Asperger’s support group to meet
The Asperger’s East Rand Support Group will be meeting on August 20.
The meeting will be held at Roxer Academy, 135 Reier Road, Atlasville, from 7pm to 9pm.
Claire Allen, national education facilitator from Autism SA, will be the guest speaker at the meeting and will be discussing the impact of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the possible changes it might have on Asperger’s Syndrome.
The vision of the group is to bring together parents, as well as children and adults with AS.
It will give members the opportunity to share experiences and advice, and aims at helping people with AS and their relatives cope better, and feel less isolated as they make connections with others facing similar challenges.
AS is a relatively new diagnosis describing a person who is at the high functioning end of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
Children with AS have above average intelligence, function well academically, but have extreme social problems.
It resembles the diagnosis of Non-verbal Learning Disabilities in that in both cases, children and adults have difficulty understanding and using non-verbal body language appropriately.
They may have repetitive motions, or have a robotic, atonal quality to their speech. Many children with AS lack inflection in their tone, and may have difficulty comprehending the emotional meanings that tones can convey.
Children with AS often talk at length and in great detail on topics that they find interesting, and they may be unaware that the other person or child is uninterested.
They often have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. They have a great deal of difficulty reading body language, and very often, the individual with AS has difficulty determining proper body space.
They are often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, the person with AS may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights no one else seems to hear or see.
For more information, contact Rian Pelati on 072 334 5292, rianpelati@aspergerscounsellorsa.com or log onto www.aspergerscounsellorsa.com.
