My ASD Child

You're trying to find things for your child to do all summer that are safe, entertaining, and maybe if you're lucky, have some educational value. If you're like most moms and dads, you're trying to hold down a job at the same time. Now, add “Aspergers” (high functioning autism) to the equation and things have just gotten exponentially more complicated. Your Aspergers youngster needs structure and routine during the summer, and you're at a loss to think of activities that can give it to them. You fear a summer full of meltdowns and regression. What can you do? Not to worry, the list below will include plenty of tips for ensuring a successful summer for both you and your youngster with Aspergers or High-Functioning Autism: 1. Ask your Aspergers youngster about what he plans or expects to happen when out of school or on vacation. Doing so will help clear up any misconceptions about the things you either agree on or disagree about. 2. Avoid springin

Aspergers and High-Functioning Autistic kids are noted for having an obsession with just one or two activities – and homework is usually NOT one of them. Some moms and dads have great difficulty in getting their youngster to shift from their “obsessive interest” to “homework.” We recently took a poll here on MyAspergersChild.com . Moms and dads (300 in total) of kids on the autism spectrum were asked about homework-related problems. Here are the results: 8% said that their youngster hated school because of homework 10% had no problem getting their youngster to do their homework 16% reported that homework often caused a meltdown 18% had to remind their youngster to do their homework 48% said that homework was a daily family battle What are we to do if our "special needs" youngsters hate homework? Unfortunately that answer is not straightforward. It depends on the reasons WHY your youngster does not want to do homework. Here are five reasons these children ha

A meltdown is an intense emotional and behavioral response to “over-stimulation” (a form of distress for the child). Meltdowns are triggered by a fight-or-flight response, which releases adrenaline into the blood stream, creating heightened anxiety and causing the Asperger's (AS) or High-Functioning Autistic (HFA) child to switch to an instinctual survival mode. Common Features of Meltdowns— after the meltdown, there may be intense feelings of shame, remorse or humiliation, and a fear that relationships have been harmed beyond repair children in the middle of a meltdown will likely become hyposensitive or hypersensitive to pain cognitive dysfunction, perceptual distortion, and narrowing of sensory experience are associated with meltdowns meltdowns are a reaction to severe stress, although the stress may not be readily apparent to an observer meltdowns are caused by sensory or mental overload, sometime in conjunction with each other meltdowns are due to overwhelming

Question Will my Aspergers child’s symptoms get worse over time? Answer It doesn't actually worsen, but when a child with Aspergers (high functioning autism) reaches puberty, he/she can come under tremendous pressure and stress. So even though there is no actual cure for Aspergers, it can be made less noticeable if the Aspie is taught the correct ways to behave. This can mean going to occupational therapists, speech therapists, or the like. The more positive work you put towards helping your child, the less noticeable his/her Aspergers traits will be. Click here for more...