Social and interpersonal development in schools

Morris is in Year 6 in a suburban primary school. He is finding school difficult-as many students do from time to time-especially since two years previously he had been identified as having Asperger's syndrome. So, while Morris wants to be friendly and cooperative, this is far from straightforward for him, and on occasions he can appear to be unruly and uncooperative. His teacher, Heather, finds it difficult to teach the class when Morris is unsettled. For example, one afternoon she asked all the students to stop doing their creative writing task because it was time for quiet reading. Morris had not completed his writing task and, on being told to quit, started shouting and running around the classroom for several minutes. Eventually he stopped, went to a corner, and cried. You will find a few references to Asperger's syndrome in this book, mostly in Chapter 5, including the 'Facts about ... ' feature at the end of that chapter. For more information, have a look at the Aspergers Victoria website at www.aspergersvic.org.au. It's always important to know as much as possible about the students in your class. I will briefly touch on some of the issues a little later in the chapter. The section that follows will provide you with some background information to help you to start thinking about how you might deal with Morris if you were his teacher.