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How To Use Positive Reframing: Tips for People with Aspergers and HFA

Research is beginning to reveal that positive reframing is about much more than just being happy or displaying an upbeat attitude. Positive reframing can actually create real value in your life and help you build skills that last much longer than a smile. 



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Strange ASD-Related Obsessions and Fear-Reduction

“My daughter is totally obsessed with the weather. Reads books on it, watches the weather channel constantly, listens to thunder and lightning sounds on the computer, and so on. Is this typical autistic behavior? Why an obsession about weather?”

 
Nearly all children with High-Functioning Autism have an area of special, sometimes obsessive interest. Often times, these kids develop this interest as a way to overcome fear (however, this is not always the case). 
 
Weather, especially tornadoes and hurricanes, can be fearful and even terrifying. A youngster on the autism spectrum may develop a preoccupation with weather to cope with this fear. 

She might watch the Weather Channel continuously, read the weather report in the paper numerous times across the day, or read about different weather phenomena – and be able to share details of past storms when the weather worsens. 



In addition, trains are often a focus of interest for many kids on the spectrum, perhaps due to the train’s ominous size, sound, and vibration. 

One autistic child remarked, “The first time I saw a train coming down the track, I thought it was an angry dinosaur. I was scared because I could feel the ground move. After that, I wanted to know all about trains.” This may have been another example of a child becoming obsessed with something that instilled fear in him initially.


 COMMENTS:

•    Anonymous said... And they call it a DISORDER? a child fascinated by the phenomena of the world she lives in?
•    Anonymous said... I would take that choice and behavior any day over the alternatives
•    Anonymous said... It's tranquil, use the weather sounds on the radio when needed to calm the room
•    Anonymous said... Much better than Minecraft... I could learn about/with/from an "obsession" like that.
•    Anonymous said... My aspie son does the same thing. Anything weather related, especially storms, and he has it pulled up.
•    Anonymous said... Our son loves tornado information and the weather channel also
•    Anonymous said... Weather, geology, evolution... Etc. My son has had obsessions forever. I think they're awesome!

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Children with ASD and Lack of Reciprocity in Social Interactions

“Can you help me to understand what they mean when they say that children with high functioning autism appear to experience a 'lack of reciprocity' in social interactions?”

This refers to a child who does not understand nonverbal communication (e.g., gestures, facial expressions, etc.) and, for example, may continue a conversation even though the person he is talking to is looking at his watch trying to get away. The child with HFA has difficulty recognizing and understanding others’ use of facial expression and gestures during conversation.



His lack of response to this type of communication creates great difficulty for him in social relationships. Likewise, the child may not use nonverbal communication and may appear expressionless in most conversations or interactions with others. This is why “lack of reciprocity” is such an important issue to address in treatment and/or social skills training. 

A reciprocal interaction simply means that both parties benefit equally from the conversation, rather than one person doing all the talking while the other person is forced to do all the listening.

As you can probably imagine, when one child dominates the conversation (i.e., disallowing responses from  listeners), it's not long before the listeners simply tune-out the child, and in some cases, walk away while he is in mid-sentence. This translates to rejection of the child, which chips-away at his self-esteem over time.

Young people on the high functioning end of autism are not stupid -- quite the opposite -- they tend to be very smart. So they know WHEN they are being ignored and rejected, they just don't know WHY (unless they are taught).




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