Comments on: Aspergers and writing

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:38:25 +0000

So pleased I found this site. I think a coworker has Aspergers; of course, our team is not privy to a dx.
The issue: our work on the same projects requires typed comments; my coworker will write 2 paragraphs with intensive detail including what might happen when 4 words will convey the real comment.
I have to search those paragraphs to decipher what the real comment is; but I have to respond to the entire comment per protocol.
My coworker’s refusal to change their comment style comes across as rude and arrogant.
Assuming this person has Aspergers (there are many more indicators), is it best for me to just work with this style because the person cannot change?
I am very sincere in reaching a resolution.
Thank you

Xanthippa says:
Chances are – you are correct and your coworker simply cannot change the way his/her style of writing: their perception would be that writing anything less would be an oversimplification to the point of error… I wish I could be of more help…

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:36:17 +0000

But I will often wish I had added something. The problem with coming up with a topic was extremely difficult for me; evedry time I came up with one and began writing, a better one would come to mind or I would find something unsatisfactory about it. But whenever given a specific topic, I would do well.

Xanthippa says: I share your angst!!!

What I find particularly curious is that it is much easier for me to urge my sons to a topic – even with me defining parameters I would never be comfortable with defining for myself – because it iseasier for me to relate to the goal I just get THEM to tha one I must get myself to….

Weird, but true!

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:22:46 +0000

I was taught in Catholic schools (and I have the knuckles to prove it!). I have extremely beautiful and legible handwriting as a result. But it comes at the expense of speed; I am excruciatingly slow. I had to develop my own shorthand to be able to take lecture notes in school. The notes were of the main ideas, and seldom verbatim. I frequently begin writing one word and continue with another. And I agonize over every word and am often offended or amazed when my readers do not get my nuances and misunderstand me. (They never simply fail to understand, they must misunderstand.) This, it seems to me, is why it is so hard to write things; when it is done, it is after much thought and effort. It is rare when I want to change anything I have written.

By: Dave Angel

Dave Angel — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:14:11 +0000

This is very helpful. So many kids with Aspergerts in schools struggle with being forced to do lots of hand writing. In today’s society I think that word processing should be made more readily available as a feasible option in schools.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:12:06 +0000

I simply love this blog post! I can NOT thank you enough! I home school my Aspie, and writing and spelling is so hard for him! He struggles with getting ideas on paper.Thank you for explaining this, I know it is going to help him so much!

By: annie

annie — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:57:22 +0000

Can someone please share with me their experience with trying their gifted aspergers boys in regular private schools such as UCC etc. Are these schools receptive with full disclosures? Also where can you find teachers who are interested and know how to tutor these kids. My son has been doing mental math since 2, can write prolifically/obsessively and with perfect diction about some alien story but does poorly in structured language classes – so I am most interested in building/channeling his language skills. The public school system seems to have taken his IEP as an excuse not to consider his strengths but rather his weaknesses.
Thanks
Ann

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:13:25 +0000

The awesome thing is that technology is making a lot of the weaknesses of Asperger’s go away; we have GPS systems to keep us from getting lost, we have computer printouts to save us the embarassment of ridiculously bad handwriting and we have Smartphones we can set to remind us of all the little things we forget during the day.

By: Antoinette

Antoinette — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:26:29 +0000

Xanthippa,

I just wanted to thank you, your blog has been a real help to me.

My son is 9 years old and was diagnosed with Asperger’s in January this year. He coped well with his first three years of school, but has suffered badly since going up to the next stage. His teachers and I have been trying desperately to understand how such a bright boy can sit there hour after hour in his maths and literacy lessons and not write a single thing – very often not even the date or title. Your blog has given me a valuable insight into his internal struggles, as well as some strategies to try to support him.

He is highly resistant to writing anything by hand, for the reasons you state – he is l/r dominant, cannot do cursive writing and due to hypotonia and poor core strength finds sitting to write physical painful. Fortunately he is now allowed to use an electronic typing machine called an alphasmart for longer pieces of writing and that has helped to some small extent. There is however much more to his lack of work production. He explains it as ‘not being able to get my imagination to work’ and not being able to understand what order things go in, particularly for literacy questions that have several steps or aspects.

So much of what you write has me jumping up and down saying ‘yes that’s exactly it, that’s what X is like’. The ‘revision’ thing is a BIG problem for him and I really like the idea of turning it around and presenting it as a building process rather than a reworking of the original.

I actually happened across your blog when researching mind-mapping techniques, as I was considering trying this method of helping him get something down on paper in the first instance. It has the advantage of being able to be both computer and/or paper based, so if necessary we can bypass the handwriting issue completely. I noticed when his class were doing some project work last year and producing posters about endangered species, that his posters resembled mind maps, in that they contained very little text and lots of ‘bubbles’ with interconnecting lines and this is what gave me the idea to try mind-mapping with him. I am particularly hoping it will help him first to commit thought to paper and second to start to recognise and pull out the necessary structure to form his thoughts into a more formal piece of work.

Do you have any experience of of using mind-maps, or can you see any potential pitfalls. I would really appreciate your perspective on this, as I am desperate to help him, but his self-esteem is already at an all time low and I am loathe to introduce him to something else that he would struggle with, for reasons I have failed to grasp.

Many thanks

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:29:42 +0000

Would anyone know if there is any research out there that shows that adults with Aspergers Syndrome do better on oral examinations than on written examinations especially, if they know the topic well?

Xanthippa says:

I do not know of any formal research, but, I would consider such research rather redundant…

We know that Aspergers causes a disconnect between a person’s ability to write down their thoughts and ideas, even when they are able to articulate them well verbally, and we know that this gulf is more pronounced in male Aspies than female ones.

This is part of the diagnostic criteria for Aspergers!

It stands to reason that if Aspies are able to express themselves verbally, but not in writing, they would achieve significantly higher scores on verbal tests/examinations than written ones.

In Europe, traditionally, 50% of any student’s mark is based on written tests/exams and the other 50% on verbal (oral) tests/exams. I suspect that here, in North America where almost 100% of all tests/exams are written, Aspies are much less likely to succeed in school and will display a higher rate of depression which is triggered by the difference between their true achievement and their ability to demonstrate their achievements through a written medium….

Sorry, I am rambling.

The short version is: I doubt any studies would have been made as this disparity is one of the diagnostic criteria which defines Aspergers.

By: A most awesome comment on ‘Aspergers and Writing’ « Xanthippa on Aspergers

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:28:00 +0000

[...] I got a most gratifying comment on a post I had written a while back about Aspergers and Writing. I know, it is a serious self indulgence to wallow in praise, but, if refreshing the post with a [...]