My ASD Child

"Our son (high functioning) will memorize a line from a movie that he really was captivated by, and repeat that line over and over all day long. Is this a trait of autism? another one our son does is constantly tell us what's happening in whatever he's watching on the TV, even if we're actually watching it ourselves! We think it's his way of processing what he see's to help him understand it." A common symptom of Aspergers and High-Functioning Autism includes repetition of words and phrases. In many cases, these phrases are related to something the youngster has been exposed to (e.g., a movie, book, song, etc.). The youngster may continue to say the word or phrase throughout the day or even throughout the following week. If you're the mother or father of a verbal youngster diagnosed with Aspergers or HFA, you may have heard him or her repeat bits and pieces from videos or other sources. This type of communication is called "echolalia....

“I want to implement a Token Economy system with my 12 year old Aspie.  Can you give me detailed instructions on how to do this?” Actually, a token (or economy) system is quite easy to set up. Here’s how: 1. Identify the behaviors for which your child can earn credits. An example of a good behavior would be if he took it upon himself to start and complete his homework without having to be asked twice to do so. Then you would award him a token. 2. Decide the "currency" used. Every time your "Aspie" (i.e., high functioning autistic child) does something positive, then he would earn a token (e.g., a sticker, points, poker chips, monopoly money, etc.). You can even offer bonus points for doing certain chores. 3. Determine the value of the currency (i.e., how many tokens your child should receive for each good behavior – and how many he should lose for each bad behavior). For example, he could earn 5 tokens for every time he takes the trash out without...

These kids will tell you why they like having Aspergers:

In 1987, I started doing music therapy with children who had High-Functioning Autism (HFA). Although we didn't call it HFA at that time, we knew that some autistic children were higher functioning than others. I have always said - and continue to believe - that if you have an undiagnosed HFA child WITHOUT any comordid conditions, you have a child who may go his or her entire life without ever being diagnosed with HFA. The child might be viewed as a little weird by peers, but without any comorbid conditions, few - if any - adults (e.g., parents, teachers, etc.) would ever suspect that the child had HFA. This is because HFA has few problematic symptoms in-and-of itself. Most often, it is the conditions associated with HFA that indicate something is not quite right. For example, an alarming number of children who were eventually diagnosed with Asperger's were first diagnosed with ADHD years earlier. Unfortunately, in my 25+ years of experience, I have never met a child ...

Effective behavioral support for a student with special needs requires highly individualized strategies that address the primary areas of difficulty in managing anxiety, communication, preferences for sameness and rules, ritualistic behaviors, social understanding and interactions, and sensory sensitivities. While the specific components of a positive behavioral support plan will vary from child to child, the following tips will assist teachers as they work towards achieving the best outcomes on behalf of their special needs student: 1. Students with special needs experience communication difficulties. While they are able to use language quite effectively to discuss topics of interest, they may have great difficulty expressing sadness, anger, frustration and other important messages. As a result, behavior may be the most effective means to communicate when words fail. 2. Since behaviors are influenced by the quality of relationships with teachers, teachers should monitor the...