This week’s blog post looks at the following question about technology:

What specific technology is available to help the Asperger’s child in school (especially one with gross/fine motor issues)?
Like most children, those with Asperger’s Syndrome have a strong interest in computers and video technology. As a result, both computers and video recording should be integrated into the academic curriculum for a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. The technology of computers and video recording will provide an Asperger’s child with a consistent form of learning, as well as being entertaining.

Computers
Computers now have hardware that can be adapted to the needs of a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. These devices will help the child focus on computer-generated tasks, and they increase a child’s motor skills.

Computers with touch windows give the child the ability to navigate through a program with ease. In addition, the child can interact with a program without having to rely on a computer mouse. A touch screen decreases the hardware required to operate the computer, and the child can directly relate his or her actions to the action shown on the computer screen.

The standard computer keyboard can be replaced by an alternative keyboard known as Big Keys. This is a keyboard that has been designed for younger children, and each key is one-inch square. In addition, the letters are colour coded to assist the child in finding a specific letter. For example, vowels and consonants are colour coded separately. The Big Keys keyboard is produced by Greystone Digital, and their website can be accessed at www.bigkeys.com

Video Technology
A child with Asperger’s Syndrome will enjoy video technology due to the repetitive nature and predictability of video recording. Repeated viewing of a video results in learning a variety of skills and knowledge.

Video technology can teach writing skills (letters, words, sentences) as well as language comprehension skills (syntax, object names, shapes, sizes). Also, task-oriented behaviour, such as closing a door or making a bed, can be taught with a step-by-step video demonstration.

It is important to note that the technology found in computers and video recording need to be tailored to a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. Some of the basic concepts of the computer, such as typing and disc storage, might need to be slowly and patiently explained and demonstrated. In addition, a video camera needs to be focused and adjusted before use. A child with Asperger’s will want to push buttons or turn lenses at random. Video recording needs to be taught very slowly so that the child acquires knowledge and mastery over the tasks and doesn’t experience frustration.

An Asperger’s child is an individual and any learning experience must be individualized to meet the child’s needs. Using computer and video technology will contribute to independent functioning and decrease the child’s reliance on other people to complete a learning task. Above all, when teaching any child a step-by-step process, the adult must be patient with the child’s learning process and also be willing to explain the mistakes that a child might make while mastering a learning task.

Hi

This is Dave Angel and Welcome to the nineteenth edition
of “The Parenting Autism & Aspergers Newsletter”…

Inside this edition you will find:

1. Hot Topic of Discussion – Parents Mental Illness linked to Autism

2. In the News – Biking for Autism!

3. Parenting Tips – Classical Music

4. Prominent People Linked with ASD – Stefano Marinoiu

Welcome to May’s newsletter – and huge apologies for it being
about a week late.

What can I say? – I am rubbish on deadlines!!

No in all seriousness as I am sure you know things can get a bit
busy in life and I always endeavour to complete the newsletter by
mid-month but at times it just doesn’t quite get there!

Anyway for the eagle-eyed amongst you Section 4 is now slightly
re-named to “Prominent People Linked with ASD”.

This is so that I can highlight more significant people with ASD (who
may not be famous) and also people who do not have an ASD but are
significant nonetheless – like this month’s person Stefano Marinoiu.

Hope the sun’s shining for you (it is here in England) and enjoy
the newsletter…

Thanks

Dave

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1. Hot Topic of Discussion – Parents Mental Illness linked to Autism

A recent study was carried out by researchers at University of
North Carolina into the impact of mental illness in parents on
possibly having children with autism.

The study looked at over 1000 children in Sweden diagnosed with
autism that were born between 1977 and 2003.

Not sure why UNC were studying families in Sweden – but I am sure
there’s a good reason!

The research found that parents who had been hospitalised with
a mental health problem such as schizophrenia were around twice as
likely to have a child with autism than parents who had not had
such mental health problems.

The researchers feel that such results can help in better
understanding autism and investigating for future prevention or
treatment.

Interestingly they are looking at whether any of this apparent
link is due to genetics OR environment.

There has long been the “Nature V’s Nurture” debate in all areas
of mental health conditions, disabilities etc.

But this research is saying maybe there is some kind of
genetic link between parents with mental health problems and
then having children with autism…

OR maybe it’s an environmental thing – where the way that the
parents themselves were raised and subsequently lived their
lives has impacted on them somehow having a child with autism.

This is fairly unsurprising on the face of it when research over
the years has clearly shown mental health issues such as
depression, schizophrenia, manic-depression etc. can have both
genetic and environmental components.

Now people with an ASD have many different issues to people with
schizophrenia for example, and I am not comparing them as like
for like in any way.

But the fact that they both have issues stemming from mind/brain
working in different ways to most other people – would suggest
that they have some common grounds.

