Life with Aspergers

This post is part of Best of the Best, Edition 9: Special Needs Therapy . If you check the above link from August 14 onwards, you'll find a whole host of similar articles by other authors. Introduction I'm presuming that most people will be writing from the point of view of parenting their own children. I could do that. My children have been through speech and occupational therapy (both of which were excellent), listening therapy (which quite frankly I found unhelpful) and a couple of other formal therapies. They've also had plenty of chances for informal therapy - did you know that simply owning a dog can be theraputic too? As usual though, I'm going to try to be different. I want to talk about what it's like going through therapy and how it helps. Speech Therapy When I was a child, I went through a couple of different types of therapy with the two biggies being speech and occupational therapy. I wasn't diagnosed with aspergers then but simply had a ...

Active Imagination Activity Book 50 Sensorimotor Activities to improve focus, attention, strength and co-ordination Kelly Tilley. MCISc. OTR/L Published by Sensory World There are all kinds of different therapies for children on the autism spectrum but in my opinion, two stand out head and shoulders above the rest; Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Both of these are expensive and even with government support, it's unusual for parents to be able to continue beyond one or two terms at a time. You won't become an occupational therapist simply by using this book but you will learn a lot of fun and simple techniques to achieve many of the same things that occupational therapists work toward. This book is intended for use with children and adults who need help with attention, calming down and energizing but I can see that it will also provide a lot of benefit for people with poor co-ordination and/or low muscle tone - two things which affect many people on the autism sp...

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...

Songames for Sensory Processing: 25 Therapist-Created Musical Activities for Improving Fine and Gross Motor Skills, Muscle Strength & Rhythmicity. by Aubrey Lande. MS, OTR, Bob Wiz, Lois Hickman & Friends. It's no secret that music can provide excellent therapy for children with special needs and this book is designed to support teachers and therapists in that endeavor. At eighty pages, it's a short book but it covers a lot of ground. It's colourful and full of pictures of happy kids - and it comes with two CDs with 25 "songs" on them. The book is divided into five "circle forms" which despite a page and half of explanation, seem to be just "broad topic areas" to me. Balance Circle Form Message Circle Form Bob's Circle Form Lori's Circle Form Aubrey's Circle Form The songs on the CDs are all good and very professionally done and the book contains their lyrics and suggestions for their actions. In fact, the musical...

Yes, it's another "empathy post". I'm sorry if you're getting sick of them. I'll be on a different topic soon. Today I just wanted to say a few words about the perception of empathy.  Right now, my mother is in hospital. Her hospitalisation was sudden and unexpected but she is ok. I've checked. I've received an email from my father and my wife rang him later during the day. I'm happily convinced that everything is fine and that for the immediate future her main priority should be rest.  She lives too far away for a "quick visit" and I haven't contacted her directly yet. Unless I hear of changes in her condition, I'm best off giving her time to heal.   No doubt once she comes out she'll be annoyed at me for not having gone to panic stations and talked to her directly. The thing is that I can't do anything and chances are that I'll end up calling during her nap time.  Image by valelopardo from Pixabay Does that make m...

The is post is part of Best of the Best, Edition 8: Sleep Issues & Bedtime and Special Needs Kids . If you check the above link on about July 14, you'll find a whole host of similar articles by other authors. Sleep issues are very common for children and adults with Aspergers Sydnrome. I've talked about these before but last time it was a bit of a "scientific" post. This time, I want to be more practical. I want to look at why children with Aspergers Syndrome and Autism have sleep difficulties and what you as parents can do to improve their sleep. Some Reasons for Sleep Issues First of all, I want to look at some reasons why sleep may be difficult for children (and adults) with aspergers sydnrome; The Sleep Ritual Like many aspergers activities, sleep is a matter of ritual. If you get the ritual wrong, or out of order, then sleep can become much more difficult. The aspie can stress over the ritual instead of sleeping. A case in point is my youngest son (7.5)....

In case you haven't noticed, I'd like to draw your attention to an exciting new blog started by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg (of Journeys with Autism ) called Autism and Empathy. I think this blog is going to be a great boon to the empathy debate and it's well worth bookmarking/following. Autism and Empathy http://www.autismandempathy.com/ I was reading a post there today and started a reply which (as is usual for me) got a bit too long. In any case, my fat fingers hit a wrong key and my comment disappeared, so rather that attempt to retype it there, I've decided to expand it and post it here. The post I was responding to is called Possessing But Not Expressing http://www.autismandempathy.com/?p=98 It's written by Miranda (from Inside the Heart ) It might be worth reading before you read my response. --- Miranda talks about how people with autism are often considered to "lack empathy" when what is really lacking is simply the "expected kind of expression...