Aspergers Society South Africa – is it necessary or not?
Aspergers Society South Africa – Aspergers Syndrome (AS) is a developmental disorder with traits of having difficulties with social interaction, nonverbal communication and repetitive and routine behavior patterns. Aspergers has recently been included into the vast Autism Spectrum. This also indicates that AS symptoms are less severe than those that are present on the spectrum.
Aspergers society is an organization in America that provides necessary resources to those people who are families or parents to a child with AS. These resources include education, professionals and support groups that are easily available. They also provide articles with necessary information pertaining to the vast number of questions that families need answered.
Aspergers Society South Africa – Education
To integrate AS children into mainstream schools is a great challenge for many children and parents. AS children may be able to cope in a mainstream school but are still susceptible to experiencing sensory problems, such as visual or auditory over stimulation, not being abler to adequately deal with large number of people surrounding them, anxiety etc. Through the society, suitable schools are made available to parents in which to enroll their children in. The society also provides information for home schooling and how to go about doing and managing this. The society also provides school related resources to parents such as speech therapists, OT’s, psychologists, doctors etc. These all help in the successful integration of an AS child into mainstream school.
Aspergers Society South Africa – Support groups
Parents of AS children benefit greatly from support groups because they help in the understanding of the disorder. One of the main reasons is that parents get to know that there are other people in a similar situation to them which helps in lessening the pressure of the unknown. By sharing experiences, their own resources and feelings, parents gain a lot of necessary information needed to deal with their own specific situation. Any help is a great help. There are also support groups for the person with AS themselves where other people with AS come together and have a discussion pertaining to their personal struggles etc which helps in knowing that there are people out there who are similar to you and share some of the experiences that they might.
Aspergers Society South Africa – Professionals
Parents of children with AS realize that their child will need a vast number of professionals to help their child deal with their specific difficulties. Professional such as speech therapists, OT’s, neuropsychologists, biomedical doctors, ABA facilities etc. are greatly needed by all to help in the fight to help the children. The society provides city specific links to necessary professionals who are trained to specifically help children with AS. These professionals are also tried and tested because many of the other parents have already used or are currently using these doctors.
Is there a need for such a society in South Africa?
No doubt that having such a group readily available in South Africa would be of a great help to families of an AS person but there are many readily available resources here. Off course the first idea would be to Google and that would yield you great results but why not rather try out an organization like The Star Academy. They provide a wholesome take on AS and related disorders. They also provide a holistic approach towards AS and have a treasure cove of many related professionals to help these parents. The Star Academy can also provide a child specific program, tailor made program to help a child with AS overcome their problems. They also provide great support of mainstream school integration and help with providing a facilitator to go with the child to school in case of any issues occurring. The also have a great knowledge of biomedical interventions which can be of great help to any child that has AS. You could even say that The Star Academy is the aspergers society of South Africa as they are based around the country and are always available to help no matter where you are.
