular child
that I would take him to see the head-
teacher if he did not get on with his work,
after he had sat daydreaming for half
the morning and after several requests
to get started on his work. Thinking he
was the same as all the other children
in the ASD school, I told him to get his
coat and we would walk over to the head-
teacher’s office and he could tell her why
he was not doing any work. After we had
both donned our coats I took him outside
where it promptly began raining quite
hard. However, forgetting he sometimes
had a routine of walking forward three
paces, then bending and feeling each
of his shoes, walking back a couple of
steps, then walking forward three steps,
feeling his shoes again, then a couple of
steps backwards, etc., it took us (a very
drenched us at that!) about 20 minutes to
do a three minute walk!
The consequences which may be suitable for the majority

of students may not be suitable for all children – they are
all individuals and should be treated as such. Needless to
say, the next time he didn’t start his work I found other
ways to encourage him.
And finally:
In a primary class, we had been talking
about the story of the Good Samaritan
in a Religious Education lesson and we
then talked about who could help us if
we were in trouble, and whom we could
ask for help if we needed it. The teacher
asked the first child ‘Who would you call
if you saw a man snatching a handbag
from an old lady?’ He replied, ‘I’d call the
police, Miss.’ She congratulated him on
his answer and then asked the next child
‘What would you do if you saw somebody
collapse in the street?’ He replied ‘I’d put
him on a donkey, Miss!’
Here endeth the lesson.

Index
acronyms 67–8, 164 Autistic Spectrum Behaviour Management

anger management Disorder (ASD) and Anger Rules
73–5 children’s knowledge 46–7
Anger Rules of own 28–9 and boundaries
in Behaviour and choices 129–30 within 49
Management and communication and consistency of
46–7 23–4, 149–51 44, 49–50
and Feelings Book and inflexibility of and Feelings Book
77 thought 25 77
in individual work and language usage in individual work
stations 42, 46 134–5 stations 41–3
anxiety and literal thinking and negative
and children with AS 31–2, 161–2 behaviour 50–1
28–30 and pain thresholds number of sessions
in school 71–2, 138 155 45–6
Asperger syndrome and socialisation 24, parental permission
(AS) 157–8 for 28
children’s knowledge and theory of mind and playdough 47
of own 166–7 25–6 recording of 44
myths about 16 and the Triad of and role-play 61
and parental Impairment 23 and trust within
knowledge 47–8
27–8 Baron-Cohen, S. 23 and use of older
school staff with 153 behaviour children 29–30
as syndrome 16 and Behaviour and visual
assemblies 138 Management conversations
Attention Deficit 50–1 105–7
Hyperactivity and consistency 137 Bolton, P. 23
Disorder (ADHD) and controlling Brain Gym 74–5, 137
40, 73 behaviour breaktimes
Autism: The Facts 156–7 and one-to-one
(Baron-Cohen and and the Good Book working 54
Bolton) 23 100–2
labelling of 36–7
and role-play 61–2
173
breaktimes continued Gates, Bill 28, 151 see also one-to-one

and playing with Golden Rules 46 working
other children Good Book 100–2, inflexibility of thought
57–8, 138–9 141 25
bullying 132–3 graphs in incident
reports 123–6 ‘Jake’ (poem) 144–8
challenging AS
children 154–5 Home/School Diary language usage 134–5
children 96–9 literal thinking
and anxieties 28–30 humour 164–5 AS understanding of
information for 32, 161–2
28–9 incident reports examples of 31–2
and knowledge and antecedents lunchtimes
of AS 28–9, 121–2 and one-to-one
166–7 dealing with working 54
peer friendships incidents and playing with
29–30 114–15 other children
choices 129–30 graphs in 123–6 57–8
communication and pupil views
116–20 myths about AS 16
and ASD 23–4,
149–51 reasons for 113
noise intolerance 136
and puppets 64 and school staff
controlling behaviour 115–16 one-to-one working
156–7 individual work and boundaries
stations 55–6
differentiation 137–8 and Behaviour and breaktimes 54
Management and lunchtimes 54
egg timers 94–5 41–3 and sense of
Emotional Literacy getting used to 41 isolation 53–4
groups 52 layout of 41 and staff members
and role-play 61 location of 39–40 53–4
emotional well-being purpose of 39, 40 starting 54–5
140–3 individual working support for 54
emotions with AS child see also individual
and anger and behaviour working with
management labelling 36–7 AS child
73–5 and Behaviour Oops! Cards 83–4
and Feelings Book Management
76–7 44–51 pain thresholds 155
understanding of and individual work parents
162–4 stations 39–43 and Behaviour
Every Child Matters 17, and parents 37–8 Management 28
18 relationship with 36 and Home/School
exercise 73–5 starting 35–8 Diary 96–9
Feelings Book 76–7
Indexâ•‡/â•‡175
and knowledge of staff with AS 153 Triad of Impairment

