Jack is 9. He has recently been diagnosed as having Aspergers’ Syndrome. In class he was always moving about and constantly trying to attract the attention of the teacher or other children. He always seemed to be looking for something or adjusting an item of clothing or something under his desk or in his schoolbag.
Jack’s class almost always watched a T.V. program on the same day each week. Jack enjoyed this and managed to concentrate for the 12 minutes of the video. However, one day his teacher was off sick and there was a substitute teacher. For some reason, she did not show the programme. This really upset Jack who spent nearly an hour muttering about a T.V. and a Video. he wouldn’t do any work and was very agitated and unsettled.
Jack liked to be part of a group and he liked to be friendly but he had not learned how to behave with different people and greeted everybody with a kiss and a hug even if he had never met them before. He also seemed to like physical contact. This was a problem as the boys used this as a reason to tease him about his sexuality and it was behaviour which many girls’ parents did not approve of.