obsessions

You are right. If you know one child on the spectrum, you know ONE child. My sons are more like their peers than any one of my spectrum students have been like any of the other students I have taught. There are common threads, stereotypical behaviors, but in various combinations that influence how you can communicate and what will work as far as behavior modification. That would be why I have 7 students and there are 4 adults working with them full time. EVERYTHING must be individualized. We start with our most successful strategies and teak or scrap them until we hit on a process that works. It is a lot of trial and error, and often, once we find it, we have great success. And just as often, it works for a short while and then we have to start all over again! I call that "job security."

God bless you parents! Your's is the most challenging role. I know when my students will go home and move on. Your job is forever. You work and struggle and hope at great emotional expense every day, and then you wake up the next morning and do it again, because you love that child and every smile and and every little success is worth it.

Liddy

i know how hard it is for teachers but i find with my aspie i am not listened to any advice i have given has been waved off untill the last resort then my way as worked anyway

i parent liase to see the senco if parents have concerns about there child because parents are not heard but they hear me oh boy the roll there eyes to the heavens when they see me coming lol it is amusing to watch

god love you for loving our kids you have my total respect.

i have had war with my sons school all the sencos words are if i teach like a normal child he will learn like a normal child i just laughed in her face and asked how the hell she was senco,she got her qualifucations in a lucky bag

as it turned out she had only done one crash course in autism where has i have done 4 and hopefully doing my doctarate in two years so i think she did not listen because sh knw i was more qualified than her.

Why dont teachers listen to us mums

we dont want special treatment or rules bending we just want time and pateience

just because our kids noses are clean does not mean they have had a good day.

During my third year teaching in a general education room, an SLP came to me and said she really appreciated that I listened to her suggestions and made the adaptations in my classroom for a student that she was working with. I stared at her rather oddly and asked why I wouldn't. She told me very, very few teachers do. That was 15 years ago. I have seen that what she said is true, and for the life of me, I can't figure it out. Is it not our goal to help ALL children succeed? Are the others just teaching to the perfectly "normal" children? I don't get it.

Why don't they listen to you, or the other moms? When I taught gen. ed, and later "regular" special ed., I had to deal with a lot of overprotective parents with an unrealistic, rosey view of their perfect child. These parents had a way of blaming me for all of their child's issues. If they weren't learning, it was my fault. If they were misbehving, it was my fault. If other children didn't like them, it was my fault. Or every other child's fault. Their children were not held accountible for anything. It only takes one or two of these parents a year to make teachers shrink away from parents. When a parent comes along who really wants to parent, and raise their kids to be responsible adults, we don't always display the accepting attitude that we should. This is not an excuse, just a possible explaination. There is no excuse.

I think the thing I love the most about teaching in the Autism/Aspergers room is the parents. They don't pretend that their children are perfect at home. If I bring up an issue that is perplexing us, they roll their eyes and say, "Welcome to my world!" They know what their children's issues are, and don't pretend otherwise. We can all roll up our sleeves and tackle the problem together. I'm only here with these kids 6 hrs a day, 180 days a year. That doesn't come close to the parents' experience. If parents have something that works at home, we'll try to adopt it here, or vice versa. Unfortunately our general education teachers are not quite as flexible, but it is harder for them, having 22-27 other students in the room, but they try, and as they get more experience with the aspie kids, they get better.

You know how your aspie kids are not always given a fair shake by their peers because of their quirks? They have these fantastic personalities, and intelligence that others would really appreciate if they took the time to get to know them? Guess what? I'll bet your children's teachers are doing the same to you. They haven't taken the time to get to know you and look past your aspergers to appreciate your knowledge, experience and intelligence. Maybe you could point that out to them!

special educational needs co-ordinater

I am new here , 6 going on 60 - I NEED my obsessions !

To me the world is chaos - out of phase , dreamstate , unreal .

I have several coping strategies , one of which is my '' toys ' .

By '' focusing '' on my Leica cameras , or Lambretta scooters , or Sindy dolls , London Buses [ one becomes exhausted for a while and another takes prominence ]

I can close out a world which I CAN"T ""filter '' . I can't be selective as others seem to do - blocking out what"s not '' appropriate ''

I always have one safe toy with me - and i am giong to work in an offce freelance [ actually cheap-lance ] .

I love puns . cos my head goes through all the alternatives !

I hope this is OK - I really don't know what's acceptable to say - just what is for me .

dee

.

Been there got all the teashirts !

Firsly my wonderful therapist uggested that I say ''NO'' sometimes - I won't work all weekend 'cos I will be told off / rejected / etc .

I did this for the 1st time in 50+years - and you know what - they moved the dealine - the world did not come to an end . I was not told that I was lazy / stupid etc - sound familiar ? I had value - something I had never understood before -

Thanks Ahsan

I also came out to girl colleagues as '' tomboy '' expecting to be thought a freak / nasty etc - and the response was '' OH , that's what is is ! '' Relief and support - "' Welcome to the club ! ''

OK it's not ASdee , but a whole lot more difficult to admit than '' lostness ''

I now do not have to socialise - 'cos they know it does not work for me -

i tend to just get on with what I am doing .

Most often ''THEY "" are uneasy about my weird - if the know , it helps to ease THEIR discomfort - honestly , I had no idea that I made such an impact , or that normals get scared of the unknown too !

{ Not that I come out with the girl thing in office full of macho salesmen and contractor types ! But girl Designers seem to get it , simply 'cos I don't think like a guy - or ''NORMAL '' for that matter ]

Respect dee - I am not too hot on hugs - it's ot an ASdee thing !

I'm thinking that my son will to some degree need something for him to cope, with all his obsessions he still has at age 8. To me I'm fine with that and the school is realizing its not THAT big of a deal but they are working with him to eliminate the distraction of it. For instance, he'd do the hand movements above the table and out in front of him but now he does it below the table. Perhaps take it to a more subtle level? ...fidgetting toys like a ball, etc.

And his obsessions with spiderman, cars, computer, detailed drawings, and subtitles, and setting the tv to spanish... I guess he'll have quiet a few useful and fullfilling skills in life later on.

I think his insistance on rules and things going a certain way as he believes them to (or really should but hey this is life, things don't always do they?), that's what can drive me up a wall, tries my patience.

The school has put that on his recent iep this week to work more intensely on.

The only thing I can think of right now is to help him learn more about his obsessions? Expand his knowledge on them and have something more to say about them than the same thing all the time. And I like learning about things too, he'd teach me a few things and makes listening about them more interesting too. lol

I just wonder if it can do more harm than good? He hates thunder and loud wind. He worries about it all the time but especially during the summer with thunderstorms. I thought maybe letting him hear and learn more about it would help relieve some of the fears but now he always has to see what the weather is gonna be like, watches the weather channel if I let him, and then gets concerned if the weather will be 'bad'.

Interesting.

~Claudette

i am shell mum of 6 four on the spectrum

i also have AS

Please forgive me if this seems harsh

what you must understand is the child needs to do this

you dont have to listen ,just acknowledge has he talks to you,

in our house its thomas and poke mon ,and i also have obsessions

He will not care wether you reply to him or not ,the point is he needs to talk about it and indeed will probably chat forever

these are some online hockey games

when he is overtalking ask him does he want to play it

or look at these other links

http://www.miniclip.com/games/hockey-showdown/en/

http://www.nhl.com/kids/play/goal2goal.shtml

http://www.nhl.com/

shell xx