Life with Aspergers

We are a society obsessed with betterment through numbers and it seems that we are constantly trying to find ways to have simple numbers prove our worth in society. Films, for example, are rated by the number of stars a reviewer gives them - or by their gross takings at the box office but neither of these is a personal rating applicable to you, the viewer. We've all had times where we've disagreed with critics and we all know that box office success doesn't always mean that a film is great. The same applies to other parts of our lives. People who engage us in conversation want to know what type of car we drive, where we live and what we do for a living. They seem like harmless enough questions but quite often these people are fishing for the clues which will help them either outrank you in some way - or become insanely jealous. Of course, our lives are far too complex to be defined by such simple comparisons but that doesn't stop people from trying - particularly...

In my last post , I looked at television and movies and discussed the amazing academic and social learning opportunities they present for visual learners. I also talked about the negative aspects of these and in particular, my belief that it's not violence that's the problem but language and stupidity - jackass; that last point is for you. In this post I want to look at other types of indoor recreation; computers, games, tablets, phones, music players and books. Computers Computers represent an amazing "not-to-be-missed" opportunity for children with aspergers syndrome to pick up skills, follow their special interests, learn visually and even socialize. It's hardly surprising that the computing field has much more than its fair share of employees with aspergers. On the one hand, this stresses just how important it is to give your child access to them - and to the internet. Even gaming, which you may see as a "wasteful" activity, is really devel...

We all know that too much TV is bad for your kids. The same goes for computers. Quite frankly, the same should apply for iPads, Phones, books and portable music players but somehow our society doesn't seem to have issues with these. Of course, all of these rules apply for "normal" kids. But how different is it for kids with special needs, and in particular, those with asperger's syndrome? Should they be afforded more time on these devices? Less? -- or is their diagnosis irrelevant in this case? In this series, I present my thoughts on the matter. The Needs of Children with Asperger's Syndrome Children with aspergers syndrome and other ASD's often have vastly different needs to their neurotypical counterparts. Chief among these needs is the need for visual and experiential learning. While most kids can easily follow classroom conversation and can easily separate the teacher's jokes and the general buzz of conversation from the teaching...

Today I'm blogging over at Special-ism. My post is about visual learners and how we need to take advantage of the visual aids around us.  That's right, computers and TV are often considered to be bad for children but actually, they're some of the best tools for visual learners. I also talk about taking visual learners to real-life places and about experimentation and play within the home. Click here to read it .

I've looked at a lot of Aspergers theory over the years and while I agree with some of it, I find that I disagree with other bits. One theory that I really like is Temple Grandin's observations on the three different types of thinkers; Temple claims that there are three types of thinkers in Autism and while people don't exclusively belong in a single group, they usually lean towards one set of patterns more than the others. Temple's three types are; Visual Music/Maths Verbal Visual Thinkers The idea is that the visual thinkers are those who need to "see" things in order to understand them. They're more likely to draw a picture or build an object when trying to work out a problem. Temple herself seems to be a visual thinker, her photographic memory clearly supports the idea. Young visual thinkers tend to be keen on building blocks such as lego and possibly on woodwork or other craft projects. Music and Mathematical Thinkers These types of thinkers find pa...

** Parents please note - there are some concepts in this post which may offend or may be unsuitable for children ** Censorship Long time readers of this blog will know that I'm firmly opposed to a lot of today's censorship even when it applies to children. In some cases however it's in the child's best interests.  If a child has special needs or issues which impact their understanding of concepts, then media censorship takes on additional meaning. The bad effects of media on children can range from social gaffes all the way up to life-threatening behaviour. Of course, like everything, media has a flip-side too and it can have many beneficial effects particularly for children with different learning styles. Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash How do you figure out what to block and what to allow through? How do you draw the line between providing a safe versus a sheltered environment? Can the media really be of benefit to your child's education or is it just a baby...

My memory is different, there's no doubt about it. On the one hand, it seems amazing. I can remember "whole conversations" which took place years ago, I can quote from literally thousands of films but ask me what someone's name is or ask me to get some things from the shops and I'll draw a blank. In fact, face to face conversations with me at work quite often involve me subconsciously using my hands to do gestures of long hair, or glasses simply because I've forgotten the name of the person I'm trying to describe.  It's also a common sight at our local shops to see me standing around counting my fingers. I know that I've got to get five things at the shop but I can only remember three of them. Image by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay Repetition I think that a lot of my memory is based on repetition. That's no revelation really, rote learning has been around for years and despite the claims that rote learning provides only lists, not concepts, it...

Introduction My son has been a little upset of late because he's realised that he's behind the rest of the class in some areas. I'll cover how I "dealt" with his feelings in another post but for now, I thought it was time for a look at the myth of Aspie Genius. It's a sad fact of life that not all aspies are geniuses and that the "little professor" tag doesn't apply to everyone. In fact, it's a distinguishing feature of the aspergers diagnostic criteria that the IQ of an aspie is no different to that of a neurotypical. This doesn't mean that aspies do as well in IQ tests as NTs because often the phraseology in the questions leads to interpretive difficulties (and time delays). It simply means that the aspie ability to "solve" is similar in scope, range and variance to NTs. What can Adversely Impact Aspie Performance? If we assume that the IQ is "normal", then it follows that some aspies will be more intelligent than ...

