Hi there and welcome to this week’s blog post …

Question

How can I help my son to better manage his frustrations?

Answer

Children with Asperger’s are easily frustrated. For the, living in the world can be confusing and they need to have someone there to translate and explain every day events to them. One of the best things you can do with your child with Asperger’s is to help him learn to identify his feelings and emotions, and then teach him how to cope with those same feelings.

Tony Attwood has developed a cognitive behaviour therapy program which he outlines in his book, “Exploring Feelings: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy to Manage Anger (Anxiety).”

The program is designed to keep the interest of the children while encouraging the cognitive control of emotions. The program was designed as an anger management program for children with Asperger’s, so the needs of children with Asperger’s are addressed in the program.

The program is designed to help children identify feelings and emotions and then discusses appropriate responses to those feelings and emotions. The program does not have to be implemented by someone with a background in cognitive behaviour therapy. A teacher or a parent could use this program effectively.

Remember that your child with Asperger’s is also a child, not simply a child with Asperger’s. All children get frustrated and all children need to learn to manage those frustrations. All parents deal with teaching their children appropriate ways to behave and appropriate ways to deal with anger and frustration. For a child with Asperger’s, the challenge is to communicate effectively and to try not to get frustrated yourself.

If your child is a teenager, remember that all teenagers struggle with testing limits, learning to make their own decisions, and learning to function independently. All teenagers struggle with making and keeping friends, with finding success at school, and even with the development of romantic relationships. Your child may be more or less frustrated than a neuro-typical child, but he may not have the skills to handle those frustrations.

Set appropriate limits while trying to give your child some leeway to function independently. That is a difficult task for any parent. Allow your child the ability to express his frustrations in appropriate ways and ensure that he understands what is appropriate. As a parent, you can model and teach appropriate ways of coping. Often, a program such as Tony Attwood’s can help ensure that you find an effective way to communicate these skills to your child.

That’s all for this week … and have a great week.
Dave Angel
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Articles posted this week at The Parenting Aspergers Community
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I need help with melt downs and managing anxiety.

Young people with Aspergers suffer anxiety every day due to fears of new situations, strangers, and making mistakes. This builds a lot of anxiety for the young person. Often anxiety is expressed in anger, resistance to new situations/going places, and meltdowns, as you have seen. Dr. Judith Reaven, of the University of Colorado at Denver Health Sciences Centre, USA, confirms that children with autism spectrum disorders are at high risk for …To read the full article go to: -
http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/251.cfm
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I would like to have help in getting my son to complete daily tasks like cleaning his room, brushing his teeth.
As you know children with Asperger’s Syndrome often have fixed habits, are perfectionists, and get easily distracted, all of which combine to make completing tasks, even those as simple as tooth brushing, difficult for them. In addition, children with Aspergers like to …
To read the full article go to: -
http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/250.cfm
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My daughter won’t take care of self care issues or wear a bra. She is now a teenager. What should I do?

Problems with personal hygiene are very common with teenagers who have Asperger’s. No one knows exactly why, but they may feel that refusing to bathe, wear clean clothes, and maintain good personal hygiene gives them control over their own lives. Or they may avoid these tasks because …
To read the full article go to: -
http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/249.cfm

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