Daughter 9 years old with suspected Aspergers

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Hello All,

My daughter is "almost 9"...her birthday is in August. She has been in therapy over a year, which began because of severe phobias to bees, blood, and dying. In January she told us about her need to "balance", and we discovered she likely has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). But we knew that wasn't the whole story.

Then she reacted very strongly to an "autism demonstration" of lights and sound during a high school play on tolerating those with disabilities...we began investigating and discovered she likely has Aspergers as well. Now the Aspergers plays a bigger part in the chaos of our house than the OCD, so we are looking in resources, communities, therapies and such. She has begun occupational therapy for sensory and balance issues, she will begin speech therapy for social skills, and we have formal neuropsych testing scheduled in three weeks so we can get a definitive diagnosis of what she is challenged by.

Currently we are looking into the possibility of a service dog to help with her meltdowns. Anyone with experience or feedback is welcome to comment.

As you probably all know, every day is a blessing, but every day is a struggle...we only hope to make the blessings outnumber the struggles as we move through understanding this condition and minimizing it's effects on her and our family. No child should have to endure what our sweet girl has had to overcome, but we are determined to make things better!

Thanks for listening.

It sounds like you are being very practical and thorough. I'm glad you came here. You might want to look up the books Jessica Kingsly Publishing puts out.

To WrongPlanet!! !

You might want to check out the Parent's forum here and check out some of the books that are available...

Your daughter could do with a pet to focus on.
This alone will help her meltdowns.

It doesn't have to be any more specific than that.

Greetings, and welcome to the Wrong Planet community, KBug. Your question sounds like a good one for the good folks on WP's Parents’ Discussion Forum: http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum19.html
And Happy 9th Birthday to your daughter.

Hi KBug, welcome to WP.
It's great that you are trying to help your daughter. Have you told her about what all these appointments are for? I'm just asking because quite a few parents don't tell their kids and then the kids end up thinking that they have done something wrong and think it's a punishment. Anyway, I don't think she would need a service dog. Any pet would do, if she wants one in the first place. Many people on WP seem to like cats.
I hope that you like posting here.

Thanks to all of you for your responses. We have pets--1 dog, 3 cats, 2 bunnies and a hamster, I'm in the veterinary profession--but none of them have bonded specifically to our daughter, as her support to lean on. So I guess I'm also looking for guidance in picking the RIGHT dog for her (I tend to be a cat person, so it's difficult for me to assess dog personalities), which is why I'm exploring service dogs. North Star looks really great, so I'm looking into that, even if just for information. Goldens tend to be good dogs for these kids!

To answer the question about whether we're explaining the different therapy, we are, to her level of understanding...we haven't used the word Aspergers (though she does know about her OCD by name), but we explain to her "you know how you're having trouble learning to ride a bike because the balance is difficult for you? Well this therapy ball will help you with that..." or, "you know how you get upset when your friends call you 'mean', well we're going to get you some help learning social skills to help with your friendships." She seems very open to the help, and the physical therapy is going very well so far.

This seems like a great place to reach out for support, and help others in return. Thanks for making me feel so welcome!