Autism Soccer: Asperger’s Syndrome: A Guide for Beginners

Asperger's Syndrome isn't that severe, but it has its difficulties as well.

There are things about the human brain that are out of men’s reach, most brain diseases like Alzheimer’s aren’t still fully understood and are yet incurable. Cognitive and social development diseases like Autism and Asperger have become a challenge for most specialists on the subject. Meanwhile, alternatives for the treatment of those diseases have made their way to aid parents in their process of raising special needs children.

Asperger’s Syndrome is part of the Autism Disorder Spectrum, meaning that is one of the profiles of autism and that it has part of the difficulties this disorder bears. This condition affects the way the kids perceive the world. Whereas non-autistic kids have no problem with understanding thoughts and feelings towards others, Asperger’s kids have a hard time in interpreting these.

Children with Asperger’s have a different way of understanding things, their language interpretation is literal in most of the conversations they hear and are part of. Jokes are an enigma to them, as they require a certain grade of irony or sarcasm. Also, they have problems to recognize the changes in speeches (like tones, accents or pitches).

Their sense of right and wrong is very clear to them, and if needed, they’ll let others know that what they’re doing is wrong or should not be done. But that doesn’t apply to them since they’re not aware of their own mistakes or behavior.

They do things following patterns and with a certain range of predictability. That answers to their need of feeling safe and comfortable, meaning that things like, going out or going to unknown places, are horrible to them. Anything that takes them out of their comfort zones can lead to shutdowns (situations where they just turn off from the world outside and stop listening or paying attention), so it’s very important to leave things as they are or prepare them properly for any change if needed.

Asperger’s kids are in a way, egotistical. If they have the need for something, in particular, they’ll express it no matter the context or the moment. That means they can easily disturb a serious conversation just because they want something. This is added to the fact they can’t process emotions and feelings from others properly, making it difficult for parents to express and communicate with their kids.

They have difficulties with multi-tasking; they can’t focus on various tasks at the same time. But they’re good at details and solving simple tasks that require focusing on one thing at a time. Knowing how their minds work serves as a tool when needing to deal with special needs children, especially Asperger’s. But the most important tool parents need in order to deal with their kids’ behavior is patience; remember, it’s not the kids’ fault being born with a condition like that.

Asperger shouldn’t be a reason for kids not to play sports or trying new things, and with professionals like the people at Autism Soccer, there won’t be reasons to worry about. The best team special needs children could have, contact with them.