List of universities in Indonesia official :

1 State Intelligence Agency
2 Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
3 National Defense Agency
4 National Land Agency
5 Statistics
6 National Nuclear Energy Agency
7 Department of the Interior
8 Department of Energy and Mineral Resources
9 Department of Law and Human Rights
10 Ministry of Culture and Tourism
11 Department of Finance
12 Department of Marine Affairs and Fisheries
13 Department of Health
14 Department of Transportation
15 Department of Industry RI
16 Department of Social
17 National Police
18 Institute of Public Administration
19 Department of Agriculture; Plantation; Forestry
20 institutions of the Republic of Indonesia Password

State Intelligence

* High School State Intelligence (Stin), Sentul, Bogor, West Java

Meteorology and Geophysics Agency

* Academy of Meteorology and Geophysics (AMG), Pd. Betung (Bintaro, Tangerang, Banten)
National Defense Agency

* Military Academy (Army), Magelang, Central Java
* Naval Academy (Army Navy), Surabaya, East Java
* Air Force Academy (Army Air Force), Yogyakarta
* School of Naval Technology (Army Navy), Surabaya, East Java
* College of Technology Army (the Army), Malang, East Java

National Land Agency

* National Land High School (STPN), Yogyakarta

Statistics

* College of Statistics (STIS), Jakarta

National Nuclear Energy Agency

* School of Nuclear Technology (STTN), Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta Special Region

Ministry of Internal Affairs

* Institute of Domestic Government (IPDN), a combination of STPDN and IIP

Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources

* Academy of Oil and Natural Gas (Akamigas), Cepu, Blora, Central Java

Department of Justice and Human Rights

* Academy of Immigration (AIM), Gandul (Cinere, Depok, West Java)
* Academy of Sciences of Corrections (ikp), Gandul (Cinere, Depok, West Java)

Ministry of Culture and Tourism

* Bandung Tourism College (STPB), Bandung, West Java
* School of Tourism Bali (STB Bali)
* Medan Tourism Academy
* Makassar Tourism Academy

Ministry of Finance

* State College of Accountancy (STAN), Tangerang Regency

Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

* School of Fisheries (STP), Jakarta, DKI Jakarta
* Academy of Fishery Bitung (APB), Bitung, North Sulawesi
* Academy of Fishery Sidoarjo, APS, Surabaya, East Java
* Sorong Fisheries Academy, APSOR, Sorong, West Papua

Ministry of Health

* Academy of Physiotherapy Surakarta, Central Java
* Academy of Nursing
* Academy of Medical Engineering

Department of Transportation

* Ground Transportation Colleges Bekasi, West Java
* College of Sailing Jakarta, DKI Jakarta
* Aviation High School Curug Indonesia, West Java
* Flight Safety Academy of Engineering Medan, North Sumatra
* Flight Safety Academy of Engineering Surabaya, East Java
* Flight Safety Academy of Engineering Makassar, South Sulawesi

Ministry of Industry RI

* College of Textile Technology Bandung (ST3), Bandung, West Java
* School of Industrial Management Jakarta (STMI), Jakarta, DKI Jakarta
* Akademi Teknologi Kulit Yogyakarta (ATIK), Yogyakarta, DIY
* Corporate Leadership Academy Jakarta (APP), Jakarta
* Academy of Industrial Technology Padang (ATIP), Padang, West Sumatra
* Industrial Technology Academy Makassar (ST3), Makassar, South Sulawesi
* Educational Technology Industrial Chemistry Field (PTKI), Medan, North Sumatra
* Chemical Analysis Bogor Academy (AKA), Bogor, West Java

Ministry of Social

* School of Social Welfare (STKS), Bandung, West Java

National Police

* Police Academy (AKPOL), Semarang, Central Java

Institute of Public Administration

* College of Public Administration - Public Administration Institute (STIA-LAN), Bandung, West Java

Ministry of Agriculture; Plantation; Forestry

* Politeknik LPP Yogyakarta (PLPP), Yogyakarta, DI Yogyakarta
* College of Agricultural Sustainability Plantation (STIP-AP), Medan, North Sumatra
* College of Agriculture Field (STPP Medan), Medan, North Sumatra
* College of Agriculture Magelang (Magelang STPP), Magelang, Central Java
* College of Agriculture Gowa (STPP Gowa), Makassar, South Sulawesi
* College of Agriculture Malang (Malang STPP), Malang, East Java
* School of Bogor Agricultural Extension (STPP Bogor), Bogor, West Java
* School of Agriculture Banjarbaru Development (SPP Banjarbaru), Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan
* School of Agricultural Development Kupang (Kupang SPP), Kupang, NTT
* School of Agriculture Development Sembawa (SPP Sembawa), Sembawa, South Sumatra