Image by Sherilyn Hawley from Pixabay This article follows on from parts 1-3 which deal with when parents, children and peers begin to recognise that there are differences.  (see: Should you tell your child ). There are at least three levels of recognition involved with the discovery that a child is different. Adult Awareness This invariably seems to come first - from parents, teachers, relatives, other parents and doctors. Usually these adults have enough discretion to avoid talking about the differences in front of the child - particularly if the child is unaware of the problem. The Child's Personal Awareness I hope that this series of posts has served to highlight an important truth - that the aspie becomes self-aware at a fairly early age. They won't know anything about aspergers itself but they will at least sense that they are different. Peer Awareness It also doesn't take long for a child's peer group at school to begin recognising the differences and, depen...

This article appeared in the UK Times Yesterday Here's how to build your hopes Parents of autistic children need not despair. It has been proved that therapies using Lego can be an enormous help http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/child_health/article4876937.ece The article doesn't say anything particularly new but reaffirms the fact that when a group of children are collaborating on a project which is of interest to them - and when there are firmly set boundaries of responsibility which enforce the need to communicate, then the children will communicate. And of course, practice makes perfect. You could easily adapt the instructions in the article for siblings or very small groups; One child acted as the “engineer” and described the instructions, another as the “supplier” finding the correct pieces, and the “builder” put the pieces together. After a time, they would swap roles. I might try this at home - it could stop the fighting over lego between my childre...

The IEP is a critical document resulting from the Individualized Education Program in use at schools worldwide. In short, it results from an IEP meeting and is a unique "plan of attack" for your child's education utilizing your child's strengths and targeting their weaknesses. Over the last few weeks, we've been struggling with my child's second IEP. The process is long and I've learnt a lot. This topic is going to take several posts. To start with, I'm simply going to try and establish the importance of the IEP and the reasons why schools struggle against it. In later posts, I'll cover good and bad things to have in an IEP and how it could be tailored for Aspergers children. A warning: Parents, do not approach the IEP meeting as if it were simply a normal school meeting. It's a critical and legal part of your child's education. You need to get it right. So, How important is this IEP thing Anyway? Schools tend to underplay the impo...

Today I want to talk about a you tube video made by an aspie, Alex Olinkiewicz . Have a look at it, it's embedded below. It's insightful, the way it talks about aspergers as a kind of half-autism. There are several places in the video where Alex talks about a kind of "split-personality". Aspergers isn't schizophrenia and I don't think that Alex is suggesting that. He's simply making a point that sometimes we "switch gears" and act in quite different ways. He talks about having adult maturity combined with childlike behaviour. While it's a good analogy, I think that the childlike behaviour is probably more impulsiveness than anything else. I certainly don't seen any reason why a normal (NT) teenager couldn't or wouldn't watch cartoons like Spongebob. Of course, being obsessed with Spongebob would be different. Alex also talks about not fitting in, which is a major part of Aspergers. Most aspies don't feel like they fit in...

Apologies for this not being the usual discussion post - it's some computer instructions for parents instead. I had to provide these instructions for my cousin so I decided to make them available to everyone. If your child is having difficulty with their writing, you can provide a lot of cheap custom material to help them by downloading the FREE National First Dotted Font from CoolFonts. Procedure (for Windows XP - Similar for other versions of Windows) PART 1: INSTALLING THE FONT Download the Font from http://www.coolfonts.info/font-3338-national_first_font_dotted.php Copy the font file somewhere onto your PC eg: C:\TEMP Click START, CONTROL PANEL Then double-click FONTS if you can't see fonts, then Control Panel is probably in Category view - in which case... Click SWITCH TO CLASSIC VIEW and then double-click FONTS From the menu, select File, then Install New Font . Change the Drive Letter to where you saved the font (eg: C:) Change the folder if necessary to where you saved...

Contrary to popular belief, most aspies aren't born with amazing reading or mathematics skills. These are reserved for the select few. Most aspies seem to have difficulty at school academically in the early years and socially in the later years. The Aspie Learning Catch-22 Some of the biggest problems aspies face, particularly in the primary school years, is the ability to concentrate on a topic (motivation). The problem is that the aspie tends to be very focused on his or her special interest and has great difficulty maintaining focus on other things. In the primary school years particularly, other things cannot become interesting until the aspie overcomes some early hurdles. Reading is a good example of this. While there are undoubtedly a lot of books out there which would satisfy the aspie child's special interest needs, these books aren't accessible until at least rudimentary reading skills are acquired. It's a Catch-22, the aspie child can't enjoy reading ...

Accidentally found this while doing a search; The University of Melbourne and the Australian Catholic University have produced a very useful e-booklet called "Towards Success In Tertiary Study with Asperger's syndrome and other autistic spectrum disorders", which can be downloaded for free from http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/edp/policy/publications.html .

One of the defining traits of aspergers syndrome is the "photographic-memory" whereby aspies can recall with precision events and conversations that are years old and forgotten by the other participants. As with all aspie traits, they differ from one person to another. Indeed some aspies claim to not have this memory - this could be true or it could be the result of misleading information in the Asperger's books which don't really describe the condition well. The Filmographic, not Photographic Memory First of all, I want to redefine the terminology. It is more correct to say that the aspie has a filmographic rather than photographic memory. This means that the memory is more like watching a film than recounting items in a picture. I'm not convinced that an aspie would do especially well in those psychological tests where they remove objects behind a screen. In fact, because we're talking about short term memory there, I think an aspie would do considerab...