Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and High Function Autism (HFA) Service
ASPERGER’S SYNDROME - A PARALLEL DIMENSION?
OR
I’M ON THE WRONG PLANET SYNDROME?
DO YOU:  Have difficulty in making friends?
 Feel rejected and ignored by people?
 Always feel alone?
 Have difficulty in getting started with your life?
 Often feel lonely, depressed and anxious?
 Have a hard time making folk understand where you’re coming
from?
 Sometimes feel as if you’ve been plonked down on the wrong planet.
If you’ve answered YES to some or all of these questions then you may want to consider
giving us a call. Together we can start the journey towards a more rewarding and fulfilling
way of living.
 To give you the opportunity to develop friendships with like-minded
people.
 To build up your personal confidence with regards to potential
occupation, social life, relationships, self-help, self-reliance, health and
well-being and control of daily living and life direction.
 To enable you to develop coping strategies and learn techniques that will
help you to address your depression, anxiety and any other emotional
issues.
HOW WILL YOU BENEFIT:
 You will be more likely to make friends and enjoy relationships
 You will be more likely to acquire your own home and enjoy independent
living and making your own decisions about how you live your life.
 You will also be more likely to obtain paid employment and earn
independent income.
 You will be more likely to enjoy your life without undue anxiety or
depression or emotional issues.
 You will be able to better understand where other people are coming from
and they will be more able to understand you.
CAN YOU BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP AND GIVE US A CALL?
CALL: Babs McClellan, Case Manager Open Door.
Albion Street, Grimsby, DN32 7DL
01472 722009
www.opendoorcare.co.uk
For more information about Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC) see
below: WHAT IS AUTISM?
WHAT IS ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AND HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISM?
WHY ARE PEOPLE WITH AS OR HFA AFFECTED THIS WAY?
AREAS OF POTENTIAL DIFFICULTY FOR SOMEONE WITH AUTISM
OTHER SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTISM
WAYS TO SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH AUTISM
Asperger’s Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Service
This service is for adults (aged 16 and over) who have been diagnosed with [or suspect they
may have] Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) or High Functioning Autism (HFA) without an
associated learning disability. The service has been commissioned to help the many people
who are affected by these conditions who do not meet the criteria for support from learning
disability or mental health service providers.
WHAT IS AUTISM?
NAS Website www.autism.org.uk description says: ‘Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with,
and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around
them.
It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain
difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways. Some people with autism are
able to live relatively independent lives but other may have accompanying learning
disabilities and need a lifetime of specialist support. ‘
Descriptions and dialogues regarding autism often uses terminology such as ‘impairment/s’,
‘condition/s’, ‘disorder/s’, ‘disability/ies’ etc. Lots of people who are affected by autism
prefer the term ‘difference/s’ or ‘neurodiversity’ whilst others claim they are disabled by the
effects of autism and this should be recognised.
WHAT IS ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AND HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISM?
These conditions are a form of Autism. The people affected usually have average to well
above average intelligence. The conditions are often referred to as ‘hidden’ as it is difficult
to tell if someone has AS or HFA by just looking at them. It is often their social interaction
that makes them appear different from others. They often get called weird, or geeky and
even rude or badly behaved because their social behaviour does not always fit the social
norm. For some their social interaction is fine for most of the time, but can appear a bit
strange when they face a challenging situation or unfamiliar environment.
Quite often they have had a difficult time at school trying to fit in and many young people
and adults report they were bullied, ostracised and even abused. Work may also be
difficult because they have problems with the social aspect of the working environment.
Some may have issues with their working memory or ability to organise tasks or daily living
without prompts from others.
A lot of people with AS or HFA state that they feel they are aliens from another planet –
they don’t know where or how to fit in. Some say they feel as if they were viewing daily
life from a different dimension and cannot work out how to communicate or interact with
the dimension everyone else appears to be on. Some who have never had a diagnosis or
an assessment of need tell us that they have always wondered why they were different, why
they were judged the way they were. What did they do wrong? What was wrong with
them? Were they ‘mad’ or ‘bad’? None of these things are true – they just view the world
from a different perspective than most of us. When they do find out the ‘why’ they say it is
such a relief to have some answers which is half the battle. The other half is developing
strategies to cope and also making the non-autistic population more aware of the issues
they face and to be a little more understanding and tolerant.
The positive side of AS and HFA is the ability to process lots of information (given sufficient
time and the right environment) can prove very productive. There is a current fashion for
posthumous diagnosis of some of our more famous scientists, composers, writers,
philosophers and artists etc whose recorded life stories presented them as eccentric or
having a very difficult social life and or relationships. It would appear (although this cannot
be proven) that many would have been diagnosed to day with Asperger’s Syndrome e.g.
Einstein, Newton, Darwin, Beethoven, Mozart, Van Gogh etc. Some eminent people still
alive have a diagnosis e.g. Bill Gates (Microsoft). It is a reasonable assumption that the
electronic technology owes a lot to people with Asperger’s who work within the industry.