Institutions of the Republic of Indonesia Password

* Password State High School (STSN), Bogor, West Java

The Need

Does earning a diploma guarantee that a high school graduate is ready for work and college? It should, for very practical reasons. Entrance requirements for colleges have increased. Employers expect more. Students must be able to communicate effectively, think critically, analyze and interpret data, and evaluate a variety of materials. Sixty-seven percent of new jobs in the market today require some postsecondary education (Achieve Inc., 2006).

Yet despite these demands, many high school graduates are inadequately prepared to continue their education or to enter the workforce. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), at least 28 percent of students entering four-year public colleges in the fall of 2000 were required to take remedial courses when they started, especially in mathematics and language arts, as did 42 percent of those enrolled in two-year public colleges (NCES, 2004). Employers also have noted that many recent high school graduates do not possess the basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills they need to function on the job; and providing remedial training to address this problem costs employers millions of dollars each year (The American Diploma Project [ADP], 2004).

Growing concern about the academic proficiency of high school graduates has placed high school reform at the forefront of the education policy agenda. Critics have begun to question the degree of academic rigor in our nation’s high schools, and many states and school districts are looking for ways to address this issue. This month’s newsletter explores the issue of academic rigor and highlights current efforts to challenge and support high school students.

Rigorous Curriculum for All

It is no secret that a challenging curriculum has a positive effect on student performance after high school. A study released by the U.S. Department of Education (Adelman, 1999), for example, found that “the academic intensity and quality” of a student’s course of study was a far more powerful predictor of bachelor’s degree attainment than class rank, grade point average, or test scores. And this impact is “far more pronounced” for African-American and Latino students than for any other group. A rigorous curriculum also predicts greater skill in the workforce and greater wage-earning potential. An extensive study conducted by ETS found that 84 percent of highly paid professionals and 61 percent of “well-paid, white-collar” professionals had taken Algebra II or higher level mathematics courses while only 30 percent of low-to-moderately skilled and low-paid workers had done so (ADP, 2004). These findings make a strong case for high schools nationwide to provide all students—not just those enrolled in “college prep”—with a challenging academic program.

What Does a Rigorous Curriculum Look Like?

A collaborative effort of Achieve Inc., The Education Trust, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the American Diploma Project (ADP) was created to investigate curricular reform in high schools. In 2004, it published Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, which outlines in explicit terms “the English and mathematics [skills] that graduates must have mastered by the time they leave high school if they expect to succeed in postsecondary education or in high-performance, high-growth jobs” (p. 10). ADP concluded that a rigorous high school curriculum demands four years of mathematics courses—not only Algebra and Geometry, but also Data analysis and Statistics—and four years of English, including courses covering “language, communication, writing, research, logic, informational text, media, and literature” (p. 22). It recommends that school districts set high school graduation requirements aligned with both state standards and with the coursework required for incoming freshman at colleges and universities within their states.

Both Texas and Indiana have taken leadership roles in implementing this curriculum reform strategy. Texas has aligned its Recommended High School Program curriculum with the ADP-recommended benchmarks (Texas Education Agency, n.d.). Indiana’s Core 40 curriculum (Indiana Department of Education, 2006) is a product of Indiana’s Education Roundtable committee, whose members include leaders in K–16 education, business, the community, the government, and parent organizations. This core curriculum requires high school graduates to take four years of English courses, including literature, composition, and communication, and at least three years of mathematics courses, including Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. In addition to articulating high standards, Indiana’s Education Roundtable (2003) emphasizes the equally important need to align standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessments throughout the state’s education system, from elementary through postsecondary education. Both Texas and Indiana require students who wish to opt out of these courses of study and be placed in a general education curriculum to obtain the approval of a guardian and/or a school counselor.

Is Rigor Enough?