AS 27–8 Vision Statement for 23, 149
and relationship with 17–18 children’s knowledge
school 37–8 scrapbooks 29 of own 29
peer friendships 29–30 self-esteem 100–2
playing with other sex education 151–2 Vision Statements
children 57–8, small group working 17–18
138–9 52–3 visual conversations
puppets and role-play 61 103–7
and communication socialisation 24, 157–8 visual learning
64 Space Cards 90–2, 137 and egg timers 94–5
problems with Statutory Assessments and the Good Book
165–6 111–12 100–2
with younger Strategies for Crisis and Oops! Cards
children 63 Intervention and 83–4
Prevention (SCIP) and Referee Cards
record keeping 59–60 92–3
and incident reports Strategy Book 85–9 and rewards 90–2
113–22 and sand timers
and Statutory teachers 19–20 94–5
Assessments teaching assistants and Space Cards
111–12 (TAs) 90–2
Referee Cards 92–3, challenging AS and Strategy Book
137 children 154–5 85–9
restraints 59–60 and consistency and Time Out Cards
rewards 90–2 130–1 92–3
role-play and emotional well- and timetables 81–2
and behaviour 61–2 being 140–3 and visual
and fairness 62–3 and one-to-one conversations
and school trips 63 working 53–6 103–7
and sense of
sand timers 94–5 isolation 53–4 worksheets 65–7
schools starting with AS
and adult role child 35–8,
models in 50 168–72
anxiety in 71–2 training for 35
and assemblies 138 and trust 159–60
and bullying 132–3 uses for 18
and Golden Rules 46 working with
and Home/School teachers 19–20
Diary 96–9 theory of mind 25–6
and language usage Time Out Cards 92–3
134–5 timetables 81–2
and relationship with
parents 37–8

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Working with

Asperger Syndrome – What Teachers Need to Know

Asperger Syndrome in the Inclusive Classroom

Addressing the Challenging Behavior of Children with

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Copyright © Gill D. Ansell 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

ISBN 978 1 84905 156 9

Part I: What is Asperger Syndrome? 21

Part II: Working with an Individual with

Part III: Dealing with Feelings 69

Part V: Assessing Children with Asperger

Part VI: Everything Else You Need

Having recently visited France, and my French being

school aged children with Asperger syndrome. It was a

in a maths class before he came to your school and this

groups of children with learning difficulties and taking

However, as I sat at home with my leg up, a pair of

methods of achieving the goal seem unobtainable, I have

I wrote this book because I felt there was something

I was prepared to work hard to get results and I un-

children where deemed appropriate. Some of the strate-

take pride in playing your part to help them to achieve

Although the roles of both the TA and the teacher are, in

There are many books out there about Autistic Spectrum

other, that if we say something to someone, the other

Inflexibility of thought is something many of us have

A little about theory of mind

us. Most of us will use our theory of mind daily, without

Even in today’s society, with all the information available

has happened at school. It could also enhance the parent/

them both a much needed confidence boost as they both

I never realised just how strange the English language

•â•¢ We take two steps •â•¢ A leopard cannot

•â•¢ A fate worse than death •â•¢ Bob’s your uncle

When I first started working in a classroom with students

when things go right. It’s such a great feeling to succeed

what works for this particular child – and that in itself is

Individual work stations (or bays) are secluded areas

A corner of an area outside, or inside, a classroom

When the child starts to use the bay, it can be a good

Figure 5.1 A typical work station (bay)

Figure 5.1 shows a typical ‘bay’, with a table, two chairs

interest or just have them blank. Some children can find

or with him in the next class circle time. Although some

These sessions are probably best done by the same person

In order for these children to understand their be-

you do this. It will depend on what your team decides and

a good condition for longer. It is also harder to tear up if

ready to enter the conversation and say what happened

Make sure you establish clear boundaries from the

through the corridors, while you are constantly telling

happening in public and how the police would be in-

Small Group Work

However, it doesn’t just have to be children with AS

Working one to one