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Article: Resisting the Urge to Rewrite Your Child's Future

Today I'm blogging over at Special-ism;

Resisting the Urge to Rewrite Your Child's Future
http://special-ism.com/resisting-the-urge-to-rewrite-your-childs-future/

It's about parenting and how we sometimes take our children's diagnosis as a list of limitations when it should really be a list of difficulties for which we need to seek assistance.

Have a read.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks, this does 'hit home' a bit for me. I would love to keep hearing about people with aspergers living happy lives, not necessarily the 'world changers' just ordinary people doing the day to day things with success, and some failures as we all do. I think that will help as my kids grow into adulthood knowing 'who as gone before them'.
March 21, 2012 at 1:18 PM
Anonymous said…
Wonderfully put. My son is an Aspie who's always had difficulty with sports. He had poor eye-hand coordination and muscle tone, and was always slumping over or leaning on supports. I got him started on swimming lessons when he was 5 years' old.

We come from a country where a 2-year stint in the army at the age of 18 years is compulsory. No exceptions are made for persons with Asperger's. When my son was 13 years old, I started worrying about it and got him to do pushups everyday. He really struggled. Then we discovered rowing. I figured that since rowing involved repetitive movements, it might be something that he could do. We got him signed up at school for rowing as an extra-curricular activity. It did wonders for him. He trained really hard and was part of the team representing the school at regional and state regattas. He learnt social skills and the importance of team-work. His confidence has grown in leaps and bounds and he is now a tall, strapping young man (tomorrow will be his 15th birthday).

The idea is not to place limits on our children, but to help them work with what they have in order to adapt to life amongst neurotypicals, and to be the best that they can be.
March 21, 2012 at 8:05 PM
Anonymous said…
Hello Gavin!
this is about the third time I write to you, but everyday I catch something in your blog. I just started my own blog about my experiences as a neurotypical mother with an 8 year Aspie kid. So far so good, and I really would like to include some of your posts. I am in Mexico City, and would like to share all your experiences with people who doesn't are familiar with English, I would like to translate it to Spanish. I have read many times that we can share or reblogg your posts, but still, I wanted to tell you first and make you notice that your words will reach Latin people too!!!
My blog is sobreviviendoalaspergers.tumblr.com
Thanks!!
Yunuen
March 23, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Gavin Bollard said…
@Yunuen,

I can't speak Spanish, so I'm thrilled that my words will reach a Latin audience.

Thank you.
March 23, 2012 at 12:02 PM
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