As the idea of challenging all students to learn more takes hold, the complexities of this issue become more evident. Increasing course requirements—while lowering expectations—will not result in either challenging academic content or higher outcomes for students. In January, the Education Commission of the States published a policy brief titled, Ensuring Rigor in the High School Curriculum: What States Are Doing (Dounay, 2006), which warns that increasing graduation and course requirements alone “does not necessarily translate into a more rigorous and challenging curriculum” (p. 1). It cites a recent survey conducted by the Horatio Alger Association, which found that close to 60 percent of high school students felt that they were only moderately or somewhat challenged in their coursework. It also references a report by the National Center for Educational Accountability, which found that 60 percent of low-income students in Texas who completed Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry failed the state test, which covers only Algebra I. These statistics suggest a need for clarifying the distinction between rigorous standards and rigorous course content and more clearly specifying what challenging courses look like in the classroom. And even when that content is defined clearly, whether and how it actually is being taught must be monitored. Dounay (2006) suggests that increasing rigor also requires “developing versatile, dynamic and efficient assessment systems that both reflect and reinforce higher standards of teaching and learning” (p. 2).

The How-To of Rigor

Several programs exist that can help schools and districts navigate through the challenges of increasing rigor in their high schools, including First Things First, High Schools That Work, and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID). Another is the Talent Development High Schools (TDHS) program at Johns Hopkins University. TDHS works with low-performing schools that face grave challenges with student attendance, discipline, and dropout rates. In schools that adopt the TDHS model, all students are enrolled in a college-preparatory curriculum, but they also are provided with academic support services to ensure that they succeed. One of these services, the Ninth Grade Success Academy (NGSA), helps students make a smooth transition into high school. The NGSA schedules “double-dose” courses, meaning students take Algebra I and a course that teaches them how to transition into advanced mathematics at the same time. Similarly, while enrolled in English I, they participate in a strategic reading course. All ninth-grade students also are enrolled in a freshman seminar that helps them learn how to learn, with topics such as study skills, education planning, and career exploration. The TDHS program “ensures that students have a consistent network of teachers and peers from which to draw support and guidance, which is especially necessary for low-income students” (Martinez & Klopott, 2005, p. 23). A study conducted by Balfanz, Legters, and Jordan (2003) found that ninth-grade students in TDHS outperformed their peers in both reading and algebra in the matched-control schools. It also concluded that the program’s positive effects were evident in all students regardless of prior levels of academic achievement.

Studies and reports on the topic of high school reform that have emerged in recent years provide direction for schools and districts that want to create and implement a rigorous high school curriculum. They suggest the following:

• High expectations for all students

• Collaboration with university officials and business leaders to determine what students need to know to be prepared for work and college

• A curriculum aligned with state standards and assessments
  
• Clear goals in each course that spell out what students will be taught and what they are expected to learn
  
• Academic and career support services for students, such as tutoring, afterschool programs, career counseling, or workshops addressing topics from study skills to note taking
  
• Continuous professional development and resources for teachers, including information on how to vary instructional methods and how to modify instruction to ensure that all students learn

Conclusion

Although parents conscientiously send their children off to school every day and expect them to do well, they can add an important extra ingredient that will boost their children's success. Parent participation is the ingredient that makes the difference. Parents' active involvement with their child's education at home and in school brings great rewards and has a significant impact on their children's lives. According to research studies, the children of involved parents:

• are absent less frequently
• behave better
• do better academically from pre-school through high school
• go farther in school
• go to better schools

Research also shows that a home environment that encourages learning is even more important than parents' income, education level, or cultural background. By actively participating in their child's education at home and in school, parents send some critical messages to their child; they're demonstrating their interest in his/her activities and reinforcing the idea that school is important.

Becoming involved - Laying the groundwork in the elementary school years

The reality is that some parents have more time than others to become involved, but it's important for even very busy parents to examine their priorities and carve out some time, even if it's brief. Some schools are working out more flexible schedules so that working parents have more options. The National Education Association recommends some specific ways for parents to become more involved in their child's education.

At home:

• Read to your child - reading aloud is the most important activity that parents can do to increase their child's chance of reading success
• Discuss the books and stories you read to your child
• Help your child organize his/her time
• Limit television viewing on school nights
• Talk to your child regularly about what's going on in school
• Check homework every night

At school:

Meet with a teacher or other school staff member to determine where, when and how help is needed and where your interests fit in. Volunteer time. Parents can:

• Be a classroom helper
• Tutor or read with individual children
• Assist children with special needs
• Help in special labs, such as computer or science
• Plan and work in fundraising
• Plan and accompany classes on field trips
• Assist coaches at sporting events
• Help out with arts and crafts workshops
• Assist with a special interest club or drama group
• Speak to classes about your career or special expertise
• Help write press releases, local news articles
• Work as library assistant; help with story time

The possibilities are endless.

