Showing posts with label asperger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asperger. Show all posts

Custody hearing for Christopher Boone

On the last lesson on Friday we began with the statement “Everything is going to be all right. I promise”. So we thought about it and looked it up in our books to find the context. It was Christopher´s mother who said it to her son after she had an argument with Christopher´s father in her flat in London. The topic was that Father wanted his son back but Christopher wanted to live with his mother.

We took this situation as origin for a role-play: the hearing between Ed Boone and Judy Boone about the custody of Christopher. So we built six groups each for one character and worked out a statement of two minutes to say our position about what the best thing would be for Christopher.

The mediator started the hearing and gave an overview about the confused situation in which Christopher and his parents are. After that he handed over to the lawyer of Christopher´s father. He said that Mr. Boone could handle with Christopher alone, because he cooked his meals, cleaned his clothes, looked after him, took him to the doctor and went to school if Christopher was in trouble. On the other side Christopher´s mother left him, because she was be a very hot-tempered person and had hit him if the situation was too much for her. Therefore, she would not able to take care of him. Then the lawyer of Christopher´s mother gave his view on it. He wanted that Judy Boon gets the sole custody for Christopher because it was the wish of Christopher to live with his mother. Moreover, his father hit him after writing the book. That showed that he was unable to take care of Christopher he said. Next Siobhan a teacher of Christopher told her opinion. At first Christopher´s father did a good work handling Christopher, but Christopher is in a deep shock because he is scared about the killed dog and he would be frightened that his father could kill him. But Christopher´s father supported him in everything and so she would suggest that the father got custody. Then Mr. Jeavons the school psychologist went on. He said that it is important to know that Christopher had the Asperger's Syndrome. So he should live with his mother because he is frightened of his father. Christopher could not trust or believe in his father anymore because he could not understand the emotions and feelings of his father. Therefore, he does not know why his father has not shown him the letters and could not understand why father told lies like that mother was dead. But there was the option to trust his father again. Then he should live with both parents together. And at last a social worker said that he would like to have custody for the mother because it was Christopher´s wish. Even if the father was the better option because he had more experience, it was Christopher’s wish so he had to decide where he wanted to live. After that the jury gave short statements - one said he would prefer the sole custody for the mother another said the shared custody, so Christopher could learn to trust his father again. In the following voting eight jury members decided for a sole custody for the mother. Only two preferred a sole custody for the father and one went a shared custody.

Then the lesson ended.

(by Martin S.)

Read More 0 comments | edit post

Our Reading Diary (part 2)

5th March 2010

In our English lessons on Thursday and Friday we went on talking about our murder mystery novel. On Thursday we started with the topic body language because Christopher as a teenager with Asperger Syndrome tries to understand it but he can´t do it very well.

There are many forms of body language, for example you can move your arms and hands in a special way to say something or you speak louder or faster. You can also get a clue about how somebody is feeling when you look at how his skin colour changes.

We also found out on Thursday that Christopher is sometimes very superstitious, although he thinks very rational and believes only what scientists can prove. So, for fun we did a little test to see whether we are superstitious or not. The outputs were very different.

In our Friday lesson we got acquainted with dramatic irony. What this is? You can find dramatic irony, when the reader of a book knows something about what´s happening in the plot, about which the character has no knowledge. In “The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” we can find this when Christopher´s mother is said to be dead but he doesn´t visit the funeral or has any evidence for her death. The effect is that we know more than Christopher and want to see how he will get the information that his mother is still alive.

So far for that week, now we are curious about what we´ll do next lesson.

(by Robert)
Read More 0 comments | edit post

When is a joke not a joke?!

Christopher, a 15 year old boy who has the Asperger Syndrome, is telling the reader of his book "The Curious Incident of the Dog at the Night Time" at the beginning, that he is not telling jokes, because he does not understand them. He gives the example of a joke, which punch line is based on the double meaning of a word. Christopher explains that if one word has two or three meanings, it is for him like listening to three different songs at one time. There is too much information in one word and his brain is unable to work this out.


You can follow that situation if you imagine a German person, who is trying to understand an English joke. That person might have learned English very well, but he does not have the language skills of a native speaker, which he needs, to understand double meanings or sound differences (e.g. hair - hare).

As an example, you could take that cartoon. The first speech bubble is just easy to understand. The woman is asking the man, why the golfer is wearing two pairs of trousers. Of course you have to recognize that she is talking about the golfer, because that is important for the joke, but you can also see a man playing golf in the cartoon. The second speech bubble contains the joke. It is based on the double meaning of the word group "hole in one". The difference between both meanings is the rhythm of speaking. The first meaning just says that the golfer might get a hole in one of his trousers - because of that he is wearing two pairs. The second meaning refers to a special golfer term. A "hole in one" is, when a golfer gets the ball in the hole with just one turn. Now you have to get those two meanings in your brain and put them together. Very difficult for a person, who is not a native speaker.


(by Elisa)


cartoon source: http://ecenglish.com/learnenglish//userfiles/image/hole-in-one.jpg)

Read More 0 comments | edit post

Asperger's Syndrome

On this homepage we want to talk about a very interesting book. Its name is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time” and it was written by Mark Haddon in 2003. This book is about the little Christopher John Francis Boone who is affected by the Asperger´s syndrome, which is a neurobiological disorder and a special type of autism, but the people who are affected are not that hard to handle like the “real” autists. If you are affected by this syndrome on the one hand there is an inability to interact socially, which means that it is very difficult to get on with other people, because you do not understand their emotions and feelings, you cannot interpret their gestures and if they tell you some jokes you will not understand them. Also it is very difficult to understand the meanings of metaphors or some figures of speech. You would have problems with your motor functions and this is why you maybe would have a bad handwriting or would be some kind of unathletic. But on the other hand you are very intelligent and because of the Savants syndrome you would have a huge knowledge in a special topic – mostly some kind of science like mathematics and physics. You would love precision, perfection, the truth, logical things and would have a really good sense of justice. This is why this syndrome also is called “Little Professor Syndrome”.


But it is difficult to understand the feelings and emotions of such a person and this is why they will need a special handling. If a child is about four years old you will recognize the syndrome because of the symptoms. Especially in this age – when they are younger – they need help and education in how to behave socially. In addition to this they need good teachers and the parents have to know what their child is feeling and should know what it likes and what it does not like. Also, it could be that they need a good doctor, because some of these people get very depressive or aggressive when they are older. If they are getting older they will understand, that they are different and it is difficult to live alone with nearly no friends. Also special schools are important, because it is very bad, if these children become a victim of bullying. So there should be found the right way to handle the positive characteristics and to get on with the negative and then these persons have a good chance to be integrated in our society, to get a job and to become a good worker or scientist.

The following video clip gives you an insight of how it looks like if somebody is suffering from autist symptoms.

(by Jenny)


(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxq5w2XQXqI&feature=related)

Read More 0 comments | edit post