My ASD Child

Question Is there anything I can do to help me remember that my aspergers son’s behaviors are not designed to irritate me and that to him they are needful or make sense? Answer I know! It is so hard to deal with this, especially as people with Aspergers (high functioning autism) get older. We expect them to stop doing things that irritate us as they mature! But, they can't and they won't. Their behaviors make sense to them, even when we explain why they don't make sense "in the real world," as we think of it. Some of this is due to the fact that they "need" the behaviors, for whatever reason. Some of it is due to mindblindness, the lack of ability to understand the emotions, feelings, motivations, and logic of others and not care that they don't understand! Their mindblindness makes us feel as though they don't care about us. Let me describe a perfect example of mindblindness. The mother of someone that I know has Asp

Question Out of curiosity, is Aspergers relatively common amongst twins who have been affected by TTTS before birth, specifically the 'donor' sibling? I was thinking of the link with oxygen starvation being the common denominator. Many thanks, by the way love the website/emails!! Answer For those who may not know, TTTS is a disease of the placenta. In a normal multiple birth pregnancy, some blood vessels are shared between the babies and blood flow between them is equal. One minute one baby will act like a donor, the next it will act as a recipient. In a pregnancy with TTTS, for some reason, the blood flow isn't equal between the babies. One baby will always be the donor and the other always the recipient. This causes one baby to be larger than the other. Having said this, there is no solid research currently that suggests a link between TTTS and Autism Spectrum Disorders. However, new research with rats suggests that “oxygen deprivation” (one byproduct o

In this post, we will be referring to the sibling with Aspergers as the “Aspie” – and the sibling without Aspergers as the “neurotypical”... The discovery that a child has Aspergers (or high-functioning autism) has a profound effect on a family. Kids suddenly must adjust to a brother or sister who, because of their disorder, may require a large portion of family time, attention, money, and psychological support. Yet it is an important concern to any family that the neurotypical sibling adjusts to the Aspie, because the neurotypical child's reactions to the Aspie can affect the overall adjustment and development of self-esteem in both kids. In any family, each sibling, and each relationship that siblings have, is unique, important, and special. Brothers and sisters influence each other and play important roles in each other's lives. Indeed, sibling relationships make up a youngster's first social network and are the basis for his or her interactions with people o

The challenges of Aspergers (high functioning autism) can be many, especially for adolescents. Because socialization plays a major role in teens' lives, the world of an Aspergers adolescent can be a difficult one. Unfortunately, schoolmates and friends are often ignorant about the characteristics associated with Aspergers. This ignorance can often lead to cruelty, making an "Aspie" feel ostracized from other adolescents. Social issues are some of the most common problems associated with this condition. Because the range of symptoms and behaviors are so varied from one youngster to another, the key to discovering coping mechanisms for adolescents with Aspergers depends somewhat on understanding these behaviors. For many young people, the behavior of an Aspergers adolescent can be puzzling and sometimes irritating. Because of this, many schoolmates simply ignore that adolescent. This could result in even more negative behavior on the part of the Aspergers adolescent