This year marks the third "real" hallowe'en experience for my son with AS.  Every year he has a different reaction to the notion of putting on a costume.In '06 (when he was 3), it was "ok" because he was a giraffe and we went to the zoo so he could pretend to be a real giraffe (see below).  He didn't completely unde…[more]

"Oh, your kid only has Asperger's; you've got it easy.  Try dealing with my life and my kid for a day."Ever heard that before?  I heard this from an autistic kid's parent just this week.  At first, I guess I found it hard to believe that someone would explain what I deal with daily as "easy", even comparatively.&…[more]

Most of the stories that I write are either good news or they are advice for dealing with a specific situation.  Usually I write about only the positive parts of things to serve as an inspiration or a motivator to others who may be searching for some glimmer of hope or some real-life "been there" experience that can …[more]

This story also appears in The Asperger Parenting ExperienceParents, I empathize with you in writing this.  Yes, I’m talking this time about the sometimes-joyous, often-difficult experience of taking our AS child(ren) out of the house for a meal at a restaurant.  Some parents dread it, others are unphased by it, and…[more]

This story also appears (with video) in The Asperger Parenting ExperienceI’ve found in my study and interactions in the autism and AS community that lots of AS children have an affinity for music, specifically drumming, because it is a motor skill that they can be good at even by approximating movements. My AS son is a die-hard fa…[more]

Oh no; it’s inevitable. Parents realize the onset of an AS meltdown about 2 thoughts before the AS child self-realizes that their routine - their woobie - isn’t going to be there this time or beginning with this time through some course.One of the hardest things to do as an AS child’s parent is impart chang…[more]

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a widely used method to determine a person's psychological preferences (read: personality).  The link here is to the wikipedia definition and implementation, so feel free to get geeked up on it if this is new to you.The INTJ varietal of this type indicator is one of the low-prevalence categories…[more]

When my AS son was 4, he was in his second year of preschool.  We enrolled him in a preschool that was actually part of the elementary school in our district so that he could get used to going to an actual school instead of some other place that, once he arrived at kindergarten age (that he is now), he wouldn’t go anymore.…[more]

Here’s something that we do in my household with our children. My older son has AS as my loyal readers know, so this exercise is mainly for him, but this is an effective tool for all children; “synaptically normal” regular children would hopefully catch on at least as quickly as an AS child and be able to be influe…[more]

Most AS children are fully-capable speakers - my own sons are bilingual and fluid in either spoken language.  For my son (who is now 5) with AS, I've found that teaching ASL has been a very effective way to improve his overall communication skills and also to help him grow his vocabulary.  Over the past few ye…[more]