ABSTRACT
Forming the background to these comments on the treatment of Asperger's children is the conception of different types of therapeutic intervention developed by Paulina Kernberg and her colleagues in concert with the ideas outlined by Anne Alvarez on different levels of therapeutic approach to children. In the non-analytic literature, structured social skills groups are frequently recommended for Asperger's children. One psychologist suggests that a preferred format includes both "structured skill lessons" as well as time for more natural interactions among members. Asperger's children in an educational setting do better in structured situations and worse in unstructured social situations or in novel situations. Kernberg and her colleagues describe their four kinds of psychotherapy based solely on the kinds of verbal interventions the therapist makes when dealing with her child patients. Alvarez outlines several levels of psychotherapeutic intervention, at the highest end this being the explanatory level, involving the offering of alternative meanings to the patient.
