NCJ Number
208621
Journal
Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: 2004 Pages: 265-285
Date Published
2004
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article considers the special challenges of treating adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome who are sexually abusive.
Abstract
Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) are impaired in their ability to understand social information, like others along the Autistic Spectrum (ASD). During adolescence, individuals with AS face significant challenges in negotiating the often emotionally charged, social complexities of the teenage years. Some of the most confusing issues during any adolescence are the formation of sexual identity and the development of close relationships with others. Given the neurobiological impairment of AS, expressing sexuality amid this social confusion can result in inappropriate sexual behavior. The clinician faces the significant challenge of untangling the factors contributing to the expression of sexual behavior problems in adolescents with AS so that an effective treatment intervention may be developed. Treatment interventions designed for clients with AS and other ASD-related disorders are described; suggestions for treating this population include the provision of information in a piecemeal fashion rather than all at once, the use of concrete descriptions rather than abstract concepts, and the presentation of the world as an ordered place through the use of lists and labels. Individuals with AS are capable of logical thinking and are typically more receptive to information presented visually. Sexual education designed to meet the needs of this population will go a long way toward teaching adolescents with AS and sexual behavior problems that having an active sexual relationship is not the only way to be in a relationship with another individual. A series of case studies are presented that illustrate the challenges associated with AS and effective treatment intervention techniques. References