If you have a dd with Aspergers, could you please describe her to me?

[Jami]

Feel free to PM if you'd rather be more private.

 

Dh and I are just trying to think through some issues we see in our middle daughter and rather than just read the lists of symptoms I can find by Googling, I'd like to hear what Aspergers looks like in a real child. :001_smile:

 

Oh one more question, if you have a child on the spectrum, do you yourself have a behavioral disorder (I think that's the general term)? I'll include ADD/ADHD, Depression, and Bi-Polar in that category. Though it's a loose catch-all. Dh here has bi-polar (well managed though) and so we're wondering if there are things we just need to watch for in our kids a little more closely. KWIM?

 

I probably won't be back to check the thread for awhile, taking sick kids in for strep tests this morning, so I'll thank everyone in advance.

 

Jami

[JenParrish]

This is not my child so I do not have a bunch of details. A friend has a son who is now in 6th grade who was diagnosed years ago. He seems to keep to himself a bunch and sort of has an attitude. You could say this about most teens but he was diagnosed in second grade I think. He also has a thing about clothing. It has to be comfortable with no poky seams. The keeping to himself thing was really extreme when he was younger.

[RoughCollie]

My DS has been dx'd with Aspberger's Syndrome.

 

He is obsessed with baseball and has been for years. It is very important to him, so we allow him to watch all the Red Sox games no matter what (we have one t.v.) and we get him tons of books he wants on the subject, sign him up to play baseball, bought him a pitching machine and net, and so forth.

 

He does not look anyone in the eye when he talks to them, except for family members.

 

He pontificates a lot about baseball. He has an amazingly large knowledge of facts and statistics about the subject.

 

He spends a lot of his free time making up baseball lineups using different criteria and players from baseball's entire history (ie., everyone on the team has a name having to do with candy, everyone on the team hails from Germany, and ad infinitum).

 

He talks about facts only -- I have to ease him into talking about his feelings, with lots of prompting first, which can take a couple of hours of private conversation.

 

He follows rules strictly. For example, he was in school last year and the rule was no talking in class unless called upon. So he did not talk in the classroom at all.

 

He doesn't seem to understand that other people have feelings and what those feelings are. For example, in school at lunchtime, he repeatedly talked to another boy about one of the other boy's personality flaws. This made the other boy mad, of course. I talked to DS about it and had to ban him from speaking further on the subject with the other boy. DS's unwavering point of view was that he was doing the boy a favor by pointing out his flaw so he could correct it.

 

He doesn't express much emotion -- he has a pleasant, intelligent look on his face, but I rarely see him laugh or get excited. He received tickets to 2 Red Sox games for Christmas a couple of years ago -- which are very hard to get -- I had to stay online for 12 hours in the Red Sox ticket buying waiting room. He merely smiled when he opened them, even though he was ecstatic.

 

He has no friends, although he'd love to have one or two. The trouble is that no one else he knows shares his obsession. Plus he is highly critical of others sometimes. And he thinks people are stupid if they don't agree with him.

 

As far as others in the family go, my DH is a lot like DS. I think DH has AS, too. If DH does have it (he has not been diagnosed) it would explain everything.

 

RC

[VaKim]

My DS has been dx'd with Aspberger's Syndrome.

 

He is obsessed with baseball and has been for years. It is very important to him, so we allow him to watch all the Red Sox games no matter what (we have one t.v.) and we get him tons of books he wants on the subject, sign him up to play baseball, bought him a pitching machine and net, and so forth.

 

He does not look anyone in the eye when he talks to them, except for family members.

 

He pontificates a lot about baseball. He has an amazingly large knowledge of facts and statistics about the subject.

 

He spends a lot of his free time making up baseball lineups using different criteria and players from baseball's entire history (ie., everyone on the team has a name having to do with candy, everyone on the team hails from Germany, and ad infinitum).

 

He talks about facts only -- I have to ease him into talking about his feelings, with lots of prompting first, which can take a couple of hours of private conversation.

 

He follows rules strictly. For example, he was in school last year and the rule was no talking in class unless called upon. So he did not talk in the classroom at all.

 

He doesn't seem to understand that other people have feelings and what those feelings are. For example, in school at lunchtime, he repeatedly talked to another boy about one of the other boy's personality flaws. This made the other boy mad, of course. I talked to DS about it and had to ban him from speaking further on the subject with the other boy. DS's unwavering point of view was that he was doing the boy a favor by pointing out his flaw so he could correct it.

 

He doesn't express much emotion -- he has a pleasant, intelligent look on his face, but I rarely see him laugh or get excited. He received tickets to 2 Red Sox games for Christmas a couple of years ago -- which are very hard to get -- I had to stay online for 12 hours in the Red Sox ticket buying waiting room. He merely smiled when he opened them, even though he was ecstatic.

