Many thought that Asperger’s syndrome is only common among young children, but this condition can also affect people of advanced ages, and thus the term “Adult Asperger” was coined for those afflicted with this condition.

Even though the effect of this condition differs on the age groups, the treatments are generally the same. The goals of the treatment are to help the patient in interacting normally in the society, and to teach him or her how to express their feelings towards others. The appropriate therapy for Adult Asperger is directed towards the modification of behavior; this is the main goal of the treatment.

Behavioral therapy will probably include the following process:

ALLOWING THE PATIENT TO INTERACT WITH OTHER PEOPLE.

Since the cognitive skills of the person is usually not affected by the condition, he or she can probably learn normally new things and sense a need that their learnings will be imparted to other people. The therapy will include helping them in simple tasks with other people, such as a simple conversation, playing a non-stressful sport, and eating at the same table.

ALLOWING THE PATIENT CONTROL HIS REPETITIVE BEHAVIORS.

Being obsessive-compulsive is one of the behaviors that is very difficult to control in patients with Adult Asperger. But psychiatrists would usually control repetitive-compulsive behaviors, like frequent tapping of walls, by setting limits to their behavior. In a typical scenario, he or she will be allowed to express this behavior, but will be asked to limit the number of times they are allowed to do it. This number is gradually reduced each day until the goal is met.

ALLOWING THE PATIENT TO EXPRESS HIS EMOTIONS.

This is probably the best measure if the interventions towards the client are successful. But for adult patients with Asperger’s Syndrome, this one could be one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish, because they are usually having a difficulty in expressing their emotions through talking, because of impairments in the motor skills in speech. But theirsensory centers for speech work normally, and thus they can express and can comprehend what others are saying as well.

In this step of the therapy, the psychiatrist will usually recommend that the patient should also undergo a series of speech therapy to correct the imperfections in his motor skills. When this phase is completed, the patient will be expected to verbalize his feelings normally so the health care provider can understand and get some much needed feedback to tailor the next treatment session.

ALLOWING THE PATIENT TO ACCEPT HIS OWN SELF

This maybe an essential step of the behavioral therapy, because it gives the patient a sense of their self and accept his condition. But this is not to help the patient gear towards isolating his self more from the society, instead he will be able to accept that he is different, but still can function normally as any other normal persons would do. It is very important in this step that he be given importance, and be taught the socially accepted behaviors and norms.

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Filed under: Adult Aspergers

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