This perhaps offers another alternative to the very “all or
nothing” theory that a lot of people have around vaccinations
and autism.

Lots more work will clearly be done in this area – and it is
certainly worth looking out for as they travel to unravel this
possible Genetic V’s Environment mystery.

One slight word of caution on the research is that at the bottom
of the article the co-authors of the study are named.

One of them is an employee of the pharmaceutical giant
GlaxoSmithKline.

Now as a general rule big business only get involved with things
if there is money to be made (cynical? – yes, but still probably
true) so the objective nature of any such studies needs to be
carefully monitored.

Not saying that this research is not valid but as the sergeant in
Hill Street Blues used to say just “be careful out there!”

To read the full article on this please got to:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505072829.htm

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2. In the News – Biking for Autism

Justin Ormrod a 27 year old from New South Wales, Australia rode
1100 kilometres to Parliament House in Canberra to deliver a
letter to the Australian Health Minister Nicola Roxon asking
for better support services for people with autism.

But surely wouldn’t a stamp have been easier?!

No only kidding – Justin took 14 days to carry out this
mammoth journey and I am sure gained some great publicity
for people with an ASD on the way.

Justin himself has a diagnosis of Aspergers Syndrome.

In particular the message that he was trying to get across was
that particularly rural areas were poorly serviced with autism
support services – compared to more urban city areas.

One big piece of irony that was slightly disturbing was the
headline of the news article in “The Age” online newspaper
which read “Autism sufferer rides to Canberra” in big bold
letters.

So at the unthinking sweep of a journalist’s pen, 1100 kilometres
of sheer hard work and perspiration has been partly wiped out.

Because the whole point of the ride was to raise awareness of autism,
only for some (probably well-meaning journo) to describe Justin
as a “sufferer” of autism.

Such negative and horribly medicalised language does nothing for
people with an ASD and only encourages the general public to
pity/fear people on the autistic spectrum as being somehow radically
different to them.

Ho hum…!!

To read this full article go to:

http://news.theage.com.au/national/autism-sufferer-rides-to-canberra-20080512-2daa.html

I was going to encourage you all to post a comment on there -
but sadly The Age website doesn’t seem to allow it.
————————————————————-

3. Parenting Tips – Classical Music

This weeks tip came for an anonymous source but thanks so much to
person X (I am sure you will recognise your own tip when you read it)
for this great piece of advice.

“My son is 7 yrs old. He was recently diagnosed by the children’s’ hospital
in our city as having PDD-NOS-A Typical Autism.

The special ed department at his public school says he is AS. I don’t
care what the diagnoses as long as he gets the help he needs.

Anyway, sometimes car rides can be difficult with him and his sister
in the same vehicle. One Friday they both were out of school.
Friday is grocery store day. Taking them both at the same time in
the same car can be bad but, also going to the grocery store can be
really bad.

We are a house who likes to listen to different kinds of music.
Usually we listen to blues, the old hard rock, and occasionally
country. It just so happened on this Friday I thought, we haven’t
listened to classical in a long time.

I had a CD of Bach’s Bradenburgs in the van. I popped it in the
player. I noticed my son was calm and quiet. After a while he asked
me what that song was that I was playing. He said he really liked it.
He started talking to me on a higher level than he has before.

I think the classical music is helping him. His music teacher has had
problems with him in class and has communicated this with me. I
emailed her what I found out. She said she had noticed he was calmer
in class the few times she played classical in class.

She said there was a study called the Mozart Effect done in the past.
I had not heard of this. I relayed the info I had to my son’s class room
teacher, whose has been wonderful. I bought some CD’s for her to play
in class.

I haven’t heard how it is working, yet but I hope it is helping. I don’t
think anyone will be hurt. Anyway I hope this might help others.
Thanks and good luck on your Autism journey.”

Every so often I have to ask for more parental tips and that time
has come again.

If you have something useful to share please just take 2 minutes
to post it as a comment on the following web page and then I can
share it with others in future newsletters. Thanks in advance…

The page to post tips to is:

http://parentingaspergers.com/blog/2008/05/25/parenting-tips-wanted/

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4. Prominent People Linked with ASD – Stefano Marinoiu

Stefano is the father of a child of autism and becoming something of
a hero to many other parents of children with Autism in Canada, and
probably further around the world than this too.

This winter he hiked 200 miles from Toronto to Ottawa in extremely
nasty conditions to talk to the Canadian Health Minister Tony
Clement about autism and the need for more services.

This month on May 5th he began his latest attempt for more action
which was a “hunger strike for autism”.

Now that’s some pretty serious campaigning for anyone; but a man
with Diabetes… well he’s extremely dedicated.

