Weston High School Mentorship Report

Weston High School’s peer mentorship program provides a constructive relationship for students with intellectual challenges that helps them navigate through the obstacles of high school. The main focus of a mentor is to help make the mentee more comfortable in an environment that is extremely stressful for them. Throughout high school, people with Autism, specifically Asperger's Syndrome, struggle because they are hypersensitive to some things (“Helping Children with Autism” 2) and have problems socially interacting with their peers (Volkmar & Kim 152). The mentors need to stay with their mentee throughout the school day and help guide them through any problems that they encounter. Also, one of the main goals of the relationship with the mentees

The mentorship program is a great way to help other people through a challenging time period and develop a special bond with another person. Moreover, the mentee will be extremely thankful for everything the mentor has helped them accomplish and this will make the mentors feel good about themselves as they have dramatically helped improve a person’s life. Nevertheless, there are many challenges that the mentors will face with their mentees and there are specific ways in which they need to be assisted through these situations.

The classroom poses many difficulties for a person with intellectual challenges as it generates much anxiety for them. One of the main struggles that a student with Autism faces is in accordance to their shorter attention spans (Raising Children Network 1), which makes it harder for them to focus for the required amount of time. There are many ways to successfully aid them in making it through the class period, including providing the mentee with consistency by supplying them with a schedule that outlines the structure of the class (“Helping Children with Autism” 2). People with Autism or Asperger Syndrome crave consistency,

The mentee will struggle with socially interacting with their peers and, because of this, they might withdraw from talking with others (Fritson 49). Furthermore, they could begin to feel as if they do not “fit in” and this might cause outbursts or, in more extreme cases, depression (Bauer 5). The two main ways to help a mentee through this challenging situation are picking a club that relates to one of their main interests and providing them with prompts to help them interact with others. People with Asperger Syndrome or Autism will usually focus on one topic or a small number them, which could include math, science, etc. (Ozonoff 152). Therefore, the mentors should find a club that relates to their preferred subjects by reason that it will interest them and make them feel more comfortable in their environment. It will also allow them to have the possibility of making new friends with similar interests and this grants them to feel like they “fit in”(Bauer 6). Two of the main goals, of mentoring a student with Autism or Asperger Syndrome, are to promote appropriate social interactions and try to help the child fit in better socially (Fritson 51). Attending the club helps in both of these areas and, at the same time, might help the mentee feel secure in school. Additionally, the mentors can help the mentee interact with others