There are some businesses in the States and also in London who actively recruit people with
Asperger’s Syndrome of the relevant calibre as they appreciate their high level of
productivity. However, most people with AS or HFA struggle to interact with the social
world on a day to day basis and although they may appear as if they are not in significant
need of support, they are. They are the ones that got missed at school. They are the one
who do not receive support from the statutory agencies because they do not fit the criteria.
But they do need support, and with that support to help them develop coping strategies life
would be so much more fulfilling and rewarding for them.
That’s what Open Door’s AS & HFA Service was commissioned to do and that
is what we provide!
WHY ARE PEOPLE WITH AS OR HFA AFFECTED THIS WAY?
AS & HFA are conditions that effect how sensory information is filtered. Most of us usually
filter out the vast majority of the information that we receive through their senses only
attending to a few bits of information.
Our brain automatically fills in the gaps – or takes
short cuts as it recognises what it is perceiving and disregards (filters out) any information it
does not need. This allows us to come to a conclusion or to take action within a short
period of time. Those affected by AS or HFA do not filter out enough information and
therefore need to process much more information than is usual.
Each individual is unique to the degree that they are affected in this way. This difference in
sensory filtering can result in the individual as a young baby and child not acquiring some
basic social skills that we all develop (unconsciously) at this stage in our development.
Thereafter having to learn them at a conscious level and to actively work out what others
really mean or intend. This often leads to social misunderstanding, rejection and
discrimination.
Those affected also experience difficulties in their sensory perceptions often being overly
sensitive or under sensitive in one or more of their senses. They can often be
overwhelmed by what they perceive visually, or hear, touch, smell, taste or even messages
from and to their own body. Again how each sense is affected and to what degree is unique
to the individual. The result of this can mean being overwhelmed by busy environments,
sometimes experienced as discomfort, sometimes as pain and almost always creating some
degree of heightened anxiety.
For the affected individual on a daily basis they are trying to cope within social situations
with often poorly developed social skills and feel quite often as if they don’t belong. They
may have difficulty in forming friendships or maintaining relationships. This can be quite
traumatic and often they withdraw from social contact and then face isolation and
depression. Lack of understanding within society and communities of this condition and
the affects it can have on each individual makes daily living even more difficult than it need
be.
AREAS OF POTENTIAL DIFFICULTY FOR SOMEONE WITH AUTISM (see National
autistic Societies website)
Communication
People with autism have difficulties with both verbal and non-verbal language. Many have
a very literal understanding of language, and think people always mean exactly what they
say. They find it difficult to use or understand:
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Facial expressions or tone of voice
Jokes, Sarcasm, metaphorical speech
Common phrases and sayings: e.g. ‘It’s cool’ meaning something is good, rather
than the literal meaning that it is a bit cold.
Some people with autism may not speak or have fairly limited speech. They will usually
understand what other people say to them, but prefer to use alternative means of
communication themselves, such as sign language or visual symbols. Some people with
autism have impaired receptive language in that they find it difficult to understand what
people are saying to them. Some with more severe autism have difficulty in understanding
that the sounds coming from other’s mouths are forms of communication. This is not the
case for those affected by AS or HFA.
Others will have good language skills, but they still find it hard to understand the give-andtake nature of conversations, perhaps repeating what the other person has just said (this is
known as echolalia) or talking at length about their own interests. They may also have
difficulty in keeping up with a conversation, especially in groups. They may still be
processing what one person has said when the conversation has moved on. The above is
the case for someone affected by AS or HFA [with the exception of echolalia which is rare].
Social Interaction
People with autism often have difficulty recognising or understanding other people’s
emotions and feelings, and expressing their own, which can make it difficult for them to fit
in socially. They may:
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Not understand the unwritten social rules which most of us pick up without thinking;
they may stand too close to another person for example, or start an inappropriate
subject of conversation.
Appear to be insensitive because they have not recognised how someone else is
feeling
Prefer to spend time alone rather than seeking out the company of other people
Not seek comfort from other people
Appear to behave ‘strangely’ or inappropriately, as it is not always easy for them to
express feelings, emotions or needs.
Difficulties with social interaction can mean that people with autism find it hard to form
friendships: some may want to interact with other people and make friends, but may be
unsure how to go about this.
Social Imagination
Social imagination allows us to understand and predict other people’s behaviour, make
sense of abstract ideas, and to imagine situations outside our immediate daily routine.
Difficulties with social imagination mean that people with autism find it hard to:
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Understand and interpret other people’s thoughts, feelings and actions
Predict what will happen next, or what could happen next
Understand the concept of danger, for example that running on to a busy road poses
a threat to them
Engage in imaginative play and activities: children with autism may enjoy some
imaginative play but prefer to act out the same scenes each time
Prepare for change and plan for the future
Cope in new or unfamiliar situations
Difficulties with social imagination should not be confused with a lack of imagination. Many
people with autism are very creative and may be, for example, accomplished artists,
musicians or writers.