From what I can gather he stopped the strike on May 20th and is
recovering well… and certainly got the attention for autism that
he was hoping for.

He has now had at least 1 meeting with high-ranking Canadian
politicians on the issue.

So well done Stefano and good luck in your continued endeavours.

To find out more about Stefano and his family you can join his Facebook
group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12443509267

To read the news article on Stefano go to:

http://autisminnb.blogspot.com/2008/05/autism-hero-stefan-marinoius-hunger_09.html

————————————————————-

Well that’s all for this edition and I hope you
enjoyed it.

The next edition of the newsletter should be due in
mid-June.

And as ever … please send in any inspirational stories
that you know of, any questions that you would like our team
of experts to answer, any topics that you wish to be discussed
and news stories that you want to share VIA THE BLOG.

We will publish as many as we can.

Until next month………

Best Wishes

Dave Angel

Hi – If you have a parenting tip for a child with ASD that you would like to share with other parents please do so by adding a comment below…

Thanks

Dave

Hi everyone - 

Today is the first of the “new posts” answering directly the questions that you asked recently on the web survey.

Please let me know what you think of the new style of posts by leaving your comments on the blog.

OK here’s this week’s question… 

I would like to know what to expect from an Asperger’s child in the teenage years. My son was diagnosed 6 years ago. I know they say that they can suffer from this and that, but what is the long term goal, what can we expect, what not to expect?

Young people with Asperger’s Syndrome often have a difficult time between the ages of 12 and 19.  They may be socially excluded and face rejection by their peers if they act differently from others.  They want to be accepted and liked, but often don’t know how to behave and communicate appropriately.  School is demanding and they long for friends.  The goal for your Asperger’s child is to make it through the teen years with: his self-esteem intact, at least a friend or two, knowledge that his family loves him, and a high school diploma.  

There are some teens that manage to navigate these years successfully because they don’t care about peer pressure and focus on a special interest of their own, such as chess or computers.  So, encouraging your son to develop a special interest may help him at this time of life.  A special interest may encourage friendships with other teens that have the same interest as well, making it easier to talk to and make friends with others. 

A big problem for Asperger’s teens is that often they don’t care about fads, clothing, celebrities, and teen communication devices such as cell phones or MySpace.  Your son’s interests may be more appropriate for younger children.  Boys may be rejected if they are not interested in sports.  Some of these issues can be resolved.   

Help your son become aware of teen fads and how to talk about sports, celebrities, rituals, and school events.  Encourage him to leave phone messages for and arrange social engagements with peers.  Perhaps he could join school clubs, especially those that focus on his special interest.  Explain to your teen that he does not have to tell everyone that he has Asperger’s.  Your son may enjoy talking with other Asperger’s teens in internet chat rooms. 

Your son may ignore personal hygiene and wear clothes and a hair cut that are not in style.  Find a same sex friend who will help your teen choose appropriate clothes to wear.  Monitor your teen’s hygiene and create reminder notes or charts for him about daily bathing, tooth brushing, etc.  Reward him for good hygiene, if that’s what it takes!   

“Aspie” teens are sometimes not very well-informed about sex and dating.  Boys may be very naïve or too forward with girls.  Hormones cause rampant emotions, which Aspie teens can’t handle.  If they get angry, they may physically attack others or have a “melt down.”   

You must teach your teen about sex.  Provide books for him to read.  Choose books that aren’t overly “clinical.”  Be specific and detailed about safe sex.  Never be judgmental or punish him when he confides in you; counsel him.  Boys need to be told that masturbating should take place only at home, in private.  Aspies often respond to “rules” by obeying them.  Establish some rules for your son, such as: “We have a rule in our house that teenagers should not have sex because they are too young to handle the emotions and problems that may occur.” 

Some Aspie teens develop problems with drugs and alcohol because they are eager to do what other teens do.  They are not able to determine a “good” crowd from a “bad” crowd.  Other teens may take advantage of your son’s eagerness to be liked and convince him to buy and/or take alcohol or drugs.  You must always know where your son is, who he is with, what they are supposed to be doing, and the characters of the other teens he hangs around.  Emphasize that drugs and alcohol are illegal.  Since Aspies are rule-oriented, this may help your son avoid problems.

 

Asperger’s teens may have school problems because of the difficulty in dealing with more than one teacher.  Each classroom is a different environment which is confusing.  Some teachers may be hostile.  Some assignments may be overwhelming.  Keep in close touch with your son’s teachers.  A placement into Special Education may be necessary when an Aspie teen enters middle school.  Some Aspies need special classes even though they didn’t before.  Make sure your son has a “safe place” at school where he can share emotions with a teacher, nurse, guidance counsellor, or psychologist.  If your son experiences harassment and/or rejection at school and the staff does not help, a special education placement or a therapeutic boarding school can give professionals a chance to assist your teen academically and socially.   

