ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT FOR ALL LEARNERS

Academic Achievement for all Learners

1. Background

Children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) have been described in the popular press as "Autism's Shadow" and as "Little professors who can't understand social cues" (Bock, 2007, 258). For two decades, Asperger Syndrome has been a popular research topic in American psychiatry. Despite this burgeoning information base, with rare exception, there has been scant attention paid to AS in the American special education literature. Information is therefore desperately needed to assist educators in screening for those at risk for AS and to help plan effective interventions (Bock, 2007, 259).

2. Problem

The Asperger Syndrome disorder has been described in terms of social deficits with cognitive skills remaining preserved in the afflicted individual. The hallmark of Asperger's Syndrome is the failure to develop social competence despite relatively normal language and cognitive development (Bock, 2007, 260).

2.1. Objectives of the Project

The prime objective of the study is to facilitate children in the region of North Carolina, who are suffering from Asperger Syndrome in getting included in classrooms with other students, who are like them. A second objective of this study will be to develop a profile of the academic strengths and deficits and problem-solving and critical thinking abilities of children with Asperger Syndrome, who are enrolled in Rudy's Learning Academy.

2.2. Services Provided

The school I am interested in opening would benefit children with Autism. I would target the High Functioning/Asperger Syndrome children. In my experience these children learn just as their typical peers but there is uniqueness to their learning style. The High Functioning kids are placed in the typical classroom with peers of the same age, but they learn differently. These kids are best taught through the arts.

When I say Arts I mean music, sketching, instruments and drawing. If one were to take the time they would fine that these kids also have a great skill with numbers and science. My school would teach these kids through the Arts. I would also have adaptive equipment for them to learn on in the gym.

2.3. Client Contact

The sample will be collected from the Rudy's Learning Academy located in North Carolina. The sample size for a survey will be calculated to determine how large a sample size will be needed from a given population in order to achieve findings with an acceptable degree of accuracy.

3. Preliminary Literature Search

The current general belief regarding the academic characteristics and preferences of children with AS is that their strengths as learners typically lies in fact-based material, including a particular strength in rote memory. Their learning deficits involve difficulty with processing information so as to comprehend its meaning (Stein, 2004, 158). It has been noted that theory-of-mind deficits affect learning when students are asked to describe how others might have felt about particular incidents. In this connection, socio-cognitive tasks that require an intact theory of mind are troublesome for individuals with AS. Challenges in the area of cognition that cause particular difficulty with academics include (a) poor comprehension of abstract concepts; (b) ...