On Aspects of the Interaction between a Gifted Student with Suspected Asperger’s Syndrome and the School Environment: A Gifted Education Teacher’s Point of View

[[abstract]]Abstract The qualitative case study, in a gifted education teacher’s point of view, aims at investigating aspects of the interaction between a gifted student with suspected Asperger’s syndrome and the school environment. To explore the interaction, the researcher interviewed the subject and significant persons, observed him directly, and collected his literary work and personal files. Generally, the subject’s behavior and mental development were highly affected by the school context; the school responded to the subject’s needs and difficulties on various dimensions and degrees. The very complicated interference was observed, described, and interpreted in this study. The study claims that: 1. Characteristics: The subject is discovered and supported in terms of his difficulties. The specialty of the subject’s verbal excellence exceeded possible comprehension of his teachers and classmates, but it resulted in conflicts and misunderstandings. Yet the school responded the subject’s special needs intensively by adjustment of administrant system. Experienced teachers, for instance, took care of the subject’s occasional melancholic moods, and developed an intimate relationship between them. Gifted education functioned as a vital supportive system as well. 2. Opportunities: The reveal of the subject’s strength extends his relationship among teachers and classmates. In the elementary school, focusing on language arts, the subject’s verbal ability was elicited and promoted. Specifically, as he participated in humanity curricula of the school’s gifted resource classroom and contests about language arts, his excellent language talent was recognized and appreciated by teachers and classmates. That is, the teachers offered a wide range of assistance regarding his talent in language. Further, through self-awareness and accommodation, he could be engaged in the peer interaction at school. 3. Labels：The ambiguous labeling is applied to the subject so that he obtains counseling treatment. Because of his unclear diagnosis, the subject was regarded as a student with adaptive problems rather than a special needs one. By this, the supports from the special education system might not be the proper intervention, for the school, to take with him, so that they provided guidance and assistance from the perspective of counseling. His uniqueness cannot be clearly defined as a typical Asperger ‘s syndrome. More possible understanding the subject could be made as considering his outstanding performance.