Asperger's Syndrome is not a disease!

I heard someone today refer to Asperger's as a disease. Asperger's Syndrome is very high functioning autism. People who have Asperger's are generally socially inept and immature for their age. They also tend to obsess over one or two things that interest them and not much else. Social interaction is very difficult for kids with Asperger's.

They tend to bore other kids because of their single minded obsessions, and thus get picked on a lot. They also get easily bored or frustrated with other kids because they cannot understand why the other kids could care less about the difference between the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic etc. Also, people with Asperger's have a hard time understanding body language and facial expressions. This makes it difficult for them to realize that other people want to end a conversational topic, or have a turn to talk, or whatever.

It's hard to watch your child struggle. I try to get my son to talk about how he feels to make it easier and he tries and then suddenly he changes topic to an airplane disaster and I know he is done for now. He works on self-control and how to control his outbursts and meltdowns but sometimes he can't. We've worked on visual clues that is a work in progress..., he is still MUCH better with verbal clues, like Hey let's talk about something else. But when talking about feelings when he is done, there is no getting more out of him when he doesn't want to talk about it. When I push, I can feel him edging closer to a meltdown, so I let him go back to his comfort zone for a bit and try again later.

My son is awesome. Being diagnosed with Asperger's doesn't change that. He is still the same smart, sweet, silly boy, he just adapts differently, and sometimes needs helps adapting to the world around him. As he has gotten older he needs less help because we are teaching him coping mechanisms.

If you are out in a store today and you see a mom with a child that is melting down, don't judge or question her parenting skills (I used to be that mom and HistoryBoy was that kid overwhelmed but the hugeness of the store and number of people and huge amount of noises) Be grateful that is not your child. Ask god to give her the patience and strength to handle what god has given her and help her handle her child's fears.

I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment or email me at teenahope@gmail.com