My ASD Child

  Do you need some assistance in parenting your Aspergers or HFA child? Click here to use Mark Hutten, M.A. as your personal parent coach. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dr. Hutten, I just wanted to let you know there are very few places here in WV that help with children that have Aspergers, and every time I see a parent that are having the same struggles that we have with our daughter, I tell them to look you up on Facebook and You Tube, you have been so helpful to my family.  Now, it seems that our biggest challenge is the education system.  Teachers here seem to have the , “don’t tell me what to do, I am the teacher”.  It makes everything so stressful.  We had to hire and advocate and had to fight for two years to finally obtain her IEP.  Emily is not in the 4 th grade and we are fear of what middle school will be like for her.  Again, thanks for all the uplifting words and I am thankful I found your site.  God bless you and keep up the amazing work!!!! Joy ~~~~~~

Due to the numerous complaints I have received over the years from parents regarding the (alleged) lack of effective teaching strategies specific to students on the autism spectrum – and teachers’ general lack of knowledge in instructing this population – I’ve decided to do a series of posts on the matter. This is Part 1… Although AS and HFA differ from Autism with respect to language acquisition and early cognitive development, they do have similarities (e.g., in the areas of social impairment, impairment in reading social non-verbal language, inflexibility, and persistent preoccupation). Problematic behavior in AS and HFA students is essentially the result of (a) failure to learn necessary adaptive behaviors (e.g., how to establish satisfying personal relationships), and (b) the learning of ineffective responses (e.g., discovering that one can avoid unwanted tasks by acting-out behaviorally). AS and HFA students are impaired socially, and often do not detect social cl

"The older my teenage son gets, the more depressed he seems to be. I think something may be going on at school that he is hiding from us (perhaps not getting the acceptance from his 'friends' that he wants to like him - IDK). Any suggestions? Anyone else have a teen with ASD who seems depressed 24/7?" Teens with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety). One study found that 65% of their sample of patients with AS presented with symptoms of a psychiatric disorder. However, the inability of AS and HFA teens to communicate feelings of distress can also mean that it is often very difficult to diagnose depression. Likewise, because of their impairment in non-verbal expression, they may not appear to be depressed. This can mean that it is not until depression is well developed that it is recognized (e.g., in the form of aggression, alcoholism/drug abuse, increased obsessional be