coping with asperger children….and finding support your asperger child, it is important to first understand that one of the main issues with asperger syndrome is the development of obsessive thinking and the performing of ritualistic behaviors done to reduce stress and anxiety.
Try assessing your aspergers childs behavior, in various situations, to determine which situations they struggle with. This will give you an insight into the areas you need to be aware of andfind coping strategies for.
Coping with aspergers children, is stressful. For example your child may display difficulties when the daily routine changes.
Your child may also have difficulty adjusting to environmental changes. This could include some trivial changes which to a normally developing child mean nothing, like the rearranging of furniture or the bus arriving late, a cancellation of an appointment.
There are certain resources and methods you can call, for example social skills stories. They will help you control these situations, and any others that you encounter and develop a strategy that enables your child to adjust and cope.
An example for this may be that your child may get overwhelmed by too many people or too much noise in a certain situations. So the obvious answer for them is to get out of the situation.
They may feel they need to get away, and run or push their way physically out of the situation.
They can help them to practice saying words like “I need time out” or “Quiet spot”. However if the situation is overwhelming them the social story will help them find ways out like holding up a flash card or drawing their thoughts.
Autism spectrum disorder is a life long disability, present from birth or early childhood. There is no cure for autism spectrum disorder.
Autism disabilities affect more boys than girls. In general autistic spectrum disorders surround problems with communication, behavior and social awareness.
Listed are some of the main autism disabilities you will probably have noticed:
Unable to cope socially
Communication difficulties
Stimming-self stimulation
Obsessions with an object or thing
Lack of eye contact
Preferring to be alone
Repetition
Unable to make and maintain friendships
Lack of social understanding often miss-reading facial expressions and others body language
Short concentration span
Need for sameness, no spontaneity
There are different kinds of autism:
Aspergers syndrome for example often referred to as high functioning autism, this set of autistics will often have a higher than normal I.Q.
But autism disability is more often present among lower I.Q. groups such as those with learning disabilities.
The term Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is used because Autism varies from person to person. Around 25% of people with ASD will have an accompanying learning disability.
Those autistics that have an average or above average I.Q. will often be diagnosed as asperger syndrome.
However despite the different kinds of autism, all autistics with an Autism Spectrum Disorder will have problems in the areas of Communication, Social Skills and Imagination.
As with autism disabilities all asperger individualswill have problems in at least three of the same areas:
Social communication
Social understanding
Imagination
There are methods and techniques already being used with huge success to help in these social areas: ABA is one method used.
There are also social skills stories Research suggest that autistic and asperger individuals respond well to social skills stories.
Autism social skills storiesand asperger social skills stories are used effectively for situations and experiences that the autistic individual will come across in daily life, as well as planned situations like for example a wedding, new baby or a visit to the dentist.
Autism social stories are used for all areas where the individual needs help and guidance.
For example: during puberty, at school, preschool, around the home and hygiene issues.
Autism social skills stories are an excellent resource providing clear concise social cues. Explaining both in text form and visually by the aid of appropriate images and pictures the event, situation or skill the autistic individual may be struggling with.
They can be easily implemented and used both in the home and at school, college or the workplace.
To download and begin implementing autism social skills stories immediately to help with autism disability, visit one of our many sites and gain access to these valuable tools
It is perfectly normal to make a judgment about a person as soon as you meet them. We judge their hair, face, voice even their stance and quickly decide what we like and dislike about the person, before we even get to know them…We can read a persons body language and realize if they are happy, sad, pleased to see us or angry
People with asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted.This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.
Asperger syndrome is a form of autism.
Autism is a lifelong disability, which affects how a person makes sense of the world.
How they processes information and relate to others. Autism is often described as a spectrum disorder.
This isbecause autism spectrum disorder will affect people in different ways and to varying degrees.
Asperger syndrome has been described as the ‘hidden disability’.
….Because the asperger person will look normal to the outside world. The individual with asperger syndrome will have difficulties in three main areas.
They are: Social interaction, Imagination and communication difficulties
You may have heard them referred to as “the triad of impairments”
Whilst there are some similarities with autism, those people with Asperger syndrome will present less difficulties with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence.
With the right support, encouragement, and social aids people with Asperger syndrome can lead full and independent lives.
One such support you can give an asperger person is in the form of printable asperger social stories
Research has shown that asperger social stories can be regarded as a valuable part of an asperger person’s life Giving them the social know how that the condition renders them without.
