Doing Therapy with Children and Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome

237 Pages·2010·1.16 MB·English

by  Richard Bromfield

Doing Therapy with
Children and Adolescents
with Asperger Syndrome

Doing Therapy with
Children and Adolescents
with Asperger Syndrome
Richard Bromfi eld
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.
This book is printed on acid-free paper. (cid:2)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Bromfield, Richard.
Doing therapy with children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome / by Richard Bromfield.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-54025-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Asperger’s syndrome in children—Treatment. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Adolescent. 2. Child. 3. Asperger Syndrome—therapy. 4. Asperger Syndrome—
psychology. 5. Autistic Disorder—therapy. 6. Psychotherapy—methods. WS 350.6 B868d 2010]
RJ506.A9B76 2010
618.92’858832—dc22
2009041457
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Lorraine, the best and sweetest aunt ever.

Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgments xvii
Important Notes xviii
1 ◆ What Asperger’s Means for the Child 1
2 ◆ Meet the Parents 11
3 ◆ Beginning Th erapy 19
4 ◆ Hypersensitivity 29
5 ◆ Anxiety 43
6 ◆ Communication 61
7 ◆ Intellect, Cognitive Style, and Creativity 77
8 ◆ Feelings and Depression 101
9 ◆ Social Diffi culties 121
10 ◆ Th eory of Mind and Other So-Called Impediments
to Th erapy 147
11 ◆ Connecting It All 169
Appendix: Working with Parents 175
References 187
Author Index 201
Subject Index 205
About the Author 217
vii
Preface
I
clinically met my fi rst children with Asperger’s and High-
Functioning Autism in 1981 at Camp Wediko here in New England. Like
many college students before us, my newlywed wife and I had driven north
to New Hampshire to spend an intensive summer learning more about the
careers we were about to enter: she, special education, and myself, clinical
psychology. She was assigned to Th ink City, the camp school, and I was a
counselor for the Stallions, a group of teens who, I was told, didn’t fi t in
with any of the other cabins or groups of children. “I think you’ll fi nd them
interesting,” the late and wonderful camp director said to me with a smile.
Within minutes of entering the cabin, I saw children who diff ered in
ways immediate to my amateur eyes and ears. Unlike the other children I’d
seen at Wediko and before, the Stallions didn’t interact with one another.
Th ere was none of the chitchat, jostling, and testing of each other that one
expects from teens thrown into a mix. Some of the boys were withdrawn
and barely able to say their names. Some boys talked loud and nonstop, not
noticing when other people spoke or weren’t listening. A majority of the
boys came from disadvantaged and stressed homes.
Th e rail-thin Dmitri recited the facts of his family’s ancestry; he couldn’t
tell us the details of his own family. Th e stocky and smiling Eddie laced and
relaced his sneakers as if his feet required 58 psi of pressure. Don, a lineman-
sized teen from Boston’s inner city, giggled in a soft and high voice. Dis-
tracted and mesmerized by his dancing fi ngers, the delicate-looking Hardy
paid little attention to the rest of us. Harlem’s wiry Carlos occupied himself
viii