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Asperger’s Syndrome In Children: Advice For Parents

Asperger’s Syndrome In Children: Advice For Parents

As soon as you have children, your priorities change suddenly. Day and night everything revolves around the children. But it is at night that the parental role can be most difficult: when you have to get up in the middle of the night to comfort your crying child. In those moments it can sometimes happen that you wish your child didn’t demand so much attention and affection.

But what happens when this wish becomes reality in an extreme way? Asperger’s syndrome in children is shown by the fact that children are loners and have problems expressing their feelings and showing affection. This can be very difficult for the parents.

We are talking here about children with characteristics from the autistic spectrum, which are particularly noticeable in deficits in the development of social skills. As a rule, parents perceive that their child develops differently as soon as they are babies.

Asperger’s syndrome in children is first manifested by the fact that they hardly establish eye contact with others, do not pay attention, show little expression in their faces, etc. The child’s social competence is also affected by the Asperger’s syndrome.

Asperger’s syndrome in children, however, is particularly noticeable from school onwards. As soon as they go there, the differences in social behaviour become even more apparent in comparison to their classmates, since the latter learn new social skills at this age. Children with Asperger’s syndrome prefer to play alone, do not listen to topics if they are not interested and react inappropriately or overreact in certain situations.

However, these behaviours are not decisive for how the child develops later. The most important thing here is the support and education the child receives in his family and environment. The following are a few tips that can help to cope better with Asperger’s syndrome in children and their particularities and to overcome certain problems.

Asperger’s syndrome in children: How can I support my child at home?

It is important to create a good educational and learning environment for your child from an early age. In school, it makes sense to adapt the learning material to the needs of children with Asperger’s syndrome, as these children get bored very quickly and have a low tolerance limit, which can lead to attention problems. For example, when teaching the vowels, you can paint and cut them together with the child and then assign a voice and a colour to each vowel.

It makes sense to follow routines at school and at home, as the child’s well-being depends very much on the security he or she feels.

Asperger’s syndrome in children is also shown by the fact that they achieve this safety through routine, because they know what is happening and they have everything under control.

Children with Asperger’s syndrome are often very perfectionist and have a low tolerance threshold if they fail. For this reason, they may quickly become frustrated and their self-esteem may drop if they are unable to perform a new task properly. To avoid this, it is important to increase the task difficulty bit by bit and avoid tasks that might be too difficult.

The family must also adapt and understand the situation of their child. The parents of autistic children often have fluctuations in their well-being because their child gives them little or no affection. The child may not always signal that he or she loves you. It is important to remember that this has to do with the limitations caused by Asperger’s syndrome.

Although your child has Asperger’s syndrome, it should not be underestimated. On the contrary, it should always be motivated.

Give him space, encourage him and expect the best from him: that he will be able to develop his capacities to the maximum. It should not be forgotten that although the child has concentration problems, he or she has the ability to learn.

Even if you have a lot of work with children with Asperger’s syndrome, you should not neglect the feelings and needs of your partner and other children. It is worth remembering that autistic children also need their own personal space and therefore it is not necessary to be after them all day.

Positive support should be sought from friends and relatives.

Parents of autistic children must also be encouraged from time to time themselves, which is why one should seek both friends and professional help, with whom one can share one’s own experiences and be given advice. It is important to be positive and optimistic in order to support your child. It is important to remain calm and take some things with humour and laugh about certain things to avoid stress and discomfort.

It is also important to teach the child some skills so that it can integrate socially: it can be very helpful to show the child techniques with which it can participate in a conversation. Sentences such as “Can I help you?” or “Can I play along?” can also be taught. These are a few simple tricks that help autistic children to make contact with others.

You should also encourage your child to observe the behaviour of other children: Many adults with Asperger’s syndrome can interact well socially because they observe and imitate the social behaviors of others. The children can do the same and through observation learn to keep eye contact, listen attentively or play with others. This approach is very useful because children with Asperger’s syndrome often do not have the necessary social understanding to intuitively participate in social events.