How Aspergers affects your child

Hi momtogo and kadebolt:

Welcome to Greatschools and the Autism & Asperger's Group!

I have a 12 1/2 year-old son who was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 3. He's been in public school since Kindergarten and will finish 7th grade in another week. We are located in Los Angeles.

Kadebolt has summed up very well some of the more typical behaviors of HFA kids. I would add limited eye contact to that list, as well. In addition, not understanding “personal space” of others, and interrupting conversations. My son still struggles with the last two behaviors.

My son still acts immature for his age, although boys typically mature at a slower rate than girls. He has a tendency to wave his hands quickly in the air, which can be annoying at times. However, quite the opposite of what some experts believe, my son does show empathy, and is a loving, caring boy. He loves playing video games, which we’ve had to limit his time on to an hour a day during weekends.

My son also struggles with writing and all that’s included there. He’s a wiz at math, though. My son doesn’t have a lot of friends, or even a close friend, and doesn’t socialize with anyone out of school. It’s as if my husband and I are his best friends. He loves basketball, and will attend a sleep away basketball camp during the summer. This will be his second year doing so.

Let’s keep in touch! Since we have boys around the same age, we can share their ups and downs.

My son also has some very unrelenting special interests and the ability to hyperfocus on those to the exclusion of all else at times, but I don't think that this is really the main issue in diagnosing someone with Asperger's.

Other things to notice right off the top of my head might be:

Social skills that are not in line with peers
Sensory sensitivities or lack of sensitivity
Concrete thinking - difficulty with idioms and metaphors
Difficulty handling transitions - especially away from the special interest which result in melt down city. . .
Speech issues - odd speech patterns or voice tone

There's probably more, but I think these are the main ones.

My son was first diagnosed with Asperger's by an alert Autism Specialist who was visiting his classroom for another student and noticed that my son was very interested in the other students accomodations and would ask for them. I was still unconvinced, but we took him to a Pediatric Neurologist and got him tested there and also at school.

The school ended up diagnosing him with Autism Spectrum Disorder which got him into those services rather than on the 504 he was on up until that time. It has made all the difference in the world and now he is doing really well even though this Junior High transition coming up for him is really really hard for him. We are lucky to have a special classroom at the Junior High level specifically for HFA and Aperger's children--what an amazing classroom and team of teachers!

Anyway, hope something in this rambling is helpful!

All the best, Karen