ScHARR Mental Health Seminar

Photo by Daniel Morris

"How do mainstream secondary pupils with Asperger syndrome/high
functioning autism socially spend their school day?"

by

By Jenny Wainscot & Jenna Williams
Mental Health Group, ScHARR, University of Sheffield

12.30-1.30pm on Tuesday 11th December 2007
Lecture Rooms 1 & 2, First Floor, ScHARR, Regent Court, University of Sheffield

This seminar talk reports research that Jenny has spent the last year
working on for her BMedSci dissertation with Dr. Paul Naylor, Dr. Paul
Sutcliffe and Prof. Digby Tantam and the contribution to it that Jenna
has made since July.

Asperger syndrome (AS) is characterised by difficulties with social
relationships and social communication, poor coordination and a
restricted range of interests. People with AS have average or above
average intelligence and for this reason are normally educated in
mainstream schools. The manifestations of the disorder however, may
result in pupils with AS experiencing difficulties in the mainstream
setting with respect to forming and maintaining friendships and in
engaging in social communication with peers. These difficulties could
lead to pupils with the disorder being potential targets of bullying
This research investigated the social relationships of pupils with AS,
their use of the school environment and their experiences of being
bullied by comparison with a group of typically developing peers.