ABSTRACT
In this context ASD stands for asynchronous development. It should not be confused with the ASD often used to mean autistic spectrum disorders, a range of difficulties that are part of autism.
There are many children who have a distinctly uneven profile of abilities and difficulties. One five-year-old whose first written piece of work at school read ‘There is chaos in the business world’ with each word spelt correctly – threw a tantrum and was inconsolable because another child hung his coat on her peg! Her intellectual and her social/emotional competences were clearly mismatched! This asynchronous development (ASD), which can be mild to severe, is even more apparent and debilitating when the child has a learning difference that is not recognised by the teacher or understood by the other children in the class. Then the child can be bewildered and dismayed by questions such as, ‘How can a clever child like you not do … or cope with?’ This is compounded by a generally held but mistaken belief that the intellectually gifted child can use this ability to compensate for difficulties in the motor, social or emotional aspects of their development.