 

He has no friends, although he'd love to have one or two. The trouble is that no one else he knows shares his obsession. Plus he is highly critical of others sometimes. And he thinks people are stupid if they don't agree with him.

 

As far as others in the family go, my DH is a lot like DS. I think DH has AS, too. If DH does have it (he has not been diagnosed) it would explain everything.

 

RC

 

I have a 16 yo nephew with it, and this description pretty well fits him, except his "obsession" is working on and fixing things (which he is really gifted at, by the way).

 

He has sort of an instinct about justice, what is right and how things should be. He has always been one to befriend and protect younger children from bullies and whatnot. He is definitely his own person, and could care less what is or isn't socially acceptable or desirable. I love him tremendously, and have come to see his "problem" as a gift in this crazy, deteriorating world.

[Parrothead]

My DS has been dx'd with Aspberger's Syndrome.

 

He is obsessed with baseball and has been for years. It is very important to him, so we allow him to watch all the Red Sox games no matter what (we have one t.v.) and we get him tons of books he wants on the subject, sign him up to play baseball, bought him a pitching machine and net, and so forth.

 

He does not look anyone in the eye when he talks to them, except for family members.

 

He pontificates a lot about baseball. He has an amazingly large knowledge of facts and statistics about the subject.

 

He spends a lot of his free time making up baseball lineups using different criteria and players from baseball's entire history (ie., everyone on the team has a name having to do with candy, everyone on the team hails from Germany, and ad infinitum).

 

He talks about facts only -- I have to ease him into talking about his feelings, with lots of prompting first, which can take a couple of hours of private conversation.

 

He follows rules strictly. For example, he was in school last year and the rule was no talking in class unless called upon. So he did not talk in the classroom at all.

 

He doesn't seem to understand that other people have feelings and what those feelings are. For example, in school at lunchtime, he repeatedly talked to another boy about one of the other boy's personality flaws. This made the other boy mad, of course. I talked to DS about it and had to ban him from speaking further on the subject with the other boy. DS's unwavering point of view was that he was doing the boy a favor by pointing out his flaw so he could correct it.

 

He doesn't express much emotion -- he has a pleasant, intelligent look on his face, but I rarely see him laugh or get excited. He received tickets to 2 Red Sox games for Christmas a couple of years ago -- which are very hard to get -- I had to stay online for 12 hours in the Red Sox ticket buying waiting room. He merely smiled when he opened them, even though he was ecstatic.

 

He has no friends, although he'd love to have one or two. The trouble is that no one else he knows shares his obsession. Plus he is highly critical of others sometimes. And he thinks people are stupid if they don't agree with him.

 

As far as others in the family go, my DH is a lot like DS. I think DH has AS, too. If DH does have it (he has not been diagnosed) it would explain everything.

 

RC

With the exception of the baseball fascination, the description of your son sounds like my 39-year old brother. It makes me wonder if he was a child today if he would be diagnosed somewhere on the spectrum.

[Carrie12345]

Based on what I've heard from other parents, AS tends to look different in girls than it does in boys, similar to how ADHD can look different.

 

I will say that my son, who has AS, has a great big family tree filled with various disorders. I have ADHD, my father has random undiagnosed issues, ds's father has plenty of AS symptoms along with a bi-polar brother, bi-polar and dyslexic mother, and generally screwed up father. I'm comfortable saying we've all graced ds with our little gifts ;), but I do believe there's more to it than that.

[hsmamainva]

I have two children on the spectrum. My oldest son (14 yrs old) has high functioning autism / Aspergers and my youngest daughter (6 yrs old) has a more moderate form of autism (although she's pretty high functioning)

 

My 14 year old, when he was younger, was very sound sensitive. He didn't like loud noises at all. Thunderstorms would send him into the bathroom, where he'd turn on the water, and the fan, and wear a walkman with headphones to drown it out (he still doesn't like thunderstorms, but he no longer hides in the bathroom!).

 

He's obsessed with Star Wars, videogames, and Legos. In a way, it can drive me up a wall .. but, on the other hand, when he gets together with other boys, it gives him something to talk about that they enjoy as well.... almost a connection, if you will, so that makes it tolerable!

 

He has an amazing memory!! He loves to memorize dates, places, presidents, etc. He needs to go on Jeopardy or something. I can give him a year and he can tell me the president who was in office at the time in the blink of an eye.

 

When he was younger, he could recite Spongebob episodes, from beginning to end, without any mistakes, from memory.

 

He can be very talkative -- in the extreme, but he's gotten better about it! He does have the traditional Asperger's clumsiness and often drops things or walks into objects (he's also tall for his age and that makes it more challenging, too!)

 

He's a very good worker, but he can be easily overwhelmed and is something of a perfectionist. He loves art and he can draw very well.