[What'sThatSmell]

Here is a script to a short documentary I did for one of my classes on a project about Aspergers..

“How often do you take your socialization abilities for granted? What if you became unable to understand the meaning behind different facial gestures while talking to someone? How about if you took everything said to you literally? That already rules out being able to grasp sarcasm so don’t expect to have much success communicating with the MTV generation. Add both of these impairments onto an inability to foresee consequences in your actions and you’ll have only scratched the surface of the disability this documentary is on.”
> >
“Asperger syndrome, a mild form of autism, is a disability which has little attention paid to it. The reason Aspergers Syndrome (or AS) isn’t widely recognized as a disability is that a person who has it can be highly intelligent but that does not negate the fact that it is a handicap. A child with AS in a public school will more than likely have a nightmarish experience. The child will have poor socialization skills as well as facing a difficult time making friends. However, the root of the problems which the child will have is their emotional vulnerability. Children with AS are emotionally affected by bullying, much more so than other kids. So here you have a child that will indefinitely be perceived as ‘weird’ by fellow classmates who simply cannot be bullied. Do you see the large predicament for children with AS? Essentially a child with AS is a highly potential victim of bullying but if they are bullied they will mentally breakdown. The reason for this documentary is to help better inform as many people as possible on Aspergers Syndrome. If more people learn to treat Aspergers as the disability that it is then maybe there will be a chance of creating a safer learning environment for people diagnosed with it.
> >
“Asperger’s syndrome is an unusual disability because people inflicted with it are still able to communicate coherently with others. In fact a person with AS may even be exceptionally intelligent. However, although a person with AS can talk to other people there tends to be noticeable problems with their speech. Frequently the person will change the pitch of their voice mid-sentence and will add or remove emphasis incorrectly on words.”
> >
“Another noticeable verbal handicap of a person with asperger’s will be the repetitive nature of their conversations. The person will constantly revisit the same points or arguments in a conversation. The repetitive nature of their conversations coincides with the fact that asperger’s makes a person obsessive over any one particular interest.
The interest that they choose to obsess over could be anything: boats, cats, trees, ninjas, polar bears, etc. Many people misinterpret an asperger victim’s narrow-minded obsession as ‘nerdy’ without realizing it is part of their disability. Despite the handicap that the obsession places on a person’s socialization skills there have been reported cases where people with AS pursue careers relating to their interests and become very successful.
> >
“In total there are five areas of impairment which are associated with Aspergers Syndrome. These areas include language development, social interaction, sensory integration, motor functioning, and cognitive processing.”

“Language development is one of the greatest impairments for a child with AS. This does not always mean they struggle with words, some of them have an extensive vocabulary; instead it means that they often don’t understand some of social norms of their language. An example of this is metaphors, people with AS tend to interpret all phrases literally which can prove a problem if you say a phrase like “My feet are killing me!” the person may think that your feet are actually going to cause you to die. Another obstacle people with AS face in language development is vague terminology. Aspergers usually causes a person to think in black and white or right and wrong so if you give them a vague term like “maybe” or say that you’ll do something later then they may become confused.”

“The impairment of language development ties in strongly with the second of the five impairments, social interaction. People with AS have a difficult time engaging people in conversation. Due to the fact that they repeat themselves often and constantly talk about an obsession, as mentioned earlier, people find it hard to talk to them. They also have a hard time listening to other people and when they are talking they usually have little regard towards the person they are talking to. They may say something extremely offensive without even realizing it. Most of the body language a person with AS uses to describe something is incorrect or inappropriate and will often confuse a listener. These are just some of the social interaction problems which often prevent a person with AS from making friends.
> >
“The third impairment, sensory integration, varies a lot between different people with AS. Any of the five senses may be over or under sensitive for them. Sometimes that means that the person will have a very high tolerance to pain. There have been reported cases of children with AS who have broken bones or received massive cuts and have gone about their business as usual, paying no attention to their injury. Having over-sensitive senses is another problem, such as with the sense of hearing. In any loud setting, such as a classroom or a mall, the noise will create a sensory overload for the person. Whether the person has over or under sensitive senses is completely random.”
> >
“Having a motor functioning impairment does not apply to all people with AS. Some people with AS experience no physical handicaps while others have trouble with basic motor skills. The motor skill problems range from not being able to write legibly to being unable to balance correctly. Children with AS will often be teased because they tend to be clumsy and unable to participate in a great deal of physical activities like sports or simply games like tag. Physical education classes will often need to be adjusted for a child with AS to accommodate their motor skill impairments.
> >
“The final impairment a person with AS faces is with cognitive processing. Cognitive processing refers to the way a person processes information. Aspergers causes people to be overly systematic. People with AS follow strict routines of how they go about their day to day business. When a change is introduced to any of their routines they will become extremely agitated and may have an anxiety attack. People with AS do not like any vagueness in their life as mentioned with their language impairment, they need to plan their actions out and execute them accordingly. The idea of doing things spontaneously isn’t an option for a person with AS.”
> >
“You have just listened to some of the basic facts about Aspergers Syndrome. What do you think? Do you think after hearing all of these problems associated with Aspergers that it deserves to be more widely recognized as a disability? The more people that become informed about Aspergers the easier it will be for not only children with it to adapt to a school environment but for anybody with it to adapt easier into society.”
> >
“People with AS are not nerds, they are not weirdo’s or social outcasts. These people have a disability and it is time people start to realize that!”