Asperger Syndrome

[tae]

My son who is 9 might have Apergers,his 3rd grade teacher said he "might have"it.He doesn't do well socially.He won't talk to the kids in his class.He does really well in Art,he can draw you anything you want.He is in the 3rd grade and has an 8th grade reading level.His teacher says that he doesn't transition well from one subject to the other.He is very neat in his work.He also has to clean his desk and have it just right.I have taken him to the local health place,but that doctor didn't really tell me if he has it or not.When he was 7-8ish he was in Boys Scouts and didn't really socialize with the boys in his den.He is an A-B student,he just don't know how to make friends.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

You should look into a local Asperger or Austism support group. Either one should be able to help you as Asperger is a form of Austism. There you should be able to find support and educational resources. Good luck!

[MsJReg]

My sister is an early childhood specialist and she says if we did not have people with Aspergers we probably would not have a lot of our inventions. It takes some people many tries to develop technology and most of us would give up while people with Aspergers keep trying. My 13 yr old grandson has never been diagnosed with this, but we are pretty sure he also has it. As a small child he would only talk about dinosaurs to anyone who would listen . He is homeschooled, so this weekend we have him on a camping trip and he enjoyed fishing. He is always a professor-teaching us anything and everything he knows. He is brilliant and well read but his social skills are missing with his peers..

[cau]

Children with Aspergers have a hard time knowing how to act in almost any social situtation. It would really help to find a support group. This way you realize you & your child are not alone with this problem. You can learn from others. 2 of my dd's have learning disabilities. Without the support group I would not have had the knowledge to fight that they be given the help they needed in school.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

My personal understanding is that Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is THE accepted treatment for Asperger Syndrome. I would personally find a child psychologist who personal approach is CBT. CBT is also well researched to be effective and doesn't require as much time as other methods of treatment. Plus, the specialist can give the parent homework to try at home to make things better there.

[karenmed409]

I am raising my 14 year old grandson Ty who has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. This boy has a very high IQ, talks like a professor, reads and re-reads books on just about anything.

MsJReg, Ty did not socialize very well either when he was younger, and dinosaurs were a big thing with him. At 4 he can tell you all the facts and names of just about all the dinosaurs. When he was diagnosed "Trinity Services" suggested that we sign him up for any group activites, such as Boy Scouts, Ty has only been a scout for 1 1/2 years and I have seen some changes. Our local and National Boy Scout council has recommended that he be listed as a Special Needs Scout. The more he gets out, the more I can see what I need to help him with his social skills

Scheduling is a big help for us. If he knows what needs to be done at a certain time, he seems to have a better day. If the plans change and he does not adjust well to any changes in schedules we know we may have bad day, but he is getting better at it.

Ty does not recognize Verbal or Facial cues, like if you smile or glare at him, he does not recognize that you are happy or angry with him. The same with verbal cues, if another boy yells at him, he does not recognize that someone is angry with him.All of the scouts like Ty, he is a very likable kid, very witty and he makes them laugh. It took time but he has adjusted.

We also have a 504 plan in place at the High School and have his work modified. The only modification we really need is the abiltity to type out homework. Each teacher has a signal that they give him when he gets to be a little loud. It doesn't know that he sometimes shouts when he is having a conversation with you.

Last fall I looked into the Weighted Blankets and bought one, boy has that changed his sleeping habits. He doesn't have the usual 4 quilts on top him, now I am talking 4 quilts in the hot summer months too. Bundling up seem to be his safety zone and he is slowly coming out of that.

Ty is Mr. Tackless, he doesn't think in the gray area of things. That is why socially they just blurt out what they are thinking and they come off as being jerks, they aren't they just don't know how to be tackful. He follows rules and will not bend those rules for anything. I have read kids with Asperger's think logically on everything, for example with Ty I lost my sister last year and we had to decide to pull her off life support, I called home to let my husband know that my sister Cathy had passed away, he went to Ty's room to let him know. A few minutes later he came out and my husband asked if he was okay and his reply was he was okay and just went into statics on how many people pass away each minute and that it was just her time. No emotions, tears, nothing, he misses her but he thinks everything out logically.