• Vote in school board elections - know what the candidates stand for
• Participate in parent-teacher associations and school decisions
• Help your school set challenging academic standards
• Become an advocate for better education in your community and state.

Staying involved - The middle and high school years

In adolescence children become more independent and usually don't want their parents in school. In middle and high school students have to deal with more courses and more teachers in a more impersonal way, so parent involvement, although less direct, is still critical. Parents can participate in events at school, monitor homework, provide experiences and materials that supplement course work, and help children with organizational strategies. Parents can influence their children's academic progress by encouragement, reinforcement and modeling. Children learn from their parents' own learning style and activities such as discussions, newspapers and other reading materials, television habits and other quests for information and knowledge.

Lavoie (cited in Bieber, 1994) described the “hidden curriculum” as important social skills that everyone knows, but no one is taught. This includes assumed rules, adult or student expectations, idioms and metaphors. Understanding the hidden curriculum is difficult for everyone, but it is especially so for individuals with a deficit in social interactions. The following example illustrates the difficulty students with Asperger Syndrome (AS) have understanding the hidden curriculum.

Charlie was a popular eighth-grader, despite his social awkwardness. His peers accepted him and were understanding of his diagnosis. One day Charlie was hanging out with his friends in the hall before class when his friend Matthew began cursing in frustration about his B in social studies. Charlie picked up on the cursing and associated it with frustration. The bell rang and Charlie went on to his next class. As he sat down, Charlie realized that he left his math book in his locker. His teacher, Mr. Way, would not let him go back to his locker, and immediately Charlie got upset and began to curse. Mr. Way sent Charlie to the principal’s office, leaving Charlie confused about what he did wrong. He thought it was okay to use curse words when he was frustrated at school. Charlie did not understand the hidden curriculum—cursing may be acceptable around peers, but you should never curse when an adult is present.

Hidden Curriculum Social Skills

There is no one comprehensive list of all hidden curriculum items. The following is a brief listing (Myles et al., 2004) that may be applicable to children and youth with AS in school and community settings.

• Treat all authority figures with respect (i.e., police, firefighters). You would not address a police officer like you would your brother.
• Not all people you are unfamiliar with are strangers you can’t trust. You may not know your bus driver or your police officer, but these are people who help you.
• What may be acceptable at your house may not be acceptable at a friend’s house. For example, although it is acceptable to put your feet up on the table at your home, your friend’s mom may be upset if you do that in their home.
• People do not always want to know the honest truth when they ask you a question. Your best friend does not want to hear that she looks fat in a new dress she just bought for the high school dance.
• Teachers do not all have the same rules. One teacher may allow gum in the classroom, while the other gives out fines for chewing gum.
• Teachers have assumed expectations for their students. They are expected to greet the teachers, sit down when the bell rings and listen quietly to announcements.
• When a teacher gives you a warning, it means that she wants the behavior to stop and that most likely there will be a consequence if the behavior occurs again.
• It is absolutely impolite to interrupt someone when he or she is talking, unless it is an emergency.
• Acceptable slang that may be used with your peers (i.e., “dawg,” “phat”) may not be acceptable when interacting with adults.
• When the teacher is scolding another student, it is not the best time to ask the teacher a question.
• When a teacher tells another student to stop talking, it is not an appropriate time for you to start talking to your neighbor.
• People are not always supposed to say what they are thinking.

Helping Students Understand the Hidden Curriculum

Students with autism spectrum disorders do not always incidentally develop or understand the hidden curriculum necessary in school and community environments. It then becomes important that the teacher provides direct instruction to facilitate skill acquisition. The One a Day method is an effective means when teaching the hidden curriculum. For example, the classroom teacher writes one hidden curriculum item on the whiteboard each morning and introduces this item to students as a first activity. Once students understand the hidden curriculum item, they are asked to indicate how it will impact them at school or at home (Myles et al., 2004).

My name is Cameron and I am 17 years old. I have just finished my junior year in high school. I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) when I was eight and in the second grade.

I am the oldest of four siblings; my youngest brother was diagnosed with autism at about the same time as my diagnosis.

