Speech Therapy at Home

Our speech therapist gives us "homework" or things to work on with our daughter at home in between sessions.

1. One thing she recommended is to play games and make sure to win a few. This will let us see how our daughter reacts. We are to teach her to say "congratulations! good game! or good job!" instead of her common reaction of pouting and wanting to quit. Learning to take turns is also important for kids with AS.

2. have the child practice role play of coming into a room and saying "Hi. My name is ________. What is your name?" And when someone says "Hi. How are you?" Instead of just answering "fine" we need to teach our child to respond with "and how are you?" and then to wait and listen to the response.

3. Encourage them to maintain eye contact with all conversations.

4. Practice carrying on a conversation and encouraging the child to stay focused on the topic we want to talk about without looking away or trying to change the subject.

Asperger's in the Family Tree

Well, I must warn others not to make the mistake I made as a new-to-Asperger's parent. Don't let the in-laws think that you think this comes from their side of the family.

Yikes.

I tried to be careful. I tried to very sensitively ask if some of the symptoms I'm reading about are seen (by anyone else besides me) in members of the extended family. What I got was not "Wow. Yeah! That explains a lot of the struggle I've had over the years with so-and-so." There was no "So that's why no one in the family has ever been close!"

Nope.

The reaction was anger. There was no grasp of the value of understanding family members better. There was no embracing of the goal to communicate with others better through this knowledge. It was "No! They don't have Asperger's Syndrome! They just have a lack of communication with others. That's very hurtful that you would suggest that. You should just accept how they are without analyzing them."

So, once again I feel like like I am going insane. I feel like an alien for wanting to communicate better, for wanting to be close, for wanting understanding in relationships with my in-laws.

I guess it was helpful in one way. It makes me believe that even more members of the family than I had thought have at least a shadow of Asperger's. I will continue my quest to learn how to communicate effectively and well with adults who have AS as I am finding that I know more aspies than I realized!

Speech Therapy Evaluation

We had one round of evaluations for speech therapy and they want us to go back for a second, more in-depth evaluation next week. Our insurance will not pay a penny toward speech therapy so we are not yet sure what this will cost us financially.

We still have not told our daughter about Asperger's and surprisingly she is not asking questions about all the doctor visits. Her younger brother is full of questions about why she is going places and what she is doing there, but she just goes along, seeming to enjoy it all!