How to Prevent Meltdowns in Aspergers Children
Meltdowns are not a pretty sight. They are somewhat like overblown temper tantrums, but unlike tantrums, meltdowns can last anywhere from ten minutes to over an hour. When it starts, the Asperger's child is totally out-of-control. When it ends, both you and the Asperger’s child are totally exhausted. But...
Don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. At the least provocation, for the remainder of that day -- and sometimes into the next - the meltdown can return in full force.
If your child suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, expect him to experience both minor and major meltdowns over incidents that are part of daily life. He may have a major meltdown over a very small incident, or may experience a minor meltdown over something that is major. There is no way of telling how he is going to react about certain situations. However, there are many ways to help your child learn to control his emotions.
Click here for the full article...
Parenting Defiant Aspergers Teens
Although Aspergers is at the milder end of the autism spectrum, the challenges parents face when disciplining a teenager with Aspergers are more difficult than they would be with an average teen. Complicated by defiant behavior, the Aspergers teen is at risk for even greater difficulties on multiple levels – unless the parents’ disciplinary techniques are tailored to their child's special needs.
The standard disciplinary techniques that are recommended for “typical” teenagers do not take into account the many issues facing a child with a neurological disorder. Violent rages, self-injury, isolation-seeking tendencies and communication problems that arise due to auditory and sensory issues are just some of the behaviors that parents of teens with Aspergers will have to learn to control.
Parents need to come up with a consistent disciplinary plan ahead of time, and then present a united front and continually review their strategies for potential changes and improvements as the Aspergers teen develops and matures.
Click here to read the full article…
Aspergers Children “Block-Out” Their Emotions
Parenting children with Aspergers can be a daunting task. In layman’s terms, Aspergers is a developmental disability that affects the way children develop and understand the world around them, and is directly linked to their senses and sensory processing. This means they often use certain behaviors to block out their emotions or response to pain.
Although they may vary slightly from person to person, children with Aspergers tend to have similar symptoms, the main ones being:
=> A need to know when everything is happening in order not to feel completely overwhelmed
=> A rigid insistence on routine (where any change can cause an emotional and physiological meltdown)
=> Difficulties with social functioning, particularly in the rough and tumble of a school environment
=> Obsessive interests, with a focus on one subject to the exclusion of all others
=> Sensory issues, where they are oversensitive to bright light, loud sounds and unpleasant smells
=> Social isolation and struggles to make friends due to a lack of empathy, and an inability to pick up on or understand social graces and cues (such as stopping talking and allowing others to speak)
Click here to read the full article…
Living with an Aspergers Spouse/Partner
Research reveals that the divorce rate for people with Aspergers is around 80%. Why so high!? The answer may be found in how the symptoms of Aspergers affect intimate relationships.
People with Aspergers often find it difficult to understand others and express themselves. They may seem to lose interest in people over time, appear aloof, and are often mistaken as self-centered, vain individuals.
A person with Aspergers may have trouble understanding the emotions of their partner, and the subtle messages that are sent by facial expression, eye contact and body language are often missed. Because of this, a person with Aspergers might be seen as egotistical, selfish or uncaring.
These are unfair labels, because the affected individuals are neurologically unable to understand other people's emotional states, and they are usually shocked, upset and remorseful when told their actions were hurtful or inappropriate!
Click here to read the full article…
Aspergers, considered to be a mild form of autism, consists of problems with socializing and communication with others. While the average ag...
80% of grown-ups with Aspergers do not have full-time jobs – not because they can’t do the work, but because they can’t manage to be sociall...
Narrow Range of Interests and Insistence on Set Routines: This refers to the child’s rigidity, obsessions, perseverations, and need for str...
Having the diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome can be devastating for the parents of children who wonder what will happen to their child as he o...
Question My eldest boy J___ who is now 5-years-old was diagnosed with Aspergers last July. We did 6 months of intense therapy with a chil...
Because there is no identifiable biochemical problem in Aspergers syndrome and because many researchers believe the syndrome is a result of ...
Every child has a "blind spot" in learning and understanding things. Many kids don't "get" algebra, for example. This is a challenge that t...
Unfortunately there’s no such thing as anger-management classes specifically for Aspergers children – and you may find that not a week goes ...
You're trying to find things for your child to do all summer that are safe, entertaining, and maybe, if you're lucky, have some educational ...
Anticipation for the Aspergers youngster is often a negative emotion that leads to overload resulting in a meltdown. Rather than having a ti...
2 comments:
Hello Mark,
Thank you so much for your warm welcome. I search the internet for very specific issues and have managed to get much of it from your site. My son, Sam, is 12 years old and in the 6th grade and was diagnosed with Asperger's 4 years ago. He is a gifted student with extraordinary math, science & language arts ability. He has tourettes and OCD and although had been diagnosed with anxiety from the beginning, we didn't see it as we do this year. He has recently been diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety which has caused him to lose complete interest in learning in his public school setting. He has literally gone from making the High Honor roll 2 years in a row to just hanging on to D's and a few F's. And this is with my strong support with homework.
We thought we were lucky enough to have dodged the bullet so many other parents had been confronted with. This school year things seem to go from bad to impossible! It is a total nightmare, not only for him but for us. And of course, no matter how hard you try to explain to the school that he is not rude, in fact he doesn't have a rude bone in his body, they just see this disrespectful child who isn't trying and is lazy. Which until this school year, everyone would tell me what an awesome kid he was, and I that I know he still is.
The school was very understanding at first, my only goal at first was to physically get him to school and hopefully not have to receive up to 6 phone calls per day from him crying and begging me to pick him up. He has missed close to 30 days this year in total. Now that he is in school, he's expected to focus, try harder, take fewer breaks and be polite. It's become too much for him and I feel like no one cares.
Our school district is among the least compliant or helpful when it comes to special services, this has been told to me by various advocacy groups as well as legal consultants. We are trying to get him reclassified, they changed him from an IEP to a 504 at the beginning of the year and it's just not enough anymore. He needs to be in a place where he is understood and appreciated for the amazing kid that he is.
I read Asperger's Students and School Anxiety and it has been very helpful. Any other information that you can provide to me explaining the difficulties an Asperger's child has in school, would be greatly appreciated.
Sadly, we are going through EXACTLY the same thing with our 11 (12 in July) yr. old son.
Post a Comment