Children with Aspergers syndrome have no greater permission to run amok and misbehave than other children. The way the parents gain control over their child’s behavior will likely differ with an Aspergers syndrome child as opposed to other children, mostly because of differences in how they think and how they perceive rewards and sanctions.

Aspergers syndrome children, similar to other children, do not respond well to negative reinforcement like spanking or yelling. Aspergers syndrome children really don’t respond negatively to isolation, so the phrase, “Go to your room!” may be seen as a positive thing instead of a negative thing. This means that parents need to be more creative in defining which things will be seen as rewards and which things will be seen as sanctions by the child.

Positive rewards may include being able to play with a preferred toy, being allowed watch a preferred television program or listen to preferred music. Rewarding a child with computer game time may be enough to alter his or her behavior accordingly.

These particular rewards are often offered because Aspergers syndrome children respond more to the presence or absence of “things” and less to human contact or even human praise. The rewards can be offered along with human praise but the praise alone often falls flat and doesn’t affect self esteem in the same way it might another child.

Sanctions involve removing preferred items, including television, toys, computer games or movies—anything the child prefers. All sanctions and rewards must come with clear reasons explained to the child as to why the sanction or reward is being given. Only then can the child match the reward or sanction with the behavior they have done and only then can change be affected.

Yelling or smacking can’t actually be a valid last resort. The child could easily be traumatized by either behavioral option and often won’t be able to tie the “behavior” with the “punishment”, leaving you back at square one.

This is just one of the many tips and techniques for helping your Asperger’s child that features in the book “The Parenting Asperger’s Resource Guide”. Which you can learn more about by visiting www.ParentingAspergers.com