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Aspergers Children and Social Skills Interventions

In this post, we will look at the ingredients that are critical to making “social skills interventions” successful for kids with Aspergers. Here you will find basic principles for teaching social skills that capitalize on the strengths of such kids, while specifically addressing their deficits: Make the abstract concrete— Relative to some academic skills, teaching social competence involves abstract skills and concepts. Because kids with Aspergers tend to be concrete and literal, the abstract nature of these interpersonal skills such as kindness, reciprocity, friendships, thoughts, and feelings makes them especially difficult to master. A first critical step is to define the abstract social skill or problem in clear and concrete terms. The behavior must be explicitly operationalized and the youngster taught to identify it and differentiate it from other behaviors (Is this a friend or not a friend? Is this a quiet or a loud voice? Were you being teased or not? Are you followin

Aspergers Tantrums, Rage, and Meltdowns

At the moment if the situations are not done exactly his way he has a meltdown. Symptoms are: Extreme ear piercing screaming, intense crying, to falling down on the floor saying he is going to die. I have tried to tell him to breathe but his meltdown is so intense that his body just can't listen to words.  ==> Continue to full article ...

Anxiety and Sleep Problems

Question My 11 yr old daughter was diagnosed with Asperger's just about a year ago. She is very very high functioning, well we though until about 6 months ago, when her anxiety took over and she had a mental and physical breakdown. Her anxiety continues to plague her, although, she is better than she was. Sleeping is a huge issue for her, always has been since she was 18 months old. The hard thing is, is that no calming techniques seem to help or better yet, she is not willing to even try some. Not to mention the fact that nothing is consistent, yet it’s all consistent. That something is always the matter, here or there. She is very smart, very stubborn, and very very pre pubescent. She was always quirky, and pretentious, but this anxiety is very difficult to maintain daily life without know what she can handle and what she can’t. No rhythm or reason. She is on anti anxiety meds, only at night... but sometimes do the opposite. They make her cranky and anxious, frustrated