I have twin sons in yr 7. One has Aspergers and struggles in many subjects. It was suggested when he started yr 7 that perhaps he should come out of German to concentrate on his literacy and numeracy skills. I said no as I wanted him to have a chance and he was basically starting at the same level as everybody else. Yesterday he came home with a note in his organiser to say that he had scored the top mark in his year in the German writing test! I am so proud of him as he has worked very hard. This is the first time he has ever come top in anything or 'beaten' his brother. His teacher sent me an e-mail to say how much he deserved this and how wonderful it was to see the surprise on so many of his classmate's faces. For all of those pupils who struggle in English and it is suggested that it is best to drop a MFL, he has proved them wrong.

That is excellent news indeed charmedimsure. Please pass my congratulations on as well.

I have a student in Year 9 with aspergers and he is achieving as well, if not better, in German as he is in his other subjects (with the exception of maths in which he is frighteningly good!). German is his favourite subject but, sadly, he has not been allowed to choose it as an option in KS4.

sam

I have a lad with Aspergers in my Y10 Spanish group.  He has excellent recall compared to the rest of them, and his encyclopaedic knowledge of countries and flags comes in handy !

I've taught German to a year 11 boy with Aspergers this year, he was a joy to teach, loves German and wishes he hadn't dropped French. I've predicted he'll get one of the highest grades in his class and he's going on to do German at A-Level.  

I agree, Helen, a story that deserves the widest possible audience!

Not many people may be aware of the fact, but the UK probably leads the world when it comes to conducting research and developing good practice in teaching MFL to students with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), which include Asperger Syndrome. Between 2002 and 2005, Scottish expert Vivienne Wire began writing groundbreaking articles on the subject of MFL for ASD. For an overview see:

http://www.hilarymccoll.co.uk/autismMFL.html

In 2004 the Department for Education and Skills and the North West Regional Special Educational Needs Partnership published a booklet entitled "Children with autism: strategies for accessing the curriculum: modern foreign languages", which can be downloaded from

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/6701/modern%20foreign%20languages.pdf

Germany, which is a world-class leader in special educational needs provision and whose categories of SEN usually mirror ours, doesn't appear to have special schools or units for ASD and even after exhaustive searches I've never managed to locate any professional literature in German about the teaching of MFL to students with ASD in Germany.

Only in the last year or so has some interest developed abroad in MFL for ASD, notably Christine Besnard of York University in the Canadian city of Toronto, who has made several presentations since 2007 on the subject of foreign language learners with Asperger Syndrome. One of her handouts is on the Web at

http://www.cmcgc.com/Media/HANDOUTS/081022/070.pdf