Making social acceptance easier and less stressful Asperger social stories are used as a tool for teaching and re-enforcing appropriate behaviors and social skills.
To access and immediately download suitable asperger social skills stories visit one of our many sites PLUS grab your free report Managing your autistic child’s behavior from:www.autismsocialstories.com
Being a teenager is a difficult time, being the parent of a teenager is also a challenging time. But if your teen has asperger syndrome, this can be not only challenging but very difficult…
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For a start how do you explain what will happen to their body. What resources are there available to help you, and how do you access these.
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Then there is the hormonal changes, an increase in hormones can sometime trigger seizures in asperger teen’s so you will need to be aware of these. Not all seizures involve falling to the ground and shaking…This kind of seizure is not that common. A lot of seizures are noticed as absences, a blank stare, etc. if you think your asperger teenager may be experiencing seizures of any degree, however small, l you should take them along to your G.P. to be checked out.
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Being a teenager is quite confusing, you’re no longer a child, with this comes the pressure of exams, growing sexuality, peer pressure, and all the other things that come with the onset of your teenage years.
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At school and at home your life begins to take on new dimensions, you begin to start planning a career and mapping out a future for yourself. The teenage years are a very social time, relationships are formed and people treat you more grown up.
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For an asperger teenager, this time can and will be stressful. Their friends will mature and expect them to mature with them… If your autistic teenager has high functioning autism or asperger, chances are they attend a normal school. They will have formed friendships with normally developing children of their own age.
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This is where asperger social stories will be of benefit to your asperger teenager, a social story can and will explain all the changes happening to their bodies as well as the changes to their friends bodies.
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Why for example all of a sudden they need to use deodorant, maybe people are beginning to complain they smell…Susie might not now be happy to allow them to sniff her hair. Maybe your autistic or asperger teenager is female; an asperger social skills story can explain menstruation and how to cope with the onset of periods.
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Social stories will cover puberty; swear words, taking care of themselves and so much more. Asperger social stories are used by many parents to help their teenager better prepare and manage the teenage years.
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Parents and educators of asperger teenagers have found by using social stories they have been able to more easily explain and better manage their autistic teenagers mood swings. Asperger syndrome is a lifelong developmental disorder, it does not make you exempt from developing into an adult.
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Asperger social skill stories will greatly improve your asperger teens understanding of, and make them more comfortable in, the changing years, as they develop into adulthood.
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An excellent source of specially written social stories just for the teenage years can be found at:
Kids with autism need to be taught social skills directly, as they do not easily pick up on these skills from their environment like a normally developing child will.
Autistic children tend not to pick up on social skills and are unable to understand body language or facial expressions, which makes interpreting the thoughts and feelings of other’s an impossible task.
Teaching social skills to autistic children can take many forms; one way is through ABA or applied behavior analysis. Another way is through the use of “social skills storiesâ€â€¦.These techniques for helping autistic children is probably the most useful as a parent to understand and implement successfully
It is very important to think about how you will help your child understand the need for certain social skills.
For example if you intend your child to be included in main stream education a certain amount of social skills is important. The ability to wait your turn in class to ask a question, manners, good eating habits and the ability to toilet themselves appropriately for their age.
While most school’s will have thought about asperger classroom accommodations, or autism classroom accommodations, there is still the need for the appropriate social skills to be taught and re-enforced to make your child’s inclusion as easy as possible.
Kids with Autism and AspergerSyndrome are often capable of working at the same level as their peer’s; but are at risk of not being included in a classroom because of behavioral issues or poorly developed social skills.
Teaching social skills to autistic children has become one of the primary focuses when working with autistic children.
Success in teaching social skills can increase self-confidence and lead to positive result in other areas of the classroom and life in general for autistic children.
A good social story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the dentist, moving school, going shopping, or recess - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on.
To learn more about autism social storiesand how they can be used successfully as techniques for helping autistic children learn social skills visit us at:
Kids with autism need to be taught autistic social skills directly, as they do not easily pick up on these skills from their environment like a normally developing child will.
Autistic children tend not to pick up on social skills and are unable to understand body language or facial expressions, which makes interpreting the thoughts and feelings of other’s an impossible task.
It is very important to think about how you will help your child understand the need for certain social skills.
For example if you intend your child to be included in main stream education a certain amount of social skills is important. The ability to wait your turn in class to ask a question, manners, good eating habits and the ability to toilet themselves appropriately for their age.
