Q & A on Autism

Question

Hi- I have a 5 year old son that has autism he doesn't like
to sleep in his own bed. We have tried everything. It's
frustrating because he will continue to come into my bed and
that is very difficult to deal with. If we try to put him in
his bed it will trigger an outburst and it will last well
into the night. Which makes us very tired and emotionally
drain. How do I transition him back into his bed and help
him understand he has to stay there and he can't sleep in my
bed. Now that he is getting older and bigger it's very
difficult.

Answer

Routine is key backed up by social story/Pecs or some kind
of visual cue. For example the routine could be story - bath
- hot drink -bed. The social story could feature his
favorite cartoon character, animal or something like that.
Then it's down to good old fashioned perseverance with the
routine rigidly every night - and you should see change.

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Question

My son refuses to do what is asked of him at school. He has
days where he completely shuts down and will not write or
perform math assignments. The school is trying to make
accommodations for him, yet he refuses to even try. They
hear, and we hear come homework time, that it's too hard or
the answer is zero. We are very frustrated and don't know
how to move him past this.

We believe it is attitude. He also has lots of fine motor
issues. Penmanship is very poor as is spelling. He cannot
tie shoes, button buttons or snap snaps cut with scissors...
I thought we were making progress with school when we got
some assistive technology and then I come to find out they
were still expecting him to write it before typing...he
perseverates on Star Wars and the teacher says he is being
silly. He puts his head down during math time. He has had a
very difficult time learning his math facts--can solve them
with strategies but if he can't do a problem immediately he
melts down, at least at home. At school he puts his head
down and refuses to even try the work. He is extremely
inflexible and very easily frustrated. I don't know if
this helps, but this is our biggest hurdle yet to overcome.

Answer

It's possible he may be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of
work clumped together. Has anyone tried breaking work down
into bite sized chunks for him as they may be more
beneficial. Equally dependent on his age and how appropriate
this is - can the teachers or yourselves hone in on the Star
Wars thing as a positive? So use this in Maths, English,
Geogrpahy - in fact most subjects you could slant with a
Star Wars angle to improve his interest and ability in them.
He may well have a "mental block" on maths for example but I
bet he doesn't have such a block if maths can be presented
with Star Wars (e.g. measuring angles of the Millenium
Falcon to the Death Star, or working out percentages of
storm troopers killed in Return of The Jedi etc.)

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Question

I have an 11yr old - year 6 at school. I recently had a
meeting with his class teacher and she is having trouble
getting him to complete class tasks. He is obsessed with
reading (which he does during class time instead of
listening) then gets extremely upset because he does not
know what is going on in the classroom. I have told the
teacher to use this as a reward for completing work which
she is doing but he will often just sit at his desk and not
do anything for each subjects class task (e.g. complete so
many maths questions). I have suggested we draw up a
contract (visual) and get him to sign it and refer him to
this when he is off task. My question is do you have any
resources or previous experience with such a contract which
may help us get it right? And give us ideas on how to
construct one. The teacher is extremely helpful and willing
to do whatever I suggest.

Answer

It needs to be in clear "black and white" language with no
ambiguity. He needs to be involved in it as much as possible
(but clearly within certain boundaries of what it's actually
there for - no point in a contract that says "Johnny has 10
ice creams each school day" just because that's what he
wants")! It could be themed in line with tastes - check out
this sample dinosaur contract (not for exactly the same
purpose but to give you an idea):
http://www.gigglepotz.com/dino.pdf

Also a contract is only as useful if it is regularly
re-visited - by both you and each teacher (daily would be
best).

The Parenting Aspergers Resource Guide: A Complete
Resource Guide For Parents Who Have Children Diagnosed
With Aspergers Syndrome.