A mom with AS

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My youngest was diagnosed with AS at 5. Before that it was the runnig joke that she was just like me at that age. Well, getting to know the challenges and understanding them for her helped me to understand them for myself as well. I have been able to fumble through coping skills on most everything,but the OCD need to prevent her from danger is horrible. She has no sense of stranger danger, or any other danger for that matter. I find myself nagging and I can't stand my own voice anymore. I don't want her to fear life and I don't want to squash her personality. I tried to just stop, but it hasn't worked. I have learned that there are techniques for her ecetricities, so is there something to help me with this one? Please advise.

Have you been in contact with her school? Many of these subjects are addressed in special ed classes at their school, and if you can hook up with those resources, you'll be able to reinforce the messages at home.

My son has zero fear of strangers as well, so I feel for you. He has always been in a 'safe' environment and I have debated how or if to shock him out of that by setting up observers that know him, but that he does not know and letting him actually run away from me at the mall (which he would do if given the chance.) The observers would shadow him to be sure he doesn't get in trouble, or if he does, to make sure it is the kind of trouble that would make a beneficial impression on him. I am not above engineering or 'stage managing' a crisis like this to teach him these kinds of lessons in a controlled manner, rather than having the real horror of abduction/abuse/etc happen to him and disable or scar him to the point of PTSD for the rest of his life.

M

I was the same way when I was young...no sense of fear of strangers...and i did end up abused/PTSD...this by no means is meant to reenforce your fears...one of my problems was that I was not always supervised very well as a child, and would run off unsupervised at an early age....
Anywhoo....I am alot like my mom, who has alot of AS traits....though there are traits on both sides of my family...I more resemble my mom...

I have decided to homeschool this next year. I have an IEP for my daughter at school, but they don't follow it. I have found her numerous times walking the halls when I came to volunteer. I figured if I can establish some sort of difference for her between school work and socialization, she may pick up on the rules. It is too much or her and there is no assistance from the special ed classes. "She isn't disabled enough". Am I being overprotective or just cautious? I was abused as a child from being so social and I am just afraid of her getting hurt. I do like the idea of shadows and staged situations, though. MAybe I can trust her if I can see how she will react. Thanks for the input.