Selection of Pedagogical Psychological Tools Working with School Children with Asperger’s Syndrome at the Programs of General Basic Education

Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes 2017
Airisa Šteinberga

The aim of the present article is to identify the features of autism spectrum disorders that would allow pupils with disorders to integrate into the academic program. Within the present article, features of autism have been analyzed, division according to different classification criteria has been made and characteristics of different types of autism have been proposed. The author notes that autism spectrum disorders could be classified according to five criteria: level of intellectual development, social engagement, communication, usage and sense of fine and gross motor skills. Each criterion might have three levels: high functioning autism, medium and low functioning autism. In addition, non-classified types of autism are defined in the article; thus, it has been pointed out that from autism spectrum disorders, only Asperger’s syndrome and high functionality autism are the diagnosis that might allow kids to integrate into general education school. In order to identify the system of pedagogical activities, pedagogical experiments have been conducted; their results can be found in experts’ interviews. It has been discovered that the system of educational subject hours impedes this kind of pedagogical activities and the research that would allow both kids with Asperger’s syndrome or high functionality autism and kids without such diagnosis to study together and achieve pedagogical goals. It is important to admit that teachers are not ready to work in a different manner. Talking about schoolchildren, experts’ interviews reveal that consequens of certain pedagogical activities contribute to integration of these special pupils in the school ambience and educational process. Adopting competence-based educational practices it would be easier to implement special system of pedagogical activities; therefore, it is planned to continue the current research.

Keywords
autism spectrum disorders, autism, Asperger syndrome, pedagogical means, system of pedagogical activities

Šteinberga, A. Selection of Pedagogical Psychological Tools Working with School Children with Asperger’s Syndrome at the Programs of General Basic Education. Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes, 2017, Vol.27, pp.66-79. ISSN 1407-9291. e-ISSN 2255-9291.

Publication language
Latvian (lv)