Kids with Autism and Asperger Syndrome are often capable of working at the same level as their peer’s; but are at risk of not being included in a classroom because of behavioral issues or poorly developed social skills.
Teaching social skills to autistic children has become one of the primary focuses when working with autistic children.
Success in teaching social skills to kids with autism can increase self-confidence and lead to positive result in other areas of the classroom and life in general for autistic children.
A good autistic social skills story will focus on a particular social situation or interaction. A trip to the dentist, moving school, going shopping, or recess - these are all good examples of situations a social story might focus on.
Asperger syndrome affects people all their lives. However, as people get older their social abilities may improve.
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So what are asperger adolescents physical symptoms ?
 Asperger syndrome adolescents find it hard to relate to other people.
They may talk a lot about their own interests, and have trouble with conversations, or allowing others to speak.
They may have trouble understanding other peoples feelings and lack the ability to “mind read†or read others They may be unaware when they hurt someone’s feelings, or when someone doesn’t want to listen to them.
They like repetition and everything to remain the same. They can get very upset when routines change.
The Asperger adolescents physical symptoms may vary from slightly unusual behavior to quite aggressive and anti-social behavior.
Many scientists, writers and artists are thought to have had Asperger syndrome, including many Nobel Prize winners.
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When the time arrives for the asperger pre teen to change schools and go to secondary school. This can be a very worrying time, not only for the asperger child but also their primary carers or parents.
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Secondary school can be stressful for the asperger adolescent, with changing timetables, moving classrooms for different lessons and different teachers. This may trigger anxiety attacks in the asperger adolescent.
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It may be an idea to introduce ‘aspergers and social training’… before the move to secondary school. Finding your asperger coping strategies will help to alleviate some of the anxiety triggers your adolescent may be feeling.
…Asperger social skills stories, are short pieces of text with visual images appropriate to the instruction or explanation the story portrays…
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For example, a social kiss…an appropriately written asperger social story will explain, what a social kiss is, when it is appropriate, and why sometimes it is not appropriate to kiss our friends or others even if the desire to kiss is their, the story will explain the consequence and why sometimes it just is not appropriate to kiss people.
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Asperger social stories when written well by an expert will give accurate information to help the asperger adolescent make sense of the world around them. And give them clear coping stratergiesplus techniques to help them understand, and be accepted socially.
One of the biggest problems for autistic children is difficulty insocial interaction.
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This problem is heightened by their difficulties with speech and language. Autism also seems to create problems with the ability to mind read, or being able to tell or guess at what another person might be thinking.
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Normally developing children will observe others and guess, through a combination of tone and body language, what the other person may be thinking or feeling.
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However, with autism this naturally developed skill is missing and so the ability to predict what another is feeling or thinking is not there…
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This lack of being able to mind read can lead to social mistakes even for those with high functioning autism….And of cause social mistakes may lead to the autistic person causing hurt feelings, asking inappropriate questions, acting oddly or generally open themselves up to hostility, teasing, bullying and social isolation.
Quite often parents and educators of children with autism feel unable to communicate and interact with their autistic child.
Sometimes the autistic child may appear not to hear what has been said to them, they will often fail to respond to their name and can sometimes be indifferent to any attempts of communication with them.
By careful observation it can often be determined which way the child communicates, in this ways the educator or parent can build on this strength.
For example, if the child is non-verbal, rather then communicating with them by using words, try using gestures. The child with autism may use some of the following to communicate: crying, taking the adults hand to the thing they want, looking at what they want, reaching, using pictures and echolalia.
Echolalia is the repetition of other people’s words and is a common with the autistic child. Some autistic children will constantly repeat a rhyme or something they heard on TV.
Echolalia is a good sign it means speech is developing, in time the child may repeat something that was said to them, like drink or toilet.
Developing communication with your autistic child will be a slow process, but eventually you will make progress.
Autistic children tend to be visual learners, using pictures and images is a good way to communicate what you are expecting of them or wanting from them.
For, example at dinner time a picture or image of the family sitting around the table and a plate of food will tell the child it is time to eat.
These short pieces of text, normally one page long will have pictorial cues as to what is happening and what the child is expected to do. In time the autistic child will recognize the stories and will naturally re-act in the way the story intends them too.
For example…Dinner time a social skills story may have a picture of the family sitting around the table…a plate, cutlery, maybe a cup, some food…The adult can show the autistic child the story with the colorful images and they can then read the short descriptive pieces of text will pointing to the appropriate image.
