Two questions for you.

I have a 9 year old who was diagnosed with Aspergers about 6 months ago. Upon receiving this diagnosis, I felt much relief, and hope for the future. My son is bright, articulate, creative and has a well developed sence of humour. The two most difficult aspects of his behaviour though are that he has great difficulty with reading and writing, and his demanding behaviour.

I try not to worry too much about his scholastic abilities, and rely heavily on the school to help him through to understanding now that he has been formally recognized as needing that extra attention. I have always endevoured to promote a healthy learning environment, being supportive of books and discussions in the home, but find that homework has always been the biggest chore. Home readers being thrown across the room does not make for a calm and productive learning envirnment! He is difficult to “out stubborn” at the best of times, but homework is particularly bad. What types of strategies would be useful to avoid this type of negative responses to his school work?

As per my son’s demanding behaviours, he gets an idea and his head and has difficulty letting go of it. He stays the full course with this and gets right into my face and “insists” until I do something about this. Correcting him on his behaviour, punishing him or trying to rationalize with him all have little effect and just seem to antagonize him. Eg, a reasonable request to have a play visit with a friend can turn into a full scale melt down. If the friend is not home, he takes himself off to his room with doors slamming and swearing. I do try to prepare him for this possibility through giving him possible senarios, but this does not always work. What do I do to help to avoid this demanding behaviour and to help him to stay calm?

Yours Sincerely,
Vanessa Bartley