Before I was diagnosed with AS, I had many challenges. My mom noticed from a young age that I would sometimes seem deaf—I would ignore everything around me and focus on what I was doing—usually something to do with my Thomas the Tank Engine trains. My speech was difficult to understand, and I was very schedule oriented and did not deal with changes well. I started speech therapy at age 3 and also entered a preschool program for language development at my school.

Some of the challenges I faced early on at school included social and sensory stuff. I hated fire drills, could not stand the loud music the gym teacher played, was obsessed with my schoolwork, and did not know how to join games at recess or socialize with my peers. I had a difficult time communicating with my classmates; I understood their words, but in context I got confused. It was hard to understand the rules of a group and the roles different people played. It was all so confusing to me. I could talk, but I could not communicate. I had good grades, but I was miserable in school. It was very stressful. When I would get off the bus, I would pace between my yard and the neighbor’s for hours some days to relieve the stress my body was feeling.

I would yell at my classmates to be quiet and told on them whenever they broke the rules because I wanted order. My teacher tried to help me by sitting me near her desk, but I really struggled. By second grade, my mom and teacher decided to have me tested by the school district. I was identified with AS. That was the beginning of things getting better. My family, therapists and teachers have always talked openly about me having AS, and are so supportive. I was provided with school accommodations, such as advanced warning for fire drills, permission to leave school assemblies, a “free pass” to the resource area if things got overwhelming, help with organization (I’m still working on that one!) and daily “cool-downs” at the end of the day, along with other sensory breaks.

With the help of some very creative assistants and teachers, I was able to make friends and get more involved with my classmates. By fifth-grade graduation, I was voted male student of the year!

Then came dreaded middle school, but there I came across an opportunity that had a profound effect on me and has changed my life for the better—band. My special interest has become musical instruments. I have quite a collection, especially of brass instruments. I play the French horn and found a group of peers who were very accepting—the band geeks! I started helping the director with younger band members and gained a reputation for my work with them. In eighth grade, he even let me direct a song for the sixth-grade spring concert! That year I also had the opportunity to march with the high school band, which gave me a wonderful chance to get to know and be accepted by kids already in high school. That helped with that transition so much.

It’s a giant oversimplification to assume that autism spectrum disorders, including Asperger Syndrome (AS), and neurotypicality are really about two worlds trying to understand one another—the spectrum universe and everyone else—but there is some truth to it too. Each side spends infinite amounts of time, money and resources attempting to figure out what the other world is thinking. This is wise, as such progress enables desperately needed communication. Mistakes made in misinterpretations between these two worlds can be infinitely more damaging than those brought on by an actual diagnosis of AS.

One arena within “normal” life that is making great strides in understanding individuals with AS (though it’s not “there” yet) is the world of postsecondary university life. Partially out of the desire to move mankind forward, and because “there’s gold in them thar hills,” many colleges are paying more attention to students who need some accommodations. College personnel are working to alleviate the misperceptions that their students with AS have, and in return, professors and other college staff are listening more to their students.

The Federal Mandate to Offer Support

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 paved the way. Under this legislation, colleges not run by religious organizations must have an Office of Student Disabilities, or an ADA Compliance Officer. Within these offices, students can seek assistance in a variety of forms, including counseling or tutoring, that will help them succeed.

Granted, families need to do their research. Some colleges take this responsibility very seriously, while others do not. That is, they may have an Office of Student Disabilities that has ill-trained personnel and limited resources or offer resentful lip service to federal law.

Families also need to understand that what makes the average young adult with AS attractive to universities is the fact that these individuals usually have no shortage of brainpower. This is crucial knowledge because colleges that guide the student through to academic success while paying no attention to the social demands of campus dorm life do not usually graduate a student who enjoys career success. The social portion of university life should always be treated with equal importance. Nobody goes to school solely for scholastic growth.

Characteristics of the Best Programs

So what do the best programs offer? The best support for professors can be found with the ADA Compliance Officer. In the old days, many students with AS were treated as obstinate, argumentative or just “a pain” with all their special demands, and ill consequences often followed. Without a proper and organized chain of communication between staff and faculty, those old days can resurface very quickly. Mandatory, one-time presentations to faculty on the nature of their student’s diagnosis are the easiest and most effective solution to prevent the recurrence of misunderstanding of students with AS.