Suicide may become a possibility for some teens with Asperger’s.  If you have any worries about this, get help immediately from a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Use reasoning and negotiation with your son, instead of orders.  If possible, give him two choices rather than telling him what he must do in a situation.  He will have more control over his life and feel less resentment.  He will be less likely to listen to you (like all teens!) at this age and may exhibit anger and impatience.  He may hate school and resist everything you want him to do.  Depression is common.  If these problems occur, your son may need counselling. 

Most Aspies learn to drive successfully because they obey the rules!  Have your son carry a cell phone and a card that explains Asperger’s.  Teach him to call you in a crisis and to give the card to any police officer who stops him or her.  Role play with him so he knows what to do and say if stopped by an officer.

Some Aspies do well in summer jobs in an area of special interest or with little contact with the public.  Occupational therapy will help your son get ready for adulthood.  Special programs are available that teach job and living skills.  This will reduce his dependence on you. 

Above all, ask for help from professionals when you or your son need it.

Young people from 10 to 18 years of age face many challenges and those with Asperger’s Syndrome can have serious difficulties both socially and academically when they reach middle school.  Child psychologist and Asperger’s specialist Teresa Bolick addresses solutions for overcoming the difficulties Asperger’s sufferers face.  Full of practical advice and inspiring stories, Asperger’s Syndrome and Adolescence can help parents guide a teen with Asperger’s successfully and happily.

Thanks Dave Angel

Finding out that one’s child has been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome can be traumatic. Parents naturally feel guilty even though there isn’t anything yet known that could have prevented the disease. Through all of this comes the need for telling others about the syndrome and how it affects the child.

If you are faced with having to tell those around you that your child has Aspergers syndrome, the first thing you want to do is understand and read about the condition so that you can answer questions appropriately and truly be an advocate for your child. You will also want to start with those closest to you, beginning with the siblings of the Aspergers syndrome individual. Telling younger children that their sibling has a brain problem that causes them to have problems talking with others, causes them to focus inordinately on certain subjects to the exclusion of others and results in them performing ritual behaviors may be enough. These kids have seen everything already and just need to know that there is a reason behind the behaviors. It can help siblings be less frustrated with their sibling and can also become advocates for the Aspergers syndrome child. Having a name for what the child is seeing can help a great deal.

After the family becomes accustomed to the diagnosis, it’s time to speak with the extended family. Encourage them to read what they can on the subject and help them connect the symptoms they see with a brain disorder that can’t be helped. If they know that much of the behavior is beyond the control of the child, family members can come to love the child at the level they’re at.

Certainly, teachers and educators need to understand the diagnosis and how it is affecting your child. Plans need to be made to alter the educational style the teacher or teachers use to help teach the child in an effective manner. A frank discussion of the diagnosis should be followed with problem-solving methods that will help the child thrive as best he or she can in the educational world.

Beyond family, educators and perhaps daycare individuals, parents of an Aspergers syndrome don’t necessarily need to tell the rest of the world, especially if others don’t see much of a problem in the child’s behavior. What you do eventually say can be as simple as “my child has a brain disorder” or as complex as explaining the disorder to its fullest to interested friends or acquaintances. Certainly, the conversation needs to take place every year as new teachers come into the picture but, in today’s times, Aspergers syndrome is more well known and more easily understandable than it once was.

A child with ASD, may make some positive changes in their ability to cope with lifes stresses through the assistance of others in their life. Even with positive change, some of these characteristics will follow them into adulthood, and may pose even larger challenges as they are encouraged to monitor their own behavior, develop their own relationships, and maintain those relationships in a positive manner.

Adulthood brings with it challenges for everyone, but the individual with ASD may not have adequate coping strategies to allow them to problem solve in different situations.

Life and Love: Positive Strategies for Autistic Adults by Zosia Zaks; is a book that is written for ASD adults.

Zosia Zaks, was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 31. This book is written as a guide for peers with ASD, using the strategies that she has used to cope with difficult situations. Zaks discusses common sense solutions for dealing with sensory issues including strategies for navigation, how to facilitate maintaining a clean and orderly home, how to shop for necessities without becoming distracted or vulnerable to impulse purchases, health care and vocational challenges, issues to keep in mind when dating from health and safety concerns to inappropriate versus appropriate behavior, things to keep in mind when trying to make autism spectrum/non-spectrum relationships work, advice for when and how to disclose one’s autism spectrum diagnosis, and much much more!

This excellent guide will help the adult with ASD develop concrete ways to deal with challenges that may arise in daily life and love. Check it out at by clicking Life and Love: Positive Strategies for Autistic Adults by Zosia Zaks.