Adolesent AS

Post Reply New Topic

My son is 12 years old and has recently been formally diagnosed with AS. We have known since he was 8, but we were told that a formal diagnosis would only get us financial support. we decided against a diagnosis. However, he did get support in Primary school and language therapy to support his development of social skills. He is now in the second year of high school and his behaviour is causing many problems in school (for himself, teachers and other children). The SENCO of the school tried to explain that AS children have difficulties when entering adolesence and this is why the problems seem exaggerated at present. We are really trying to support him, but we do not understand how he feels as he is very emotionally closed at times. Can anyone please give us advise on how he might be feeling and what we as parents can do to support him. Thanks x.

Have a read of my blog

http://www.life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com

I'm an aspie and in the blog I try to explain what things feel like from the inside, as well as giving strategies for parents - things I wish I'd had or things that work with my kids.

Also, make a list of your main problems and post them - everyone here is very helpful and understanding.

it'd be a good idea to get some books if you haven't already.

The main concern at present is his impulsivness. He has a very enquiring mind and when he see something that interests him he has to physically explore it. This was a problem in a science lesson last week when his teacher told the whole class not to touch a hot piece of limestone. Because she did not make the warning specific to my son, he picked up the limestone (wanting to explore it) and burnt his hand. This has happened on many occasions. The school has now given him support during lessons where he could cause himself harm.

He seems to disrupt lessons (unintentionally) and spends much of his lesson out of the class. He is interested in what he is interested in and nothing else, so he fidgets, talks, folds paper etc to occupy himself during lesson he is not interested in (and often ones he is interested in).

He also has no friends at school at all. He wanders around the playground by himself. Kids are really mean to him both verbally and physically. He says he is not bothered by this, but I worry that this will become a lot more serious as he gets older. He recently wrote out his christmas cards and he wrote them all to his teachers as he has no friends, this broke my heart!! !! !

We really really love our son and are trying our best to support him, however this is difficult sometimes because he feels so misunderstood. The rest of our family are nt and we have no experience of other people with aspergers. We have read some books but they seem to focus on younger children. If anyone can recommend any books then please, please do so.