How to Best Manage the Emotional Rollercoaster of Asperger Syndrome-High Functioning Autism

Overview:

Many professionals are frequently frustrated when presented with a client who has social deficits associated with Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism. These individuals often manifest a variety of deficits that are typically beyond the scope of many well-intentioned therapists.

Techniques that have been successfully used for years with clients who struggle with similar issues but do not have the Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism are often ineffective when dealing with this population and leave both the client and professional frustrated. 

Frequently these clients develop significant stress due to faulty social-pragmatic communication. It is this stress that creates the subsequent behavioral issues resulting in emotional outbursts that many professionals find extremely difficult to manage. Emotional self-regulation is a major concern for individuals with AS/HFA and many commercially available products that attempt to teach self-regulation through social skill development are not appropriate with this population. As a result, functional carryover is often lacking. 

This presentation will discuss the importance of effective social-pragmatic communication to life success with special emphasis on understanding how HFA impacts academic performance. Participants will learn techniques that target the elusive behaviors of this unique population. 

It will describe the typical deficits seen in the domain of social-interaction such as tact, proxemics, social rules, egocentricity, naiveté and jocularity. It will discuss the obsessive interests, poor play skills, dislike of physical contact, and gullibility often associated with reduced social awareness.

It will also describe the typical deficits seen in the domain of social-communication such as deficits in conversational rules, prosody, a tendency towards perseverative questioning, abstract reasoning, pedantic speech, and nonverbal communication skills. Issues associated with social-emotional regulation such as stress, anxiety, self-esteem, change, ritualism, sensory overload, depression and factors limiting the ability to recognize emotional states in themselves and others will also be discussed. 

Issues that address deficits associated with sensory problems will also be presented