…These autism social skills stories are normally printable so they can be used time and time again, in-fact they can be used for every situation you need help with.
These social skills stories can become like a best friend to the autistic child giving the clear and precise instructions of how to act in all situations, Plus they are a fantastic communication device for a parent-giving you the tools you need to help communicate with your autistic child.
Autism is a developmental disability of the brain; autism is not a form of mental retardation.
The word autism can refer to several similar disabilities, like Autistic Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, also Atypical Autism (a type of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified) etc..There are differences between these conditions, but on the whole they are quite similar.
The word ’spectrum’ is used because, while all people with autism share three main areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in very different ways. Some are able to live relatively ‘everyday’ lives; others will require a lifetime of specialist support.
There are three main areas of difficulty which all people with autism share these are referred to as the
‘triad of impairments’. They are:
Difficulties with communication
Difficulties with social interaction
Difficulties with imagination.
Some autistic people may be affected more by one symptom, while others may be affected more strongly by a different symptom.
People with autism may experience some form of sensory sensitivity. This can occur in one or more of the five senses - sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. A person’s senses are either intensified (hypersensitive) or under-sensitive (hypo-sensitive).
For example, a person with autism may find certain background sounds, like the hum of a fridge for example unbearably loud or distracting, while the rest of us can ignore or block out the noise. To an autistic person the noise can cause anxiety or even physical pain, this can be referred to as an autism anxiety trigger.
People who are hypo-sensitive will often not feel pain or extremes of temperature. Some may rock, spin or flap their hands to stimulate sensation, this is called autistic stimming. An autistic person will use stimming to help with balance and posture or to deal with stress, another autism anxiety trigger.
People with sensory sensitivity may also find it harder to use their body awareness system. Which tells us where our bodies are, so for those with reduced body awareness, it can be harder to navigate rooms without walking into objects or bumping into others. They will not appreciate what is an appropriate distance from other people to stand.
This can cause social problems, as the person will be unaware of the need for personal space and may stand very close, making people feel very uncomfortable.
They may also have problems with ‘fine motor’ tasks such as tying shoelaces, or fastening buttons…
Sometime autistic people may have learning disabilities, which can affect all aspects of their life, from going to school, to learning how to wash themselves, clean their teeth, Or how to feed themselves.
The symptoms of autism will vary from person to person each autistic person will have a different degree of learning disability.
Some autistic people will be able to live fairly independently, but may need some support.
While others may require lifelong, specialist support. However, all people with autism can, and do, learn and develop with the right sort of support and resources.
One such form of autism resources is something called autism social stories…These are short pieces of text with appropriate pictures-giving your autistic child, teen or adult specific social cues for everyday living skills.
Like how to wash their teeth, visiting the doctor, eating out. Social skills stories for autistic children and teens, or adults can be printed and used as instructions for all of life’s “normal†and “not so normal†life experiences and actions.
They can be like a best friend to an autistic person helping them feel better in, and cope with, situations they may struggle to understand or deal with - by giving them clear and accurate information about those situations.
Autistic children on the whole have issues when it comes to making and keeping friends.
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Sometimes they can find themselves as the targets for bullies, because of their lack of social understanding and on occasion’s odd behavior, language and unusual pre-occupations and tendencies.
Their lack of understanding and ability to respond in socially expected ways to nonverbal cues can lead to conflict or being ignored by others. Children with Asperger’s syndrome will sometimes be extremely literal and may find interpreting and responding to sarcasm or banter difficult….And may well not understand what has been said or done.
Therefore, the sooner an autistic child learns how to make appropriate friendships the better. It can help reduce problems, like bullying and lead to better relationships with people who aren’t on the spectrum.
It is easy as a non-autistic person to forget how complex social skills are;
For example:
• How to enter into other children’s activity
• How to allow another child to enter into your own game or activity
• Knowing when someone needs help, and how to find help, also how to get help from others.
• Giving and receiving compliments at the right time.
• Understanding about positive criticism, when and how to give.
• Being able to accept and handle criticism from others
• Accepting the ideas and suggestions of others, and what to do with them
• Controlling negative situations and turning them into a positive
• Learning how to act appropriately at home and in public
• Understanding body language, and facial expressions
• Understanding and using “nick namesâ€, appropriate use of words, like swear words, or rude gestures and words.
