Best books, blogs or websites on homeschooling your Asperger's kids

[Mommyfaithe]

Ds has not been diagnosed as of yet, but....well....if the shoe fits...

 

Anyway, I need to do my homework and find other methods of reaching this boy, and having him reach his best potential. Right now, we are both quite frustrated with each other...and he is quite the angry child to begin with....

 

So, while he is visiting sister this weekend, please load me up with reading material....

 

Thanks,

Faithe

 

PS....this is about my 9 year old.

[sbgrace]

My spectrum son is 9. Kids are so different, though. What I found helpful may not be a help for you/yours.

 

Are you hoping to address some spectrum related weak areas? Or are you hoping to make things more tolerable and/or enjoyable for him? Or are you wanting to learn about aspie kids in general?

 

Is he a visual spatial learner? Is he a sensitive child (to perceived criticism, to your emotions, to his own emotions, to frustration or ?)

 

What's working and what isn't working in homeschool?

[kbutton]

Shot in the dark here (sbgrace had some great questions), but we are enjoying The Survival Guide for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We are also working through Growing up with A Bucket Full of Happiness (consideration for others, managing emotions, etc.). I have found anxiety in one form or another (outright panic, meltdowns, overwhelm, task avoidance, disrespect under pressure, etc.) to be the biggest thing that derails our homeschooling with our 9 y.o. Aspie. Sometimes he needs gentle understanding and a break; other times, we need to create a worst case scenario in which he's still okay at the end. An example of this might be not being allowed to play with the neighbor (his best friend) for 3 days if he won't listen to me explain the math, give a realistic attempt to work through it, and be respectful at the same time. It's amazing how he can regroup and suck it up when his most important thing is on the line. Other times, this utterly fails, and he just needs to be alone until he can gain some control of himself. If he doesn't get enough sleep, nothing works. :-( We do the bare minimum on those days, or I cut my losses and give him chores that he finds organizing and calming. I also have to keep tasks cut and dry (not every subject can be open-ended), cut all busywork, and cut down on repetition (though some kids need the repetition for sure). He's definitely a Competent Carl kind of boy if you know anything about Cathy Duffy's learner profiles.

 

Now that he is diagnosed, we can talk about what is normal 9 y.o. angst, and what is Asperger's. We can talk about his expectations for himself too. He has dysgraphia but can write beautifully if that is his task for a couple of hours (clearly not practical). He's had to cut himself slack and mourn a bit that he can't write well easily. Once he got over it, it was freeing for him, and the pressure was off.

[kbutton]

 

 

Oh, check out podcasts or online archives of the Bright Not Broken radio show on the Coffee Klatch network (special needs talk radio). It's really, really helpful! There are also segments about spectrum disorders on the other shows in that network from time-to-time.

[PeterPan]

Well if you want radical 180 to see if anything different will give you peace, you could go back and find old posts by KarenAnne, if there are even any left to be found.  You could read the uber-radical "Right-Side of Normal" and see if it gives you any freedom/permission/inspiration.

 

I think in general your gut kind of speaks to you, and you need those quiet breaks apart to hear it.  If you've had anything going through your mind to the effect "yeah, this could work if we could..." and then something radical finishes that sentence, well I guess just go ahead and try it.  He's young enough that you can't really screw him up.  He might end up different from the others, but that isn't necessarily bad.  Give yourself a bit of permission and try those things.

 

I guess that was my book.  :)  Welcome to the SN/LC board.  :)

[Heathermomster]

I am impressed with this blog.