My ASD Child

Do you need some assistance in parenting your Aspergers or HFA child?  Click here  to use Mark Hutten, M.A. as your personal parent coach. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My 18 year old son has been diagnosed with aspergers, also now known as Social Pragmatic communication disorder. He also has auditory processing disorder, a math disability, and an IQ of 90. He has lately taken to arguing with me about everything, he talks over me, and will not listen.  Some of this I know is due to the fact that he is trying to find his way in life. But, I am at my wits end. Help! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Mark, Firstly I would like to congratulate you on a very thorough and comprehensive article on SPD. As a child I was diagnosed very early on with SPD, roughly aged 4-5. I am now 27, happily married and (more or less) a functioning member of society. I was scrolling amongst a plethora of SPD-related articles as my wife was curious as to the mentality and 'learning diffi

Frequently, the focus of specialized programs for children with Asperger's and High Functioning Autism (HFA) is on early childhood. Unfortunately, published research evaluating educational programs for older kids and teens on the autism spectrum is lacking. However, there is empirical support for the use of certain educational strategies for this older group of children, particularly those that are based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Such strategies should be employed across all age groups to generalize behaviors to new environments or situations, to increase and maintain desirable adaptive behaviors, to reduce interfering maladaptive behaviors (or narrow the conditions under which they occur), and to teach new skills. Middle School— When kids with Asperger’s and HFA move beyond preschool and early elementary programs, educational intervention should continue to involve adaptation of teaching strategies as necessary to enable these “special needs” children to acquire

“Are you familiar with the TEACCH method for helping younger students on the autism spectrum? How does it work, and can it really help these ‘special needs’ students?” Let's first look at the basic principles of TEACCH. They include the following: 1. physical structure refers to the child’s immediate surroundings; daily activities (e.g., playing and eating) work best when they are clearly defined by physical boundaries 2. having a consistent schedule is possible through various mediums (e.g., drawings and photographs) 3. the work system establishes expectations and activity measurements that promote independence (ideal work systems will communicate objectives with minimum written instructions) 4. routine is essential because the most important functional support for kids on the autism spectrum is consistency 5. visual structure involves visually-based cues for reminders and instruction The TEACCH method emphasizes structure and has come to be called “structured teac