My ASD Child

“Does Aspergers come and go? I have a 5 year old tentatively diagnosed with Aspergers, but while he's always special, there are weeks when it's like a switch is turned on and everything turns 'bad' - these are the times when we struggle to enjoy him as a person. His resilience becomes very low, he argues with everything we say, he refuses to play at all with others nicely ...well you know the sort of symptoms. But then after a week or so, the switch goes again and he's back to loveable with a few quirks! Is this normal?” In this post, we will look at: anxiety social limitations limitations in the ability to grasp social cues a highly rigid style of thinking limitations in generalizing from one situation to another  and much more CLICK HERE for an in-depth answer to the question above...

There is a philosophy amongst some individuals in the autism community that people on the spectrum are living their lives on the "wrong planet."  Really?!

Children with ASD level 1 or High Functioning Autism (HFA) are prone to meltdowns when they find themselves trapped in a situation that is difficult to cope with, especially those which involve frustration, sensory overload, pain or confusion. These situations tend to happen more frequently for children who have one or more of the following characteristics: Communication delays or challenges Difficulty identifying and controlling emotions  Difficulty understanding cause and effect  Difficulty with social comprehension Executive functioning disruption  Hypersensitivity to sensory input Low frustration threshold Low frustration tolerance Resistance to change Rigid or inflexible thinking Sensory integration dysfunctions Think of meltdowns as an “escape mechanism.” If the HFA child has the means to get himself out of a stressful situation before it becomes overwhelming, the cognitive and emotional pressure subsides. Without these means of escape, the stress will escalat

Would you, as a parent, say your youngster with Asperger’s (AS) or High Functioning Autism (HFA) does any of the following: Judges himself as strong or weak, smart or stupid? Looks for too much certainty in a world full of uncertainty? Over-monitors his decisions as right or wrong, good or bad? Reacts emotionally when things don't look right? Thinks in terms of extremes (i.e., all or nothing, black or white)? If so, then your child may be experiencing a “false dilemma." In other words, she believes she is stuck in an awful predicament, when in reality, she is not. When AS and HFA children fall victim to a false dilemma, they have mistakenly reduced an entire spectrum of possibilities down to the two most extreme options, each the polar opposite of the other without any shades of grey in between. Often, those categories are of their own creation, and they are attempting to force the world to conform to their preconceptions about what it should look like. A