26 Jul 2004, 12:01 am
Hi There,
I'm new here. My name is Miriam. I am married to Mark who has some asperger traits though perhaps not enough for an official dx. I have a little boy who is diagnosed with aspergers. His name is Alexander and he's seven. My daughter, Rayleigh, is NT and is so good at social skills that she knows JUST what to do to drive us all insane, on purpose. She seems to be a very typical 4 year old. She loves dance and loves to pretend with all her little girly friends who play care bears pretending games and tea parties. Alex will have nothing to do with any toys that seem babyish at all but when he thinks we're not paying attention he watches care bears right along with his sister. LOL. Alexander is and always has been an extreme joy in my life. Diagnosis, no diagnosis, it matters not. He is wonderful. Oh yeah, maybe a little more of my intellect is used in figuring out what he needs but I can't say that's a bad thing. It's hard for him and I guess the worst is seeing him struggle with teachers who are clueless. LAST year was horrific to say the least. I'm one step away from homeschooling. The public school offered us an opportunity to transfer within our district to a school that has a really good social skills classroom for Aspergers and HFA. It is a mixed ages classroom which I think is wonderful. If it's as good as it appears to be then maybe Alex will actually enjoy school this year. Meanwhile we've had a blast homeschooling over the summer.
We live in Texas near Dallas. Sorry to say this but Texas seems to be in the dark ages about Aspergers Syndrome. Our absolute worst experiences have been with a special ed teacher who was more into punishment than teaching coping skills and an expulsion to a "special programs" school for ten days. Special Programs is kind of like juvenile detention and ten days only lasted two because I flat out refused to send him back there.
I can't believe how angry I feel when I tell people about all of this. Alexander has so much going for him and these people can't see the good things. All kids, all humans, have good and not-so-good qualities. My daughter, who is NT, is very whiney and likes to see how far she can push someone before they go insane by changing her mind every 30 seconds. Breakfast with her can be terrible. I'll give her the cereal she chooses in a bowl. She won't like the bowl and will scream about it. If I tell her to get another bowl she'll scream about that. Anyway, this is pretty normal behavior for a 4 year old but it's exasperating and Alex doesn't do this at all. He likes the same thing every day for breakfast and he doesn't care about the bowl or the spoon. He prefers not to have a straw for his drink. Anyway, so it bugs me that Alex gets in so much trouble when really, he is pretty easy going if people are respectful and spend a little time listening and explaining things to him. Rayleigh, on the other hand, is NOT easy going no matter what one does. Then again sometimes she is. She knows where she can get away with stuff and where she can't. LOL. She is very smart when it comes to people. She doesn't care about math. Alex loves math.
I'm a stay at home mom. My husband works in Nanotechnology. I have a masters in social psychology. My husband has more letters after his name than anyone I know. BA, MA, PHD, MBA.
Miriam
26 Jul 2004, 8:09 am
I'm new here. My name is Miriam. I am married to Mark who has some asperger traits though perhaps not enough for an official dx. I have a little boy who is diagnosed with aspergers. His name is Alexander and he's seven. My daughter, Rayleigh, is NT and is so good at social skills that she knows JUST what to do to drive us all insane, on purpose. She seems to be a very typical 4 year old. She loves dance and loves to pretend with all her little girly friends who play care bears pretending games and tea parties. Alex will have nothing to do with any toys that seem babyish at all but when he thinks we're not paying attention he watches care bears right along with his sister. LOL. Alexander is and always has been an extreme joy in my life. Diagnosis, no diagnosis, it matters not. He is wonderful. Oh yeah, maybe a little more of my intellect is used in figuring out what he needs but I can't say that's a bad thing. It's hard for him and I guess the worst is seeing him struggle with teachers who are clueless. LAST year was horrific to say the least. I'm one step away from homeschooling. The public school offered us an opportunity to transfer within our district to a school that has a really good social skills classroom for Aspergers and HFA. It is a mixed ages classroom which I think is wonderful. If it's as good as it appears to be then maybe Alex will actually enjoy school this year. Meanwhile we've had a blast homeschooling over the summer.
We live in Texas near Dallas. Sorry to say this but Texas seems to be in the dark ages about Aspergers Syndrome. Our absolute worst experiences have been with a special ed teacher who was more into punishment than teaching coping skills and an expulsion to a "special programs" school for ten days. Special Programs is kind of like juvenile detention and ten days only lasted two because I flat out refused to send him back there.
I can't believe how angry I feel when I tell people about all of this. Alexander has so much going for him and these people can't see the good things. All kids, all humans, have good and not-so-good qualities. My daughter, who is NT, is very whiney and likes to see how far she can push someone before they go insane by changing her mind every 30 seconds. Breakfast with her can be terrible. I'll give her the cereal she chooses in a bowl. She won't like the bowl and will scream about it. If I tell her to get another bowl she'll scream about that. Anyway, this is pretty normal behavior for a 4 year old but it's exasperating and Alex doesn't do this at all. He likes the same thing every day for breakfast and he doesn't care about the bowl or the spoon. He prefers not to have a straw for his drink. Anyway, so it bugs me that Alex gets in so much trouble when really, he is pretty easy going if people are respectful and spend a little time listening and explaining things to him. Rayleigh, on the other hand, is NOT easy going no matter what one does. Then again sometimes she is. She knows where she can get away with stuff and where she can't. LOL. She is very smart when it comes to people. She doesn't care about math. Alex loves math.
I'm a stay at home mom. My husband works in Nanotechnology. I have a masters in social psychology. My husband has more letters after his name than anyone I know. BA, MA, PHD, MBA.
Miriam
Welcome to WrongPlanet.net! You should let your son post to our forums as well! We have a ton of kids his age. Thats really cool that your husband works in nanotech! My name is Alexander too by the way.
26 Jul 2004, 9:08 am
