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Anyone out there that has an Asperger son that is obsessed with WWII?

My 8 year old son was diagnosed with autism at age 4. He displayed many of the symptoms of autism, poor social skills, tantrums, sensory problems. Now with early intervention he has blossomed. At the end of Kindergarten he was assessed again by the School Board and he no longer fit the criteria for Autism. He is now in 2nd grade and doing well. He is very smart with an IQ of 132 and a verbal IQ of 148; I got these results when I had him tested to see if he was gifted. The results were yes he is gifted. I did not tell the Dr. of his prior diagnosis of Autism, I guess I wanted to believe that the earlier diagnosis of Autism was a misdiagnosis. Now I had a staffing at school and according to the onsite psychologist he does not qualify to be in the gifted program. I was upset because I think he would fit in much better with the gifted kids. My son sounds like a walking dictionary. After reading about Asperger wow that is my son! Very high IQ, high vocabulary, obsessive interests! He is obsessed with WWII history. It is mostly all he talks about, and his conversations are all fact based about what he knows.

Please is there anyone out there that has an Asperger son that is obsessed with WWII?

I want to make sense of all this and I want to be informed so that if what he has is Asperger I can understand my son better. I also want to find a social skills group for him.

I appreciate any response. Please share your story. I want to be better informed. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

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Re: Obsessions

Obsessions and compulsive behavior are typical problems linked with Asperger Syndrome Behavior. This is often a hallmark sign of Aspergers syndrome. These children may become fixated on a narrow subject, such as the weather, compulsive cleanness, sport statistics or other narrow concern.

Aspergers kids can be explicitly taught better ways of communication with others which will lessen their focus on obsession.

Medications that control obsessive behavior can be tried to see if some of the obsessiveness reduces.

In some cases, it helps to turn your child's obsession into a passion that can be integrated into his or her own extracurricular or school activities. A consuming interest in a given subject can help connect your child to schoolwork or social activities, depending on the obsession and the behavior.

Part of the obsessiveness stems from a conflict between longings for social contact and an inability to be social in ways that attract friendships and relationships.

While it is better to teach communication skills and self esteem to the younger children, communication skills and friendship skills can be taught to teens or even adults that can eliminate some of the social isolation they feel. This can avert or reverse depression and anger symptoms as well as obsessions and compulsive behavior.

Learn as much about your child as you can and learn which things trigger compulsive behavior so they can be avoided. Some compulsive behavior is completely benign and is easily tolerated by everyone involved. As parents, you need to decide which kinds of behaviors should be just tolerated and which need intervention.

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