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Hello, I'm new here and I would like to get to know some of you. My son has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. He's 7 years old. I want to learn as much as I can about it so that I can help him as much as possible. I want to understand him because he deserves to be understood.

hello I am fairly new here as well I have a 9 year old son who has been diagnosed with asperger's among other things we also have a 4 1/2 year old son and baby #3 on the way WELCOME!!

Good to meet you! How long has he been diagnosed? My son is still an only child. We are open for more but not in a hurry. Thank you for the nice welcome.

its always good to diagnose early because that way you can get help faster. for someone who is a parent im sure its hard finding out that your child is going to grow up diffrent and probly going to have hardships. it was hard on my mom because she never fully grasped that i was diffrent and our relationship is still strained so we dont say much. and occasionally she blames me for her problems.

I am willing to learn to grasp my son's differences because I want him to be able to grasp it for himself as he gets older. I agree with you that the sooner I can help him learn about Aspergers, the better off he will be. I want him to embrace what he has. He is different yes, but that does not mean he or any of you are "less" than the NT's. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that you are more. He is not a problem and neither are you. It makes me sad to hear that your mother has struggled with her acceptance of Aspergers. I understand that it's difficult living in a world that is not yet fully aware of what you are. I bet if she were to keep trying she could learn a great deal from it. I've only begun to study Aspergers and the more that I learn the more I want to know. Who's to say you aren't all here to help teach us NT's some things that we have not learned before?

he has been diagnosed officially about a year and a half with asperger's of course we got the usual adhd and nothing else runaround before that happened and that was when he was a month short of bein 5 years old his kindergarten teacher suggested the initial evaluation. It is very difficult sometimes watching them go through stuff and trying so hard to understand and especially when it is causing you to have a difficult day but I am so grateful to have found a place where people will understand when you need to vent lol! I always tell myself if it's this hard on me imagine how he feels and that tends to help

Ah yes, the ADHD runaround. We went through that one too. I guess it was what the professionals considered a "safe" diagnosis. It didn't stay that way though because my son was not responding to the therapy they thought he needed. His outbursts and his temper among other pointed symtoms finally put them into perspective. The biggest thing was the feedback from the school as you said. His high intelligence was really what did it. ADHD kids don't easily sit for hours and read or do math problems or play with blocks. That's a big difference right there.

Hi!

Welcome to Wrongplanet! I hope you enjoy posting here!

I had a book called "this is asperger syndrome" i had the teacher read it to the regular and the special ed students to help them understand him a little better as well it's a really great book! my son could build with blocks or play video games for HOURS on end ( if i let him of course ) he probably does play more than other kids as it helps with fine motor skills although I am very careful about which games he plays. I have had a problem with the school recently sending home "captain underpants" books which i'm sure are great for some kids but zachary obsesses about toilet issues and a book called captain underpants is hardly appropriate for someone like him lol! you'd think they would have figured that out considering the day they sent it home he had run into the classroom jumped on top of his desk and yelled "i wet myself" just to get a rise out of the other kids... his last school was so much better! they are quickly finding out that i will not tolerate a lot of what they have been doing and are actually now implementing his iep... i gave them the option of that or due process so they knew they really didn't have any choice. our biggest hurdle now is that since he is on a shortened day he misses science and social studies although he is there for french... i have demanded science as opposed to french by the end of the month or once again it will be me threatening with court. some people just do not get it!

I understand your frustration with the school. My son's school has been hesitant about the iep. So far they are trying to do what they can without it. The first grade classroom is set up with big tables. The students each have their place to sit around these tables. My son has his own desk... up front and close to the teacher and still close to the other students... but with enough space so that he feels he has his own space. He's happier with this because before they decided to do that, he was having a hard time and was even violent with the other kids a few times. He also gets to go to the resource room during lunch hour and eat there. It's quiet there and he can read or draw pictures. He tells me he likes this much better than going to the cafeteria. The teacher told me she feels like it's made a big difference for him because he has a chance to "unwind" and relax away from so many people. She says she's noticed a difference in how he behaves in class. He also goes to the resource room during morning recess. They've offered to let him go outside and play at least once a day with the other kids, but he doesn't want to. There are 6 first grade classrooms and between the classes there is a small group of high level readers. This group of kids will get to have time away from the rest of the class once or twice a week to work on projects that will keep them challenged. They want my son to join in. They're trying to come up with projects that he can do during math time as well, because he's always done with his math work quickly and tends to get bored. When my son is bored, that's when he starts running into trouble. So, the school seems to be coming up with some good plans for him so far ... I just don't understand the big hold off with the iep.

the hold up with the iep is that once it's in place they cannot legally change it without your signature or a court order so they'd rather not have one i would request a pet meeting myself in writing they are supposed to give you one within 10 days of your written request and cannot wait longer than 30 days without your permission otherwise they can go to court over it. I would get your son a case manager through whatever the special services place is in your area mine is Sweetser you can always call another school and ask them who you can use for an outside advocate since your school will most likely not want you to have this on your side I didn't actually feel the need for a case manager until we moved for this school year only two towns over but what a difference in schools if i could have afforded to buy a house where we were i would but 200,000 for a 2 bedroom is out of my budget especially when i really need 4 bedrooms and even in my current home which we purchased in June we only have 3 lol. You are your child's best advocate but the outside help really will make a difference in the pressure the school feels put under to do the right thing. Also even though I did not feel the need for a case manager for my son while he was at the "good" school I now wish that I had gotten one as Zachary now has a scholarship to the ymca for swimming and socialization that we could have not afforded otherwise. Insurance should cover the case worker mine does anyway.

There is a program here that is supposed to have all kinds of options for us. Once we are signed up we will have a case manager as well. I don't know much about it yet as I am still in the process of applying for it. There's all kinds of paperwork to fill out and they want a full evaluation done. It's some sort of scales testing. I don't know much about it yet but I will be finding out quite a bit more in the near future. A friend of mine told me about it and said that it's done a world of good for her aspie son who is now 17. I am willing to do everything in my power to give my son the support he deserves.. and I can tell that you will understand when I say that if I have to get pushy about it and even down right mean I am more than willing to do so. To me it's very much worth the tremendous effort.

good for you! I have made myself known in my son's school very quickly and they KNOW that they will be getting my child the services he needs and deserves because I am NOT going away! I actually stated at the last PET meeting that I refused to be left hanging on the side of the tree and I would be included in ALL decisions because I am not the type of mom that will be blown off and ignored a few times and just go away they will deal with me daily either on the phone face to face or through a daily journal from the teacher ( I always keep copies of all correspondence as well so you may want to invest in a scanner/copier/printer just to be on the safe side if you don't already have one )

Thank you. I will write the name of the book down and see if I can find it online.

i dread iep's because i dont know what they're going to say about me and i dont know if i got better or worse at school.