My ASD Child

One of the most significant problems for children with Asperger’s (AS) and High Functioning Autism (HFA) is difficulty in social interaction. AS and HFA also create problems with "mind reading" (i.e., knowing what another person might be thinking or feeling). Most young people can observe others and guess (through a combination of tone and body language) what's "really" going on. But without help and training, AS and HFA children can't. What comes naturally to “typical” kids does not come naturally to kids on the autism spectrum. The lack of interpersonal relationship skills makes it difficult for these boys and girls to make and keep friends – and often leads to social isolation. Now for the good news: Parents can learn to teach interpersonal relationship skills to their “special needs” youngsters. Indicators That Your Child Needs Social Skills Training  Here are some concrete ways to give AS and HFA children the tools they need to intera

Question Can you advise me on social skills training for my 12-year-old child with Aspergers? Answer For children and teens with Aspergers (high-functioning autism), social skills are necessary, but usually lacking. Finding resources for social skills training in the educational setting may be difficult in many areas. If your child’s school offers social skills classes, social skills therapy, or peer mentoring, he should be participating. If not, there may be public or community based programs, or even private therapy choices available. These programs range in cost and availability and could be unattainable. If this is the case, there are ways to teach these skills at home with very little cost. Because this is so important, the Aspergers social skills connection must be addressed as early as possible and continually supplemented as the child’s ability to understand improves with age. Similar to basic manners, here are a few of the basic social skills that shoul

Social and communicative dysfunctions are arguably the most handicapping conditions associated with Aspergers. Although the rubric social communication is used frequently to encompass these deficits, social communication is actually a redundant term. All communication, by its definition as an exchange of information between speaker and listener, is social in nature. The purpose of using the term social communication here, however, is to focus attention on the close relationship between the linguistic forms of communication used by high functioning people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and the function of these skills in the achievement of social interaction. In fact, in typical people over the age of 3 years, linguistic communication is the primary modality of social interchange. Although linguistic communication skills are used for a variety of purposes—regulating others' behavior, referring to objects and events, narrating and predicting experiences, and learning acad

This post will provide some crucial guidelines for how parents and educators can teach social skills to children with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) at home and in the classroom. These “special needs” children often have difficulty saying what they mean, planning and controlling what they do, noticing and interpreting facial expression and body language, understanding what someone has told them, and accurately perceiving what other people do, say, or demonstrate. Fortunately, they have a patient and supportive adult like you. The ideas presented below will show you how to support them as they struggle to show the new behavior, and how to focus on progress rather than perfection. Social skills are those self-management, problem-solving, peer-relations, decision making, and communication abilities that allow the AS or HFA youngster to initiate and maintain positive social relationships with others. Deficits in social behavior interfere with learning, te

"Is there one method for teaching social skills that is better than the others? If so, what might it be?" “Video-modeling” may be one of the most effective social-skills training tools used for kids with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA). This technique involves the child watching a video demonstration of a behavior, and then imitating the behavior of the model. Video-modeling may be used with the child’s parents, teachers, friends – or self as a model (called “self-modeling”). Self-modeling techniques have the added advantage of providing AS and HFA youngsters with a visual representation of their own success (i.e., they can view themselves successfully engaging in a behavior or activity). Self-modeling can be used to promote skill acquisition, boost skill performance, and decrease problem behaviors. It utilizes a powerful learning medium for kids on the spectrum (i.e., visually-cued instruction) with an effective, evidence-based intervention strategy.