Hi and welcome to this week’s Aspergers article …

Just as a quick update I am still working on the “Back To School” ebook which should be completed in the next 2-3 weeks.

I also hope to put out an extra article later this week about Gary McKinnon – the young man with Aspergers who is due to be extradicted to the USA from the UK on some very serious hacking charges.

So stay tuned; here’s today’s article …

Question

Tips on teaching black-and-white kids labels for different emotions would be invaluable. With our nine-year-old, everyone is either happy, sad, frustrated or mad. His difficulty labeling emotions compounds problems because by not being able to adequately express what he’s feeling and be understood. This frustration usually ends with a day full of sitting on the couch with his head down, not talking to anyone because he’s so upset. How can I help him better express himself?

Answer

It can be very difficult for some children with Asperger’s Syndrome to understand their own emotions. They have a very hard time reading the emotions of others as well. This can be a very frustrating place for a child to be and helping him to learn how to identify these emotions can be very beneficial for your child.

Understand that it will be difficult for your child to learn how to identify emotions. He’ll first need to have a frame of reference. In her book, “What’s That Look on Your Face? All About Faces and Feelings,” Catherine S. Snodgrass has created a set of pictures of exaggerated facial expressions. These pictures are accompanied by poems that further reinforce the emotion shown in the face to help reinforce the connection in the child’s mind. This is a great way to begin to teach your child how to read and identify emotions.

You can also create activities for you and your child to participate in, depending on the age of your child and his desire to participate. You can photograph yourself and your child making faces that portray different emotions. You can have pictures of happy faces, sad faces, frustrated faces, and mad faces – all sorts of faces. Take a picture of you and take a picture of your child making the same face. You can take those photographs and turn them into flash cards so your child can practice identifying emotions.

Once he has a language and a frame of reference, then you can begin to help your child learn to identify how he is feeling. This can be a time consuming process, but a very important process. When you see your son is happy, have him stop what he’s doing and talk about what it feels like to be happy. He will begin to equate the feeling he’s having with the word. You can do this with many emotions, such as anger and frustration. Once your son begins to connect words with the emotions he is having, he’ll be able to correctly identify the emotions. This will help greatly when you are trying to help him modify some of his behaviors that may surround some of his emotions, especially around anger and frustration issues.

Be patient with your son and try to understand how frustrating and confusing this can be for him. If he begins to understand that you are trying to help him understand this confusing issue, he will be better able to open up to you.

Have a great week,

Dave Angel

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Articles posted this week at The Parenting Aspergers Community

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When and how to explain Asperger’s to him?

Speaking to your child about Asperger’s is a very personal decision. There truly is no right and wrong way to approach this. You’ll need to keep several things in mind when you make the decision to talk to your child about Asperger’s …To read the full article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/298.cfm

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Can you give me information of natural products or holistic medicine?

While there is no specific treatment or cure for Asperger’s, people tend to treat symptoms of disorders associated with Asperger’s Syndrome. Typically, a child with Asperger’s might suffer from anxiety or depression, or he might have issues concerning attention. He might be overly aggressive and be diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder. All of these disorders are typically treated with medication. The point of doing this is to … To read the full article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/297.cfm

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How can I help my son’s identity crisis and lack of confidence?

Adolescence is a time of experimentation and change and many people find this to be one of the most difficult periods of time in their lives emotionally. Navigating social relationships and creating an identity take a great deal of emotional effort. This period of time can be especially challenging for a child with Asperger’s syndrome. When most adolescents are struggling with the question of who they want to be, children with Asperger’s are struggling with decoding the world as well as … To read this article go to: -

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/members/296.cfm

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