My ASD Child

"My child is so desperate to find just one close friend. It breaks my heart when he tries so hard to make friends but eventually gets rejected. How do you teach friendship skills? How can I help?!" For most children with ASD [High Functioning Autism], the most important part of a treatment strategy involves the development of communication and social competence. This emphasis doesn’t reflect a societal pressure for conformity or an attempt to stifle individuality and uniqueness. Rather, it reflects the clinical fact that most children with ASD are not loners by choice, and that there is a tendency (as these young people develop towards adolescence) for despondency, negativism, and depression as a result of the child's increasing awareness of personal inadequacy in social situations and repeated experiences of failure to make and/or maintain relationships. The typical limitations of insight and self-reflection experienced by children with ASD often preclude spontan...

"How can parents tell the difference between deliberate, defiant and manipulative behaviors - as opposed to symptoms of autism (high functioning in this case)." Children with Asperger’s and High Functioning Autism (HFA) often exhibit different forms of challenging behavior. It is imperative that these behaviors are not seen as willful or malicious; more accurately, they should be viewed as connected to the child’s disorder and treated as such by means of insightful, therapeutic and educational strategies, rather than by inconsistent punishment or other disciplinary measures that imply the assumption of deliberate misbehavior. Parents and teachers need to recognize the difficulties that the youngster with HFA brings to each situation as a result of his or her neurologically-based disorder. Among the common traits of this “special needs” child include the following: A need for predictability and routine A tendency to respond based on association and memory, which lea...

“My son with high functioning autism is nearly 5 years old and the problem is his clumsiness. I was always clumsy as a kid, which was blamed on my left-handedness, but his is extreme. Today he has dropped two drinks and spilt milk down himself. He is also left handed, but he is grown up for his age, seems very intelligent, and has no other health worries. Is this part of having AS …is it just a phase for his age …or could there be a neurological problem?” Most children with Asperger’s (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA) have a history of delayed acquisition of motor skills (e.g., hand writing, pedaling a bike, tying shoe laces, catching a ball, opening jars, climbing monkey-bars, etc.), which is called “motor clumsiness.” These young people are often visibly awkward, exhibiting rigid gait patterns, odd posture, poor manipulative skills, and significant deficits in visual-motor coordination. Although this presentation contrasts with the pattern of motor development in autistic ki...

 ~ Tantrums Versus Meltdowns One of the most misunderstood Aspergers and High-Functioning Autistic (HFA) behaviors is the meltdown. Frequently, it is the result of some sort of overwhelming stimulation of which cause is often a mystery to moms and dads and teachers. They can come on suddenly and catch everyone by surprise. Aspergers and HFA kids tend to suffer from sensory overload issues that can create meltdowns. Kids who have neurological disorders other than autism spectrum disorders can suffer from meltdowns, too. Unlike tantrums, these kids are expressing a need to withdraw and slowly collect themselves at their own pace. Kids who have tantrums are looking for attention. They have the ability to understand that they are trying to manipulate the behavior of the others, caregivers and/or peers. This perspective taking or "theory of mind" is totally foreign to the Aspergers or HFA youngster who has NO clue that others cannot "read" their mind ...

“Are there methods to prevent meltdowns associated with receiving a consequence for misbehavior? When our high functioning (autistic) daughter knows she is going to be punished, it quickly escalates into meltdown, which by then is much too late to intervene.” Yes, there are some prevention methods (emphasis on “prevent”). The first and most important consideration is to think in terms of “prevention” rather than “intervention.” Once a meltdown is underway, it usually has to run its course (i.e., it's too late to intervene at that point). So, the best approach is to educate yourself on how to put the fires out while they are still small. Here are some ideas for using prevention strategies to curb punishment-related meltdowns before that start: 1. Both home and in school, develop a daily routine so that your daughter knows what she is doing and when. Posting the schedule and reviewing it when your daughter becomes "stuck" can provide the necessary prompt to mo...