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You have found out that your child is on the autism spectrum--he or she has Asperger's Syndrome, a mild form of autism. Autistic kids can be on the odd side of normal, or they can be pretty seriously impaired. Your child with Asperger's is somewhere in the middle. Now, how can you help your child move toward being more normal? Work to aid his self-confidence, and shield him from those who would discourage him. How do you increase his self-confidence? You can encourage his musical gifts. He may have exceptional musical talent--people on the autism spectrum often do. He may even have perfect pitch. If your child can enjoy music, or even excel at it, it will give him joy for the rest of his life. Now, how do you find the right teacher? The typical piano teacher may be intimidated by your child. But a music therapist wouldn't be intimidated. Or perhaps you have a family member or family friend who knows the child and has the patience to teach him. You can build a requirement for daily practicing into your system of rewards for your child. You need to create such a system to encourage your child to do chores and homework. Your child probably tends to isolate himself, and may love to talk and talk about one subject. Patience! During the middle school years, your child will probably begin to be more aware that he is being rejected socially. Finally, he may be motivated to try to change his ways! Look for this developmental stage, and when it arrives, do everything you can to teach your child social acceptability. This might include: * Group sessions with other kids for the purpose of learning social skills. These may be led by a speech therapist, a social worker, or a teacher. * Teach him skills yourself, planning the session out beforehand. You can set aside time every day to work on conversation skills, for example. * Sending him to a special-needs school that will help with this. I believe that mainstreaming the child without any support is not helpful. These children need careful coaching on how to interact with others, and protection from bullying. A child who is bullied can feel the damage to his self-worth for the rest of his life. Your child if mainstreamed may be getting a lot more negative interactions than positive ones. To find out, you may want to volunteer at your child's school. If your child has an aide shadowing him, you can talk to the aide and ask him or her to protect your child from negative interactions with peers. Unfortunately, some negative teasing and bullying are tolerated in our culture. But they will be especially bad for your child, who can't defend himself. * You may want to look into homeschooling. For advice, you can search the Internet. * You may be able to find a school that controls most peer interactions. This might be a private special-needs school. So remember, it's your job to protect your child's self-esteem.
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