Aspergers Syndrome - Katy,TX

Hi J.-

My 7 year old has Aspergers. Along with what everyone else has said I will just add one thing. Yes you can get evaluated for free by the school district however in my son's case they did miss it and it was a developmental pediatrician who diagnosed the Aspergers. It's worth a trip to the school district to hopefully receive services but if they happen to tell you that they see nothing wrong and he doesn't qualify don't just assume you were wrong and drop it.

My son showed repetitive behavior when he was younger. Throwing the ball up the stairs over and over and over again and would get very angry if anyone touched the ball while he was doing this. Now that he is older we mainly see him get frustrated when he is wrong about something. He does exceptionally well in school but when anything new comes along that gives him the slightest problem he gets very upset doing homework. He has a 5 year old sister who now has become his biggest antagonist. Anytime she does not want to do exactly what he wants he gets upset.

Physically my son struggles with coordination. We're still working on tying shoes and he is just about the messiest eater you will ever find. We've worked with his occupational therapist on these issues but it's hard because he gets embarassed when we're pointing out that he has food on his face so it becomes a battle. Routine is very important to him. He doesn't like anything to change. My daughter once asked me to rearrange her room because she was bored with the way it was so I rearranged it and then rearranged his too because I thought he might feel left out that I didn't, boy was I wrong!!! He was so upset that his stuff had been moved, I had to move it all back before bed that night.

If you have any specific questions or concerns feel free to send a note, I'm happy to help if I can.

Good luck,
K.

Whew! you certainly have a full time job! Well two full time jobs! I admire single parents and wish you good luck.

I think a chat with the teachers in your children's life would be beneficial. I tease my husband sometimes about how awful our kids will behave around us when they are 'little angels' when visiting their aunt's house or their grandmothers house! The school teachers can give you an idea of how introverted or extroverted they seem, how much difficulty, if any, they have with making friends or with understanding when a joke is made. One of the key things to look for regarding Asperger's is lack of social skills. Being able to tell a tense, forced smile is different from a relaxed, easy smile and that the former might mean your peer isn't joking!

I'm blessed with a marriage with a very wonderful husband and father. We will soon celebrate our 19th anniversary. We have three sons, now of the ages 15, 10 and 7.

My 15-yr-old (diagnosed with Asperger's) is a sophomore in high school. He shows great respect for his elders and teachers (adults in general). He has a difficult time making a friend and difficulty keeping a friend. His idea of "fitting in" is talking about non-personal things, such as Pokemon or Bakugan. If a peer doesn't want to talk about my son's favorite subject (his interest of the day), he looks for someone else. There was a time, around 5th grade and 6th grade, when he was convinced that every one of his peers thought ill of him: he was skinny, he was the teacher's pet, he wears glasses. If he heard some whispering, he was convinced it was negative comments about himself. If someone got too close (physically), he would overreact just in defense of a perceived attack or confrontation. Another thing is he couldn't (it is still hard to) handle a time out if he wasn't told how long the time out would be for. There was this one time, I'm convinced, that if he had simply been told 'I'll give you 5 minutes; you need to calm down; and I'll be right back to talk to you" he wouldn't have thrown chairs and been wailing about how unfair he was being treated. (That was an 'interesting' day!)

My 10-yr-old son (also diagnosed with Asperger's) is now in 5th grade and while he can call some of his classmates friends, it isn't what I would call a friendship. He absolutely hates having his older brother tell him what he can't do. Most outstanding is his lack of understanding feeling words ("she felt shunned by her friends" or "he was devastated when his dog died"). Like his older brother, he finds himself more comfortable with adults. Uniquely, he adores babies and young children. He will want to do something that would get the baby to smile or giggle. One of the most memorable times which pertains to your question is the day he came home from school crying that his friend didn't want to play with him anymore. I asked about the situation and he finally told me that the classmate he had been playing "Pokemon" with decided he wanted to play something else. Well, my son didn't want to play 'something else' and perceived his friend as meaning he wouldn't play with my son because he didn't want to be friends anymore. This son of mine finds it very hard to let someone else decide what to play. At home, he finds it hard to end his turn on the Wii so one of his brothers can have their turn.

Another memorable thing is my second son did not have any understanding of 'stranger danger'. It was something we had to teach him. Most kids can understand without having everything spelled out.

My youngest has been diagnosed as autistic. He is high functioning and spends a good part of his school day in the "regular" classroom and not off in a small group classroom or resource class. He shares many of the same characteristics as his brothers, like misunderstanding a peer's body language.

I've had a good read from a book titled "An Oasis Guide to Asperger Syndrome". You might find it at your local public library. My husband liked reading some of it just to understand better what Asperger Syndrom is.

Good luck!

Hi J.. My 17 yr old has Aspergers & is considered Bipolar. He has all the same attributes the other posts have described, and is doing very well, now. It was a struggle and a fight with the school district who still does not recognize the Aspergers as "he does not qualify for those services as their testing concluded he didn't meet the TEA guidelines for Autism". The private dr who tested him say Oh YES HE IS. The school stated that was a clinical evaluation, blah, blah, blah. I fought with them, did not get the label but did get them to step up the services for him. And he is doing very well in school.
Also, if you do not have insurance contact your MHMR, Mental Health Mental Retardation Facility. Every county has one in the US; some combine counties. If you have no place to go to get mental health services, then they WILL help you. It is Federally funded. They use sliding scale payment and literally saved my family when the insurance ran out when my son was really sick. The staff was fantastic. He was even placed in Austin State and I thought OMG this is going to be horrible. It wasn't at all. It is a hospital but was just as nice and nicer than some of the private hospitals I have seen over the years. I hope I don't scare you, as you may never even have to deal with hospitalizations. That was my sons road, and he is doing FANTASTIC now.
But check into them, they may really be able to help. I wish they had known all they do now when my son was younger!! Glad we do now.

