Parents of children who have become teenagers quickly discover that they are going to face some new challenges with parenting. In general, most typical teens cope in somewhat predictable ways. Those coping mechanisms may not be in place for teens and young adults who have Asperger’s Syndrome.
Asperger’s Syndrome has been described as a high functioning form of autism. People who have it tend to be highly intelligent, (sometimes to the point of being described as a “genius”). They are obviously bright individuals, and this can sometimes make teachers and employers expect them to handle situations that they really might not be prepared to cope with.
One of the things that kids, teens, and adults who have Asperger’s Syndrome struggle with is social skills. This group tends to not pick up on the social nuances that are so important to teenagers. Frequently, the result is that the teen with Asperger’s Syndrome has a great deal of difficultly making friends, especially with people in his or her age group. Young adults can experience problems as they try to work with bosses and coworkers who display social cues that the young adult with Asperger’s Syndrome cannot pick up on.
So, how do they cope with these difficulties? That is what one researcher is trying to discover. Doctoral candidate Angela Khor, from Monash University, is using mobile phones to find out more about how teens with Asperger’s Syndrome cope with stress.
The program is called “mobiletype”. There are five teens who have Asperger’s Syndrome that are taking part in the study. Each one is prompted to record their feelings on a phone. The teens are making a record of their feelings, as well as the scenarios that triggered those feelings, in “real time”. This makes the data more reliable. The teens don’t have to try and go back and remember what happened later on, they just have to talk about their feelings as they happen.
The study is unique in a few ways. One way, of course, is the method of data collection. Another way is because it is focusing on the way the teens are coping, (instead of focusing on how their parents are coping), with Asperger’s Syndrome. It is hoped that this study could lead to new ways to prevent mental illnesses from appearing in people who have Asperger’s Syndrome.
Angela Khor notes that people with Asperger’s Syndrome, as a group, tend to have high rates of both depression and anxiety. This is because this group is intelligent enough to know that they are different from their peers. Like all teens and young adults, the ones with Asperger’s Syndrome don’t want to be “different”. The struggle to appear “normal”, and to correctly interpret and understand social cues, can lead to depression and anxiety in young people who have Asperger’s Syndrome.
Image by E Cohen on Flickr