My five year old grandson

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I am new to this website and came here with the hopes of learning everything and anything about Aspergers Syndrome. My five year old grandson, Timothy is an Aspie. I see him as an exceptional, loving child. When he's at my house there is seldom ever a problem, when he's at home he can be a handful for his parents. He loves to push their buttons.

The great thing about being a grandparent is that you usually have more patience and with Timothy it's easy for me because the way I feel about him is that he can do no wrong. We have a few rules around the house and one of them is that when we start getting hyper we need to go to the hyper hallway where we can run or jump or roll a ball or fly a paper airplane. I have told Timothy that it's fine to be hyper because children need to run and jump and be noisy sometimes, that's why we have recess at school. It usually takes maybe five minutes for hm to calm down.

I noticed something lately that I am not sure what to do about. Sometimes he will tell me he's feeling sad. I need to be more aware of when he mentions this because I'm thinking it's usually in the early evening. I remember when I was 11 or 12 I would get bouts of anxiety as the sun was going down. Is there anyone out there who has experienced this or knows anything about this? When he tells me he's sad I try to make him feel safe and loved and then we talk about happy things, it usually helps.

I want the best for this child and I will do anything it takes to give him a happy life. I would appreciate any advice from anyone. I'm hoping to have him for a good chunk of the summer as he loves to be at my house and his parents can use a little break. Thanks guys.

Hi welcome! It is awesome that you are looking for more information or you grandson! I hope that you find out lots of information here.

The little guy is lucky to have you. Congratulations on being the grandparent everybody needs.

well, that's so nice, that now i feel sad maybe he said that he is sad, because he wanted to "feel safe and loved and then talk about happy things". you never asked why he is sad? maybe he is sad that the day is finishing. it doesn't have to have anything to do with having AS. it's so nice to read someone is so good and loving grandparent...

I have asked him why he feels sad and most the time he says......I just feel sad. I'm thinking maybe it's his chemical make up. When he's at my house we keep very busy with activities and favorite projects and it's not as if he has reason to be sad.

He does like to watch his Blue's Clues videos and play his leap frog games so maybe I need to cut back on those things. I have heard that they can cause nervousness. This summer I plan to have a lot of outdoor activities. My husband and I are both retired so we can take Timothy to the park everyday. When I was a child everyone was outside unless it was raining.

Hello from another grandparent. What a wonderful job you are doing! A hyper hallway? We'll try that.

I can't answer your specific question but you will find many answers here. Those with aspergers syndrome offer many insights that we. as an Nt family, would never think of.

It's nice to meet you

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Nice to meet you Nannarob and thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. This website was a wonderful find for me because I want to know as much as I can so that my grandson will have every advantage we can give him.

I look forward to learning a great deal here. This place is like a goldmine of information. If anyone reads this I would love to know what NT stands for. I've seen it more than a few times but being new I haven't figured it out yet.

NT = neurotypical (the non-AS people, i guess you)

NT is Neuro Typical. On this site you are on the autism/aspergers spectrum, or neurotypical or 'normal'.

Sometimes you will find disparaging remarks about NT's. I regard this venting the frustration that many feel as they deal with the world about them. (RW: real world) You will learn so much here.

(I don't regard myself as normal, by the way.)

I don't consider myself normal either, or neuro/typical. I can't do magic and I haven't learned to fly yet but when my grandson comes through that door I turn into Mary Poppins.

Hello Rad! How ironic that I have the same name as your grandson? (but my name doesn't have the 'othy' part, and thank goodness!)

You sound like a cool grandparent. I was never able to fully connect with mine because they literally live on the other side of the world in Holland (I'm in NZ!! ), and so I've only seen them once or twice. Often I find that my answer is "I don't know" followed by the actual answer, especially when it comes to questions involving me. For example, if you ask "Does your arm hurt?" then my first instinct will be to say "I don't know", followed by "No". However this doesn't apply to drop-dead easy ones like "How many toes do you have?" or "What colour is a Basketball?". I'm thinking Timothy's situation may be similar, in that he doesn't know how to answer (I do this all the time, I say "I don't know" and then wait for the conversation to continue, haha!). BTW, I'm 16 (I just feel like pointing that out).

Oh, and welcome to WP!

So you live in the Big Rock Candy Mountains, I've wanted to live there since I heard the song when I was
fourteen. If you want to hear the best rendition of that song it's by the Highwaymen back in the very early sixties.

I heard it from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, it was the opening song for it. I'm thinking that many of the songs sung in that movie are actual songs outside the context of the movie, because I hear another song, You are my Sunshine, being sung by a crying parent to her child in an ad for Cold Case the other day.

Anyway, I love how the jails are made of tin, the bulldogs have rubber teeth, and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs!