Hi Luv
I have a 13 yo son, recently diagonsed Aspie. He went through many meltdowns over the years. His meltdowns were generally limited to shredding paper but he had struck a few teachers. With the help of the school, he has learned to recognize meltdowns coming on and put himself into "timeout." He'll usually go quietly to a corner.
In general, son is pretty good at school, especially math and music. However, he has great trouble with classes that require writing projects. He'll oftern refuse to do them and no amount of "carrot or stick" will change his mind. His typical grades are either As or Fs. School doesn't really know what to do with him. He is great at standardized tests and has some of the highest scores the school has ever seen. Last year as a 12 yo, he took the college ACT test and scored a 25 which most high school seniors would envy. However, son has the social skills of a 8 yo. When a visitor offers a hand to son to shake, son will often just look at it.
School has kept son in regular classes because when he is interested in the class and tries he'll have the highest scores. On the other hand, when he balks on an assignment, there is no persuading him to even try. This provides a confusing situation for the other students. Fortunately, since he's been in the same school since kindergarten, most of them know about him and how different he is and don't make a big deal about it. When it looks like he's about to have a meltdown, they usually give him space.
What works? Training him to handle the meltdowns himself has been important. Cooperation with the school has been critical to this. Figuring out how to get son to stop balking at some assignments remains a mystery.
Joe
18 Jan 2012, 8:57 pm