OTHER SIGNIFICANT CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTISM ARE:
Love of routines
The world can seem a very unpredictable and confusing place to people with autism, who
often prefer to have a fixed daily routine so that they know what is going to happen every
day. As some people with autism have difficulty in being able to predict others actions or
situations they develop coping strategies and routines that helps them to control their daily
lives and to some extent environment and therefore help them to predict what will happen
next. Such routines can extend to travelling the same way to work or school each day,
doing a task exactly in the same order every time, or eating the same food for breakfast etc.
Rules can also be important: it may be difficult for a person with autism to take a different
approach to something once they have been taught the ‘right’ way to do it. People with
autism may not be comfortable with the idea of change, but can cope well if they are
prepared for it in advance.
Sensory sensitivity
As described above most people with autism have a degree of over sensitivity
(hypersensitivity) in one or more of their senses (sense modality) and may (subconsciously)
shut down the over sensitive sense to such a degree that it becomes under sensitive
(hyposensitive) in order to avoid being overwhelmed by sensory overload . This applies to
all the senses, hearing (auditory), sight (visual), touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), smell
(olfactory) and also proprioception (which is the sense of what the body is doing, moving
and where it is in space – our brain is constantly being fed information from our muscles,
organs as well as chemical messengers – so that our bodies can function properly) and
vestibular sense which helps us with balance and gravity awareness.
Therefore they may be hypersensitive for most of the time but also experience transition
into hyposensitivity. If we cannot rely on our senses it becomes very difficult making sense
of the world, it interferes with our development, makes it difficult to predict potential
situations and also cause extreme levels of anxiety. It is understandable how some people
with autism develop phobias about certain places or types of places or situations and fear
ending up in a place or situation where they may be overwhelmed by sensory overload. If
one sense is in extreme overload it can result in shutdown, which prevents the person from
processing information from other senses also. This can be a very scary place to be.
Some people with autism experience such high levels of hypersensitivity that the sense
stimulations can be actually painful. Many youngsters with autism find auditory stimulation
very painful. Others may be only mildly affected, but still find it problematical.
Some writers and researchers of autism purport that sensory problems are caused by
differences in how the brain filters sensory stimulators. The brain fails to filter out
irrelevant sensory detail and tries to process everything. This it is argued is one of the
main developmental problems of autism.
Special interests
Many people with autism have intense special interests, often from a fairly young age.
These can change over time or be lifelong, and can be anything from art or music, to trains
or computers. Some people with autism may eventually be able to work or study in related
areas.
Learning disabilities
Some people with autism may have learning disabilities, which can affect all aspects of
someone’s life, from studying in school, to learning how to wash themselves or make a
meal. As with autism, people can have different ‘degrees’ of learning disability, so some
will be able to live fairly independently – although they may need a degree of support to
achieve this – while others may require lifelong, specialist support.
However, there are some people who are so severely affected by autism that it is difficult to
assess whether or not they have a learning disability (if they are intellectually impaired).
There are cases of people who have been classed as having severe learning disabilities, who
eventually learned to communicate in some way and have been found to be very intelligent
and very aware of their situation.
Commonalities
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Anyone with an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) can have average or above
average IQ
Learning disabilities and mental health issues are not necessarily present for
everyone with an ASC although they can occur alongside any ASC. Mental Health
issues commonly develop however, due to difficult or even traumatic experiences
e.g. depression, high anxiety levels, poor anger management etc.
Extreme sensory under or over-sensitivity is usually present in any ASC.
Extreme adherence to rigid rules and routines is common in any ASC (needing
predictability).
Intense focus and obsessive special interests mays be present in any ASC.
All ASC (excepting Rett’s Syndrome are more common in males than females (1 – 4
ratio).
WAYS TO SUPPORT PEOPLE WITH AUTISM
 Explain what you are about to do, what will happen next and why.
 Do not assume that they will understand how you are feeling or your real intentions
by your body language or facial expression.
 Give the person enough time to understand and process the information you are
sharing and wait a few seconds for a response if it is not given immediately.
 Questions should be clear and direct using language that is unambiguous and easily
understood. Do not use metaphors, sarcasm or irony as this may be taken literally.
 Because some people with autism may take language literally avoid words with a
double meaning and humour that could be misunderstood.
 Maintain a routine – familiarity is often important to some people with autism. Try
not to change routine suddenly if it can be avoided.
 Please do not be offended if the person does not make eye contact, or if eye contact
appears inappropriate, or they display unusual body language or facial expression, or
if they talk at inappropriate moments or about inappropriate topics or if topics are
out of context.
 Repetitive behaviours might be a coping mechanism and therefore should be
respected.
 The environment is important – some people with autism are particularly sensitive to
light, movement, sounds, smell and touch. Try to keep the immediate environment
as calm as possible to alleviate anxiety or be mindful that in busy environments the
person may experience sensory overload which generates very high levels of anxiety.
In these situations their cognitive processing may be affected and they may be less
likely to understand what is being said to them or going on around them.
 Always consider the person’s behaviour in terms of his or her autism, even if it
becomes challenging. Do not assume that they should behave or respond in the
same way as you would.
 Ask the person and or carer/advocate what support they may need.
 Please show respect and tolerance towards the person even though you may feel
that their behaviour is provocative.