Asperger syndrome is the term applied to the mildest and highest functioning end of what is known as the spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders (or the Autism spectrum). Like other conditions along that spectrum it is felt to represent a neurologically-based disorder of development, most often of unknown cause, in which there are deviations or abnormalities in three broad aspects of development: social relatedness and social skills, the use of language for communicative purposes, and certain behavioral and stylistic characteristics involving repetitive or perseverative features and a limited but intense range of interests. It is the presence of these three categories of dysfunction, which can range from relatively mild to severe, which clinically defines all of the pervasive developmental disorders, from AS through to classic Autism. Although the idea of a continuum of PDD along a single dimension is helpful for understanding the clinical similarities of conditions along the spectrum, it is not at all clear that Asperger syndrome is just a milder form of Autism or that the conditions are linked by anything more than their broad clinical similarities. Asperger syndrome represents that portion of the PDD continuum which is characterized by higher cognitive abilities (at least normal IQ by definition, and sometimes ranging up into the very superior range) and by more normal language function compared to other disorders along the spectrum. In fact, the presence of normal basic language skills is now felt to be one of the criteria for the diagnosis of AS, although there are nearly always more subtle difficulties with pragmatic/social language. Many researchers feel it is these two areas of relative strength that distinguish AS from other forms of Autism and PDD and account for the better prognosis in AS. Developmentalists have not reached consensus as to whether there is any difference between AS and what is termed High Functioning Autism (HFA). Some researchers have suggested that the basic neuropsychological deficit is different for the two conditions, but others have been unconvinced that any meaningful distinction can be made between them. One researcher, Uta Frith, has characterized children with AS as having "a dash of Autism." In fact, it is likely that there may be multiple underlying subtypes and mechanisms behind the broad clinical picture of AS. This leaves room for some confusion regarding diagnostic terms, and it is likely that quite similar children across the country have been diagnosed with AS, HFA, or PDD, depending upon by whom or where they are evaluated.

Since AS itself shows a range or spectrum of symptom severity, many less impaired children who might meet criteria for that diagnosis receive no diagnosis at all and are viewed as "unusual" or "just different," or are misdiagnosed with conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder, emotional disturbance, etc. Many in the field believe that there is no clear boundary separating AS from children who are "normal but different." The inclusion of AS as a separate category in the new DSM-4, with fairly clear criteria for diagnosis, should promote greater consistency of labeling in the future.

What is more apparent are the challenges this disorder presents to an individual’s social maturity, social interaction, language communication, behavior regulation, and sensory perception. Children with Asperger’s often have difficulty developing appropriate peer relationships, they may have trouble with organization, and they often rely heavily on routine.

“The majority of our kids are diagnosed between the ages of 9 and 11,” Smith Myles says. “The trouble is that by middle school our kids are misidentified, for example, as having learning disabilities or behavior disorders.”

Smith Myles emphasizes the importance of evaluations for young children and youth who show the symptoms of Asperger’s. “If the child is of school age, he or she can be evaluated by the multidisciplinary school team,” Smith Myles says. “According to federal guidelines, children with Asperger’s can be identified by the school without a medical diagnosis, and they can receive services.”

Early Intervention

When children are supported to understand their strengths and limitations at an early age, they operate from a strong foundation and are better prepared to advocate for themselves. Susan Golubock, an occupational therapist and founder of Making Sense of Autism, a private consulting service, says early intervention is key with Asperger’s Syndrome. “Children who are identified as having Asperger’s early on have an easier time adjusting because they don’t have to unlearn maladaptive behaviors or habits,” she says.

What are the signs to look for in young children? Smith Myles suggests the following:

• Look at your child in an unstructured play situation and see whether he’s able to play with other kids in the same way the other kids can play. Is your child more literal? How does he understand social interactions—facial expressions, gestures?
• Look at whether your child has sensory issues, whether sounds bother him. Loud noises that don’t bother most children or adults could be very problematic for a child with Asperger’s. Smith Myles gives the example that she knows a child who says he can hear the wings of a butterfly flap.
• Look at what your child does when the routine is changed. Is your child routine-bound? Smith Myles explains that children with Asperger’s can become overly upset over a small incident and can have a hard time calming down.

Sound like your kid? Not to worry. “All of us have some of these characteristics,” Smith Myles says. The important thing is to compare your child to other children of the same age—and to trust your instincts. If you feel your child may present more symptoms than his or her peers, visit with your pediatrician.

from : http://www.education.com