My son is 11 y/o and he has Aspergers. He loves having goals, schedules and being in control of his environment. He is a very sweet boy and very innocent. He tends to talk with adults rather than his peers. As far as insurance I'm thinking that your son is in school if not the public school can help you. That how I found out about my son. My son is speech delayed so he has been in the public school system since he was 3 in a program called PPCD. If you need any more information message me. Have a wonderful day.

J., I too have a son with Aspergers Syndrome. My son has a tendancy to be bossy, but as I'm learning about Aspergers, that is their way of trying to control their enviorment. They crave consistancy and structure. Therefore they try to control what they can. My son loves people and has a very sweet disposition. He can at times have a meltdown if things seem to be out of his control. It's not about him being in control for the sake of being in control. It's out of fear. I homeschool him which can be challenging, but is best for him because we go at his pace and we can stop if need be. I hope this little bit of information helps.

Hi J.,

Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to you. I am a speech/language pathologist in private practice in Midland Texas. My practice has quite a few children diagnosed with Aspbergers. I have a great check-list with character traits common to children with aspbergers. If you will email me a fax # or address, I'll get it to you. By now, you may already have info., but email me and let me know if you still need this. L.

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children w/ aspergers are usually average to above average intelligence, difficulty w/ eye contact, can obsess on something..for example, hair salons, who cuts your hair, what color cape u wear. the tell tale sign is social issues. difficulty making friends...almost isn't aware. there are tons of website and support groups....but in the long run, it would be to his benefit to have him evaluated...so he can receive thee appropriate services he needs to grow...such as speech and Occupational therapy, social worker. he can receive these services for free thru your home public school. good luck!

All of the others pretty much hit it with the attributes of Aspergers. What I wanted to let you know is there should be an autism advocacy group in your area who can help you out with getting a diagnosis. If he does have aspergers it is very important to have that, especially if there are problems at school. The diagnosis can help lead to getting correct therapies and getting on an IEP/or ARD(an individual education plan, it sets up what is needed at the school to meet their needs).
Hope this helps.

J.,
I have a good friend of mine whose sone has asberger;s and also my niece has asbergers. If you want to send me a personal response i will give you e-mail address.

My son is 7. He had problems at MDO(threw rocks, kicked a teacher). The school tested his behavior with 2 teachers, he loved the attention so they found nothing but speech problems. He was in PPCD a month at age 4, they said he was too smart to be in there. When the speech program got combined into large groups they saw how he could't sit in a circle and interact with other kids. He went back into PPCD, then in kindergarten they finally did the testing for Aspergers(I saved copies of some of the tests if you want them). Since then, RRISD has been very helpful. My son has an aide with him in the classroom, an after-school social skills group, and OT at school.

My son likes to pick the activity, he'd rather be a coach than a player, and gets stuck on certain things. He got sent to the office 3 days in a row for spitting, then a month later the same thing again. The school has him do work, work, choice to do their worksheets, a fun activity at the end of the day if he's collected enough good behavior tickets, and gummy bears during writing. He takes breaks from the classroom such as delivering heavy copy paper or work with a teacher in a small quiet room. He takes toys apart, and wants to know what brand of batteries everything has. He loves machines. Luckily that includes a variety- cars, robotic legos, food processor, sewing machine, etc. He has a picture schedule at school but doesn't seem to have the typical obsession with routines (doesn't mind if his "car" bed parks in a different space) or the typical problems with understanding expressions(like the Amelia Bedelia books where she cooks a cake in a frying pan instead of a pancake) His main problems are handwriting and ADHD, and his strengths are reading and science.

I'm still looking for a local support or play group. We went to a counselor in Georgetown who told us my husband probably has Aspergers too.

I also have a child that a psychologist outside the school district says he has Aspergers, but the school district said he does not meet their diagnostic criteria. That being said, my son has many traits of AS, and you've gotten quite a few responses already.

I just want to add a note about sensory issues and Aspies. That is a major area for my son. Aspies can be over or under reactive to stimuli. My son has difficulties finding clothing that feel "right" to him. He may perceive a bump in a line from behind as an "attack" and over react to the child, and the teacher just sees my son lashing out unless she understands sensory issues. Noise also irritates my son, and an Aspie may consider something noise that doesn't even bother you, such as the low hum from overhead lights. Slight smells can be disturbing. My son also has vestibular processing difficulties, and I think that may lead to some of his clumsiness. An Occupational Therapist can diagnose sensory issues and guide you on the treatment for them, or you can google sensory processing disorder and look over some of the sites. I think a lot of the meltdown common in Aspergers may be due to sensory overload, and figuring out what sensory inputs triggers your child is very important.

Best of luck. If you want to send me an email asking any questions, feel free.