Helping Students with Aspergers and HFA: Snapshot for Teachers

Children with Asperger's and high-functioning autism will respond quite well to specific classroom adaptations. Here are the recommended methods teachers can employ with their "special needs" students...

 

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Can you help me teach my ASD child organizational skills?

For children and teens with ASD, organizational skills are a mystery. We all need strong organizational skills. Teaching these skills starts very young and continues through childhood as they increase in difficulty. Kids with ASD lack these natural skills and must be taught these skills if they desire to be productive adults. 

 

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What do you do if you think your child may have Aspergers?

Question

What do you do if you think your child may have Aspergers? Should I schedule an appt. with his pediatrician or is there someone more specialized that we should see? I have suspected this with him for some time, but he is only three years old and I am nervous about putting something on him that may not apply. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

It is unlikely that Aspergers will be diagnosed before school age. Some diagnosticians are clearly of the view that Aspergers cannot be diagnosed before a child starts school. The reason for this is that it is thought that social skills may not have been fully developed at this point due to the lack of exposure to social settings prior to starting school.

Get as much information as you can. Make notes and correlate what you know of your child’s behavior with the information you have gathered. This is a good step for empowering yourself before you visit your doctor, and it will show him/her that you have been concerned enough to have done your homework. Once you have convinced the doctor, request a referral to an Aspergers specialist. This might be a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist. A team on your side can help. If you still have problems, take the private option and pay for a “comprehensive psychiatric evaluation” from a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.

My Aspergers Child: Preventing Meltdowns

Is it a good idea to try to stop obsessive behaviors?

Question

I have a 5 year old son with Asperger's. Is it a good idea to try to stop his obsessive behaviors? Perhaps taking some of the toys he plays with repetitively or inappropriately.

Answer

Aspies' obsessions should not be curtailed unless they are totally inappropriate. Moreover, there is nothing wrong with getting into the child's world and experiencing their obsession with them. In fact, you MUST do this to ever truly reach and connect with an Aspie. (FYI: In schools, teachers who practice this are the ones who are successful with Aspies most often.) How can we expect Aspies to come out to our world if we refuse to visit theirs?

My Aspergers Child: Preventing Meltdowns