Life with Aspergers

One of the most common complaints I hear from parents is that the other parent does not believe in the label. It's very common and there are some very good reasons why this is so.  In fact, believe it or not, somewhere between 2004-2005, I was a non-believer.  My latest article at Special-ism discusses this problem.  It outlines the reasons why this is so common and what to look for in your partner's background.  More importantly though, it points out many of the ways in which you can provide your child with much needed early intervention without the need for a label. Click on through to read the article at Special-ism. When Parents Disagree – Focus on Treatment http://special-ism.com/when-parents-disagree-focus-on-treatment/ Don't forget, you can access all my past articles at Special-ism here . and you can obtain a free eBook version of my earlier articles via the Google Play store or direct link here .

One of the great things about the internet is that it has levelled the playing field (a little) for aspiring and creative writers, directors, actors and artists of every kind. Gone are the days when you need a huge corporation behind you in order to achieve recognition.  Of course, transitioning from providing free to commercial content requires a little help in the form of good ratings and comments -- and that's where you come in. Interrogation is a Sci-Fi web series which can be watched for FREE on YouTube.  So far there have been seven episodes and they're mostly around the ten minute mark. The link is here ; This web series which is is female created and very character driven has obviously been produced on a tight budget, so you can't expect major special effects but it does have some pretty good production values. More importantly however, the Interrogation series clearly celebrates diversity using disabled actors to play disabled characters -- some...

This is a re-post of an article from 2010 for "First things First" which was on a site which no longer exists. The "First things First" project was designed to remind parents that they need to look after themselves first in order to more effectively look after their children. This post has been lightly edited from the original content.  - Gavin Bollard January 2015. In traditional society, mothers and fathers tend to live in completely different worlds. The home, the kids and school are all in the mother’s realm while the father is more likely to take care of bread-winning and financial matters. The working week has expanded to take in weekends and the hours of work have lengthened too, courtesy of the traffic problems.  Many fathers today hardly see their children and not because of the high divorce rate either.  It’s simply that they have to leave before the kids are awake and they don’t get home until after bedtime.  Some fathers have frequen...

Sensitive Sam visits the Dentist is the second in the Sensitive Sam series. These are great multi-level books which are suitable for reading by young children, parents and professionals.  The book starts off with a fairly straightforward story about Sam visiting the dentist. It touches on several of his anxieties but eventually he ends up enjoying his visit. This first section is aimed at very young children and contains easy to understand words and activities. In fact, young children are encouraged to participate in the story by tracing the line that the car travels to the dentist and choosing the flavour of the toothpaste. It's all very engaging. Along the way, there are numbered hints to parents. These hints refer you to pages in the back of the book, after the story.  They say things like "Show, tell and do. What does a dental hygienist do? Page 23). Following the story, there are a series of tips for parents, numbered 1-15. As you would expect, the tip on page...

My latest post over at Special-ism is about reducing the intensity of meltdowns by reducing the sensory input.  Hop over to Special-ism for a read . Meltdown? Reduce Sensory Input, Reduce the Intensity by Gavin Bollard http://special-ism.com/meltdown-reduce-sensory-input-reduce-the-intensity/ Over the years, I've written quite a bit about meltdowns on this blog. For a long while, they were very regular events in my life, they "owned" me and I hated them.  They followed me from early childhood through to adulthood. Now they're quite rare (for me personally), though they're not rare in our house. I have two kids on the spectrum and the next meltdown is never very far away. Here's a selection of my previous posts on meltdowns; How the rules of relationships need to change to accommodate the needs of meltdown-prone adults - April 2012 Adult Meltdowns and the Problems of Restraint - April 2012 Less Confrontational Strategies for Approaching ...

This has been a very busy week in terms of autism rights and there have been a number of incidents which demonstrate very clearly that people with autism are not being treated with the respect that they deserve.  History is full of stories of groups of individuals who were victimized for physical, economic, social or theological characteristics and while we still have a long way to go, constantly pointing out these issues has proven to be the best way to make progress towards an all-inclusive society.  Autism is yet another of these groups but it's still in infancy. At this point, we're still fighting for acceptance and the concept of true equality hasn't really been considered. It's important for us to continue to point out oversights and to correct thinking patterns which can whenever they arise. The Murder of London McCabe Last week, London McCabe, a six year old with autism who "loved hats, loved his parents, and was ‘all smiles'." was thrown ...

Empathy is often the worst and hardest part of any relationship with a person with Asperger's syndrome. You might feel that your partner lacks empathy entirely but if you could see inside their mind, you might be surprised to find that they are far more emotional than you are.  Obviously this isn't the case for everyone as we are all individuals but quite often people who display very little empathy are actually full of emotion.   So why then, is it so difficult for people with Asperger's sympathy to "show a little empathy"? There are three major problems relating to empathy that can really cause problems for people with Asperger's syndrome;    Identifying Your Emotional State   People with Asperger's syndrome have a huge amount of trouble determining your emotional state if you don't tell them specifically how you feel.  If you're crying, then most likely you're sad.  If you have a "sad face" on but no actual tears, then who...