Anxieties of Primary School Boys Diagnosed with AS

by Stella MacDonald

Below we contrast the anxieties of two 8 year old boys, diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, both in year 4 but attending different primary schools in Fife, Scotland.

Child A

1. Would like to play with other children in the playground.
2. Has difficulty talking to the children, but wished that he could communicate better.
3. Gets worried when the teacher get cross or shouts at other children.
4. Feels angry when teacher gets cross with him.
5. Is nervous doing all written work and reading. Finds them difficult to do.
6. Feels clever inside his head, but finds that things go wrong when writing both numbers and letters, and with new words for reading. This confuses him, as he was sure that when writing something, that it was correct, but finds it wrong when reading through it again. (Dyslexia).
7. These problems annoy him and explaining how he feels is not easy.
8. He feels lonely in class and in the playground.
9. He sees that everybody else is managing all right, but knows that he isn't. He doesn't know what to do about it.
10. Some children have taken his belongings, in the past, and he didn't tell anybody. Has difficulty communicating the things that upset him, at the time.
11. Feels the teachers don't understand him.
12. Sometimes doesn't understand what the teacher is saying - the exact meaning. Has to listen very hard to try to understand what she is saying. Worries in case he doesn't understand and gets things wrong.
13. Finds the whole school experience really hard to cope with. Doesn't like school at all.
14. All his big problems are at school, and he doesn't know what to do about them.
15. Felt a lot happier after disclosing these problems.

Child B

1. All his 'biggest problems are at school'.
2. He feels that his teacher does not understand how he is feeling.
3. He finds comprehension, vocabulary, punctuation and division difficult to understand, and he feels annoyed that he can't do these things with ease. He has difficulty understanding what statements and sentences actually mean. He says he doesn't think the teacher knows that he has these difficulties.
4. He says he feels cross 'inside himself' a lot of the time at school, and that he doesn't understand what school is all about.
5. He feels a failure at school, in comparison to feeling clever at home.
6. Everything to do with school, he finds is really hard work, taking a lot of effort and never getting better. He feels worried when doing any of his work.
7. When the teacher gets cross with him, he doesn't understand why.
8. He states that since Primary One, he has found school annoying.
9. Sometimes the children play with him, and sometimes not.
10. Sometimes he feels lonely in class and the playground.
11. One of his peers pokes him in the ribs and hurts him. This makes him feel angry.
12. He wishes that he felt better at school and understood things clearer.
13. He doesn't like school at all and doesn't know what to do about it, wishing he had someone at school to help him feel happier. He indicated that he wished his Mother could fill this role, as she 'is able to explain things to him in a way he can understand'

Stella MacDonald

• Articles

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• Parenting Strategies by Phad Parents
• Daily Life for Someone who is Ably Autistic by Stella MacDonald
• How To Cope - Interview with an Aspie Girl by Stella MacDonald
• Some issues using Anxiety amongst High School Pupils Diagnosed with a High-functioning Autistic Disorder by Stella MacDonald
• An Invitation to Know You Are an Aspie? by Maurice Frank
• Recognition? — Young Authorship by Maurice Frank
• Is Asperger's Syndrome on the Rise? by Neil Gardner

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