Portraits of three adolescent students with Asperger's syndrome: Personal stories and how they can inform practice

This article presents three portraits of adolescent students with Asperger' s syndrome. These portraits include descriptive details about these student s as young children, their schooling experiences, their interests, and thei r social life experiences. To construct these portraits, we conducted a ser ies of focus groups with professionals who provide direct services to these students. We also conducted interviews with the students and parents. The purpose of these three portraits is to serve as a starting point for those in the field to further examine possible solutions for better meeting the n eeds of these students. The role of these portraits (or personal stories) i n helping to inform critical areas of need and important directions for mee ting the needs of adolescent students with Asperger's syndrome conclude our article.