There's no 'recipe' for dealing with Aspergers children. The spectrum of their abilities varies from attending Durham University to do a mathematics degree to being unable to lead an unsupervised and independent life.
Indeed - although one of the things that I found both helpful and interesting was the chance to take part in the 'Ascend' programme, run by the local CAMHs, for parents of children with ASC. There were some experiences that were common to most of us, and the chance to share strategies was a great benefit to many. Of course large amounts of the strategies that tend to work well with aspie kids, like clear unambiguous communication and firm but fair boundaries, also work well with basically all kids!
My top tip? Your kid is your kid. Diagnosis doesn't change them or how much you love 'em, although it make well change the way that they (and you) deal with their ASC.
My boy was finally assessed and diagnosed in Y6 - his autism presents in a way that means he isn't violent or oppositional, so it didn't have a significant impact on other children's learning in school, and he's a pretty clever wee sod so until the Y5 writing SAT he'd never not made the age-related expectation in a school test and wasn't obviously underachieving although the reality was that he underachieved for him and struggled enormously with social stuff and anxiety.
Diagnosis has been really helpful to him because it has started to make sense of why a lot of the world doesn't make sense to him. He chooses to view Aspergers as "differently abling" not disabling - it probably helped that he knows and greatly admires a number of adults who are and acknowledge that they are on the spectrum. Good role models help. He has access to light touch but important support at secondary school because he is now on their special needs register. The SENco there is great, and we've managed to get a really good working relationship and effective lines of communication, mostly via email. with her which has helped to nip some potential problems in the bud. Secondary school hasn't been entirely problem-free, but that's probably true for almost all kids regardless of any aditional needs they may have.
He's also, it turns out, done some reading around the condition himself. Knowledge is power. Quite a lot of the Fridays have met him btw - when he stoked the tandem to Hull on last year's FNRttC!
(Off topic for the original thread, but...)
Ski party? How embarrassing.
