Do you wonder why your child never seems looks you in the eye? Do they ever seem to do things strange compared to other children? Allow me to give you some relief. No, there's nothing wrong with them. Your child may just have something known as Asperger's syndrome, or officially known as High functioning autism, and you will be glad to know that the following information is for parents like you. I want to teach parents what the signs of High-functioning Autism are and how to help your child.

In a way to describe what Asperger's is, it's a syndrome that affects the brain, causing them to have "a unique way of thinking". This doesn't mean they're ignorant. Far from it. In fact, your child will most likely be extremely bright! However, they will become frustrated quickly when dealing with sudden changes. They may even have aggressive behavior. This is all normal for most children with AS (Asperger's Syndrome).

With their unique way of thinking, you can expect that they will be amazingly creative as well. They will find solutions in very unusual ways that work for them. Organization will be something your child may become passionate about, wanting to avoid frustrating and complicated obstacles. For example, they may associate the current topic with something of similar references several times before finally coming up with their response. If you pay attention, you may notice the gears turning in their heads.

Organization won't be the only thing that they'll become passionate about. Keep an eye out for their interests because there's a good chance that they'll become obsessive over it. It may become an interest in a particular sport, coming up with unique stories, or maybe even in politics. Keep in mind that whatever they become infatuated with, it may become their future. So, it would be an excellent idea to keep track of it and plan accordingly.

How can you tell if your child does have AS at an early age? Let's first talk about the first year signs that may help give a clue. First year signs tend to include: not turning to a mother's voice, not responding to their own name, not looking others in the eye, having no babbling or pointing by age one, and not smiling or responding to social cues from others. These are what typically appear for children with autism in general, so they may only come as a few or less extreme in the case of a child with AS. Being able to recognize these signs may help you to seek out the help necessary.

Other signs for the early years include: repeated motions (like rocking or spinning), avoiding eye contact or physical touch, delays in learning how to talk, repeating words or phrases (aka echolalia), and getting upset by minor changes. Autism affects control of emotions, communication, and body movements in the brain. However, unlike most children with autism, AS children rarely have any delay in speech. Remember, many AS children are extremely bright and eloquent! Their eloquence just appears at the wrong time. For example, they may blurt out their opinion about a topic right in the middle of the teacher's lesson in school instead of waiting until they're finished.

Something important that you can do to help them through this social awkwardness is getting them counseling. Because they're so bright, your child will most likely know whether a certain counselor is right for them all on their own or not. It can be an excellent idea to let them decide as to let them feel more comfortable with the counseling sessions. This will be one of the first important steps you can take for helping your child and yourself. However, seeking a counselor's help is far from the end of it.

Next comes the developments your child will go through as they become teenagers and young adults. Keep in mind, teens with AS will have a more frustrating time dealing with all the changes that will be going on in their lives. After all, they're on the path to adulthood. New changes already provided a major struggle for them, so imagine how changes to their body, life style, and school level will affect them. They often experience self-esteem issues and will have trouble seeing what makes them so great. Their unstable emotions will be difficult for them to keep in check, so you should also expect mood swings, meltdowns, and periods of hyper activity.

Adolescents with AS are often emotionally immature and too trusting, which may lead to bullying. Keeping a close eye on them while they're in school around others their age is highly recommended. If they get bullied, there's a good chance that their already low self-esteem will come crashing down even further. Of course, they'll want friends, but they may find the effort of trying to "fit in" too draining. A bully might end up destroying their confidence in finding friends completely.

Help them by being their social chairman. Model social skills they can use that will help them find the courage to try at finding friends. Social awkwardness is something they'll struggle with if they can't become used to it by becoming friends with others. They will learn and adapt through their experience, and you could be that push they need to take that leap of faith. I'm not saying to force it on them though, since a drastic change like that might scare them away from ever trying it on their own.

Many AS children also develop obsessive interests. They will talk about specific topics that they care about with great intensity. Often, they may mostly talk about themselves. They might not show much emotion when interacting with others, talk in a robotic voice, or a sing-song one. They might miss social cues that are obvious to others, but less so to themselves. They can even have trouble knowing what to say or how to respond when talked to. The general idea is, they will develop a lot of social issues, and it is up to you, the parent, to help them through this transition.

Now, as I've brought up before, many teens with AS may have anxiety and anger management problems. They won't be able to handle a swell up of anger inside them as easily as a child without AS. If they do get upset often, they may develop ways to organize themselves to collect their thoughts together. It may do you some good to find ways to reduce triggers for aggressive behaviors for them though. In school, a stress ball and their councilor can be their best friends when dealing with their anger management.

I've talked about how there are all these things that your teen can develop, but I've only scratched the surface as to how you can help your child through their development. Let's dive deeper into this, starting with their low self-esteem. To combat this issue, try to make them feel like they have a role of importance in matters that involve them. Give them choices and a sense of self government, while also making them aware of potential consequences. They'll want to feel unconstricted while also having safe boundaries to feel secure.

Another thing you can try is an activity-based reward system. Teens with AS often derive immense joy from their favorite activities. These can be used to motivate them to engage in less-preferred activities, like homework and chores. This avoids nagging, frustrating, and negative social stimuli. Would you want to work at your job all day and not get paid a dime for it?

