Life on the spectrum
It was only one year ago that my nine year old daughter was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. Since then I have read numerous books, browsed many websites and have talked to many parents in the same boat. I had always known that my daughter was very different from most of the other children her age but never really knew why. She was very difficult to handle and because we didn’t understand what was going on, it created a severe amount of stress in the family. Now, after having this diagnosis, we understand and can deal with her behavioral issues so much better.
Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a neurobiological disorder that affects the way the brain handles information and is on the autism spectrum. It affects so many areas including social development and communication. Because AS is a developmental disorder, children have a tendency to experience emotional and social delays. Some traits of AS include avoiding eye contact, repetitive talk, clumsiness (sometimes), very strong interest in one particular subject, anxiety and lengthy meltdowns. There are many traits to AS.
My purpose for starting this series of articles is to help bring hope to parents that taking their first step into parenting a special needs child. Receiving a diagnosis such as AS or other disorders on the spectrum, is not the end of the world. While it might be devastating to hear at first, the more you learn about it, the easier it is to handle and cope. In the case of AS, children are very intelligent, very intuitive, sensitive and very passionate. While the disorder does bring forth its challenges, there are a lot of positives to go along with it.
I hope you will continue to read the articles on AS and special needs children and I hope they will prove to be helpful and informative.
Well if people sign up for the ibakesale thing and we get donations I’ll put an AS fund in the poll of possible places to donate to!
I think this is a great section to add to PJ Mommy. It will shed a lot of light for people.
I believe so too. I mean it will also be a good help resource for moms who have special needs children
Thank you both. Reading and talking to so many parents has really been an eye opener for me. Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis’ are on the rise and its expected that there are many more that aren’t diagnosed at all. Its great to have so much information about it available now!
I need all the first-person accounts I can get. I am a career changer studying to be a special needs teacher. I want to know more than just the textbook info. I want to hear things like this, from families who live with the issues.