Useful tips for Aspergers - maybe?

[viv2003]

Hi everyone, i havent posted anything for a while but i have been reading everyone elses news.
Anyway thought id just drop a few lines tonight. The first week back at school was pretty horrendous but ds finally seems to have settled down and the teachers have been giving him lots of encouragement which has helped. Ive started doing a couple of things with ds over the past two weeks and it really seems to be helping. Thought it might be worth mentioning.
At the end of each day( before he settles to bed and his own bizarre routine! )i get a notepad and together we discuss any worries hes had during the day ie yesterday he was panicky because he thought science was going to be hard,but he managed it , so i write the worry down and when hes ready he tears off the sheet screws it up and throws the worry in the bin. And we say that worry has gone and cant come back because its gone in the bin! Sometimes he cant bring himself to do it so we leave it until he feels ready. Sounds weird i know but it has worked - none of the worries have reappeared and for the last couple of nights we havent had any. The other thing we do is cartoon situations - an example is last week when he created big time about going into school, i draw a cartoon of what happened ( making the teachers look v.funny ) and another cartoon of how he could have gone in and then ask him which one he prefers. So far he has always chosen the alternative and we talk about how he can try really hard next time to mimic that cartoon. Ds is eight now and im not sure what age this would work with but if it makes any sense i thought it was worth a mention.
"Jimjams" hope ur toe is getting better!

It sounds like a great thing to do, for NT children too, and you sound like a lovely mum if you don't mind me saying so. Hope your ds continues to cope well, he sounds a real sweetie.

Glad its going well viv And glad the teachers are being helpful.

Toe is still immobile! Now its got really bad athletes foot because its been stuck in one place (too much info I know). I couldn't find any daktarin (spelling??) so I've been shoving canestin on it!

Just one more thing i want to mention before i head off to bed!
My ds has always had obsessions from Thomas the Tank Engine imaginary friends to Tarzan !! It has always driven me insane.
His current one is Pokemon on his Gameboy , however i have a new thought on it.
I`ve just realised that he uses it very much like a comforter - the more stressed he is the more he wants it ( or needs it ).He always wants it when we go somewhere new for example.
But just knowing this makes me feel better about it , so when things are good i can persuade him to do something else and when he asks to play it i guess hes not feeling so good therefore i dont mind so much him having it.
Unfortunately havent figured out how to stop him talking about it once he starts yet!!
Sorry to harp on tonight but these obsessions were the bane of my life at one time and having a different thought on it can help sometimes .

Just pinching this thread as cannot seem to get my own to post succesfully....DS3 is 4.5 and has recently begun to hide his 2 (1 is Aspergers and 1 shows signs of autism)brothers 'special interest' toys etc- am pretty sure this is somewhat an 'attention seeking' behaviour but due to feeling i have lost the plot at the moment....wondered if anyone else can see this in a different light--he's also showing vague aspie type behaviours too- so far since starting school he's only brought home non-fiction books,insisted on 4 things every day in lunchbox,insisted that when the teacher says 'you can take xxxxx home' that she means to keep,got 'hooked' on using computer as 'settling activity' as soon as got to class- then without warning all the 'settling activities' were stopped and had to come in and sit down straight away to do a tracing or writing activity- he found this distressing and 2 weeks on is still saying that should be on computer- i have expl the fact that 'variety is the spice of life' but he is perssistant...wondered if this is a bit of 'transition' probs

I know exactly what you mean about 'the autistic way of life'- i find myself modifying/adapting/explaining/sorting/reassuring/iintervening so much that i feel i'm either brain washed or autistic too! I find yourself mentally making notes of good behaviour / achievements/ successful meals and also 'noticing' autistic things like 'literal thinking'/ ye contact etc and mentally ticking it off the symptom list- i think i do the last thing because my eldest is quite mildly aspergers and I believe its a 50:50 mix with dyspraxia- whereas my middle son (i'm fighting to get a diagnosis)is i believe, fully 'aspergic' and i think i am getting obsessed with symptoms!!

unfortunately ..... our home life is the chaotic bit! this is why i'm having a hard job 'proving' ds2 is autie because in the calm of school he manages....but anywhere else we get the full range of behaviours!