• Taking part in conversation.
• Managing disagreement with compromise instead of aggression or emotional outbursts
• Accepting not everybody will agree with you, and recognizing peoples opinions can at time vary.
• Empathizing with others in both positive and negative situations
• How to leave an activity or situation without causing offense.
Non-autistic children will learn these social skills in an unconscious and intuitive way, by observing and interacting with everyone around them.
However with autism these skills are not normally learnt in such a way, and need to be learnt in a more definite manner.
Using autism social skills stories can increase your child’s ability to make and maintain friendships-by giving your child clear social cues on how to get and keep a friend.
 Plus how to act in all situations and activities, making your child more confident and ultimately helping them to make those friendships they need to fit into their environment.
We all need friends, a food friend can be like gold dust, and by using social skills storiesyour autistic child can maintain normal friendships.
To obtain specific and even personalized social skills stories for your autistic child
Being a teenager is a difficult time, being the parent of a teenager is also a challenging time. But if your teen is autistic, this can be not only challenging but very difficult…
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For a start how do you explain what will happen to their body. What resources are there available to help you, and how do you access these.
Â
Then there is the hormonal changes, an increase in hormones can sometime trigger seizures in autistic teen’s so you will need to be aware of these. Not all seizures involve falling to the ground and shaking…This kind of seizure is not that common. A lot of seizures are noticed as absences, a blank stare, etc. if you think your autistic teenager may be experiencing seizures of any degree, however small, l you should take them along to your G.P. to be checked out.
Â
Being a teenager is quite confusing, you’re no longer a child, with this comes the pressure of exams, growing sexuality, peer pressure, and all the other things that come with the onset of your teenage years.
Â
At school and at home your life begins to take on new dimensions, you begin to start planning a career and mapping out a future for yourself. The teenage years are a very social time, relationships are formed and people treat you more grown up.
Â
For an autistic teenager, this time can and will be stressful. Their friends will mature and expect them to mature with them… If your autistic teenager has high functioning autism or asperger, chances are they attend a normal school. They will have formed friendships with normally developing children of their own age.
Â
This is where autism social stories will be of benefit to your autistic or asperger teenager, a social story can and will explain all the changes happening to their bodies as well as the changes to their friends bodies.
Â
Why for example all of a sudden they need to use deodorant, maybe people are beginning to complain they smell…Susie might not now be happy to allow them to sniff her hair. Maybe your autistic or asperger teenager is female; a social story can explain menstruation and how to cope with the onset of periods.
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Social stories will cover puberty; swear words, taking care of themselves and so much more. Autism social stories are used by many parents to help their teenager better prepare and manage the teenage years.
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An excellent source of specially written social stories just for the teenage years can be found at:
Some doctors believe that Asperger’s Disorder is not a separate disorder from Autism, and is commonly given the name High Functioning Autism.
As with autism people with Asperger’s Disorder have problems with social interaction and non-verbal communication. They can also be clumsy in their gross motor skills. Their speech can also show signs of abnormality they will be repetitive and on occasions speech will be limited or even absent.
They may well be pre-occupied with some odd interests, like a timetable or a specific book or object…. Whatever it is it will inevitably take over their thoughts and fill their life and their conversations.
They will therefore believe that others share their passion for their current interest. This will be all they will want to talk about and they will not understand why others do not share this passion.
They are poor organizers and poor planers.
Some Asperger people may have learning problems. But it is more often the case that those with Asperger’s have a higher level of intelligence than average.
A person with Asperger’s lacks the natural ability that the average person has to read another’s body language. They can not understand how the other person is feeling emotionally.
This is also expressed in their own physical and emotional feelings (physical effects of asperger); they will be unable to communicate how they are feeling and why they feel like that. They lack the ability to link how they feel to an emotion. Thus they are unable to show empathy with the feelings or emotions of others.
Printable social stories can be used as a tool to help asperger and autistic people find a way of understanding feelings and emotions and help them manage their behaviors.
Printable social skills stories can be used as an effective method of teaching asperger people how to cope with those situations they may find difficult or confusing. By giving them clear social cues, of how to behave, and what to expect from others, as well as what others will expect from them. In all of life’s common and less common moments, tasks and activities.
The physical effects of asperger’s disorder can be aided using social skills stories; these excellent resources can help with activities, social skills events and any situation the aspergers individual is struggling with.
For more information on how social skills stories can help the asperger individual or child visit us at:
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