My ASD Child

"Why does our child (with high functioning autism) have such difficulty understanding the feelings of others? He can be terribly cruel at times, which really hurts his younger brothers' feelings. Yet he seems to have all the compassion in the world for our 2 dogs." You're referring to a social-skills deficit here. There are various theories as to why children with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) have impaired social skills. Some researchers suggest that poor social skills may be caused by: weakness or absence of the social gaze response sensory distractions, which prevent the child from concentrating on social issues memory dysfunction (e.g., deficits in memory for faces and common social scenes), which prevent the child from remembering other people or events failure to develop a “theory of mind,” which prevents the child from understanding what other people are thinking or feeling failure of affective processing The relationship betw

"We have a recently diagnosed child on the autism spectrum. Is it common for these children to be overly-sensitive in some areas - and severely under-sensitive in others? For example, our daughter absolutely refuses to be hugged by anyone (other than myself on occasion), yet we discovered she had fractured a bone in her wrist - but she didn't show any discomfort whatsoever." Children with ASD or High-Functioning Autism often fluctuate between hyper-sensitivity (i.e., being overly sensitive) and hypo-sensitivity (i.e., a lack of sensitivity) to unexpected stimuli in the environment. For example, at one moment a touch or noise may make the child jump or scream, while at another moment she may not respond when parents call her name – or she may act as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist. For neurotypical children (i.e., those without a spectrum disorder), unexpected stimuli is relatively predictable and anticipated. For example, they expect a loud noise when seeing

In this video, we expose some of the myths that surround High Functioning Autism and Asperger's: More resources for parents of children and teens with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's : ==> How To Prevent Meltdowns and Tantrums In Children With High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's ==> Parenting System that Significantly Reduces Defiant Behavior in Teens with Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism ==> Launching Adult Children with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism: Guide for Parents Who Want to Promote Self-Reliance ==> Teaching Social Skills and Emotion Management to Children and Teens with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism ==> Parenting Children and Teens with High-Functioning Autism: Comprehensive Handbook ==> Unraveling The Mystery Behind Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism: Audio Book ==> Parenting System that Reduces Problematic Behavior in Children with Asperger's and High-Functioning Aut

Many of the conversations your ASD son or daughter has had have generally been about knowledge and facts, not about feelings, opinions, and interactions. As a result, your "special needs" child does not really know how the world works. More resources for parents of children and teens with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's : ==> How To Prevent Meltdowns and Tantrums In Children With High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's ==> Parenting System that Significantly Reduces Defiant Behavior in Teens with Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism ==> Launching Adult Children with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism: Guide for Parents Who Want to Promote Self-Reliance ==> Teaching Social Skills and Emotion Management to Children and Teens with Asperger's and High-Functioning Autism ==> Parenting Children and Teens with High-Functioning Autism: Comprehensive Handbook ==> Unraveling The Mystery Behind Asperger's and High-F

Adolescent bullying includes a wide range of aggressive behavior, including direct and indirect hostility. Direct contact can be either verbal or physical (e.g., teasing, name-calling, pushing and hitting). Direct bullying is more common among males than females. Indirect bullying (which is more common among girls) happens when teens spread rumors about each other, often in an attempt to exclude a peer from social gatherings or other activities. When adolescent bullying meets technology, “cyber-bullying” emerges. Through digital technology, aggressive messages can be instantly broadcast to a wide audience. Senders can remain anonymous or fake a user name, and they can attach demeaning or explicit images. This so-called "electronic hostility" includes any type of harassment or intimidation that occurs through various sources, for example: blogs chat rooms email instant messaging text messaging websites other electronic formats Despite the fact that adolescent

College depression is a common problem in young people with Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism (HFA). Moms and dads need to understand why the transition to college makes their “special needs” son or daughter vulnerable to depression — and what they can do about it – BEFORE the young adult attempts, and then fails, his or her first semester of college. “College depression” isn't a clinical diagnosis. Rather, it’s a form of an adjustment disorder (i.e., a type of stress-related mental illness or depression).  Typically, signs and symptoms of an adjustment disorder begin within three months of a stressful life event (in this case, going away to school). Depression, however, may occur at any time. College students with Aspergers and HFA face many challenges, pressures and anxieties that their “typical” peers do not. Many factors can cause these young people to feel overwhelmed, for example: adapting to a new schedule adapting to a new workload adjusting to life

My 13 year old son has not been diagnosed with Asperger's although a couple of professionals he has seen have mentioned it as a possibility. His IQ tested at the low end of average and he is delayed in math, spelling and writing. According to his educational psychologist, his verbal skills are his strongest and long term retrieval is his weakest area. It often seems we struggle with what is age appropriate expectation/discipline with him. Does he understand/does he even remember what the issue is? I don't want to underestimate him, but don't want to frustrate either. In moments of extreme stress my husband tends to fall back to traditional methods like increasingly long periods of grounding. Then he feels like he overreacted and will take it back. I tend to avoid the confrontation in order to keep peace and wind up walking the minefield all day. Although I will face the fire when I feel it is a serious or moral issue. Our son goes through periods of destructive tantrums. Th