Something else you can do to invite choice and self-government is discipline. This may not seem immediately logical, given that disciplining these teens often presents an especial challenge, but it can go a long way toward improving their self-confidence. No adolescent reacts well when he or she feels disregarded in matters that directly affect his or her well-being, and teens with AS-who often feel particularly lost during these years- may react even more poorly. By involving the teen, you show him or her that no challenge presented by his or her needs are insurmountable and that control over the self and environment is attainable.

What about the eye contact? Always remember that AS teens may not always make eye contact when you are giving directions, even when they are paying attention. This is not a sign of disrespect. Look for other cues that the teen is listening to you, such as an alert posture, gestures (like nodding of the head), and/or the ceasing of other activities. Make sure your directions are clear and concise, describing when the teen should do the work, why, how, and how much of the work there is to be done.

Create a social plan to teach your teen basic social skills and how to apply them across multiple situations, such as how to start a conversation, how to ask for help, etc. Make sure he or she understands how to move those skills from one environment to the next; from school to church, for example. Do not try to teach too many of these skills at one time; instead break them down into manageable lessons. Make sure to have the teen apply these skills in real-world situations and reward him or her for a job well done.

Be sure to allow your teen to bring home friends for pizza parties, gaming nights, etc. AS teens often do better socializing in structured, safe environments. Plus, this would be a wonderful opportunity for them to test out their newly learned socializing skills. You would even be able to monitor how they do and what friends they interact with. It's fun, safe, and easy to let your child have this luxury, and all the clean-up would take are those clear concise directions that we talked about earlier.

Employ your teen's love of organization and list making to help build his or her self-esteem. Lists like "Five things I like about myself," "Five people who care about me," or "Five things I accomplished this week" can go a long way toward making a teen feel good about his or her self. Encourage your teen to store these lists and look at them when feeling down or discouraged. We all know that even teens without AS can have a rough time and easily become depressed at this stage in life.

Now there's the matter of their mood swings, meltdowns and periods of hyperactivity. It's important to remember that reactivity only tends to make the situation worse. It only makes these outbursts harder to get through, and magnifies the stress of the situation. Remain calm, use your words, and don't immediately resolve to punishment. Explain to them in a relaxed voice, and be as clear and detailed as you can be.

Don't ever try to minimize or "cure" your teen's Asperger's-based needs or behaviors; simply help the teen to effectively manage them and be happy while living with them. Asperger's isn't a sickness or a disease, and it's terrible enough to let them think that it is. It's simply a gift that the need to learn how to use. It may not be plain and easy to do, but it's well worth the experience.

Begin to grant the teen some control over his or her own schedule; allow the teen to select the order in which chores are to be done, the time he or she prefers to do homework, etc. It's important to encourage any teen to begin on the road toward independent thinking. After all, that's a skill they'll need for the rest of their lives when they live on their own.

Once the daily schedule is decided on, be sure to post it somewhere clearly visible. Teens with AS crave structure and predictability, just as children on the autism spectrum does. Therefore, you should try to keep these schedules as consistent as possible. They will easily get frustrated trying to remember new locations or new tasks.

You may wish to consider employing role play when teaching your teen how to approach and manage social situations. Look for support groups for teens with Asperger's that will help enhance these skills in a structured environment. This goes hand in hand with letting your teen interact with friends, letting them practice in real-world situations, and helping them seek the structure they crave.

Keep verbal prompts simple and positive; emphasize what you want your teen to do more than what you want your teen to stop doing. For example, ask your teen to complete his or her homework before dinner, rather than asking them to stop playing video games and get to work because dinner will be ready soon. One is calm and relaxing to hear. The other creates unwanted tension from both ends.

Always speak to your teen in a calm, even tone of voice; this will allow theteen to focus on what you're saying, rather than getting so overwhelmed by your emotions that the message of your words is lost. It will also prevent tense situations from becoming full-on arguments or outbursts. This creates an effect that each will progressively become more frustrated with the other, and will escalate till it burns out.

All of this can be isolating, frustrating, nerve-wracking, and depressing to go through, but with a little assistance from parents and other caring adults, teens with AS can develop the right tools to thrive both academically and socially. Many teens with AS have special gifts and unique perspectives which will, with the right encouragement and preparation, delight and enrich their peer circle. So, in conclusion (as cheesy and cliché as that sounds), your child with Asperger's Syndrome will be socially awkward. Unstructured environment will pull them out of their comfort zone. Other children will make your child nervous to bearound them. They may have speech problems, though it's rarer in the case of Asperger's than autism. And yet they're still preciously bright.

Children with Asperger's Syndrome have a unique way of thinking, processing, and storing information. There really will be only one child like your own, and that works in tandem with raising them. They physically are only able to think and act the way they do, so they will want to do it well. After all, whatever interests them, they become incredibly passionate about. However, they won't ever be able to do this on their own.

You, the parent, guardian, care-giver, or whatever title you hold for your child, they will need you. They will need your care, your guidance, your encouragement, your acceptance for who they are. Your care will let them feel loved and appreciated while they grow. Your guidance will be the rails that will help lead them down the path they wish to follow. Your encouragement will support them through thick, thin, tough, and easy, when they get going on their road to adulthood. They will need your love no matter where they are, or what they aspire to do.

I have one final lesson that all children with Asperger's syndrome, young or old, will deal with one way or another. That is, foster their "special something." What I mean by that is, the gift I've mentioned throughout multiple points in this research paper, you need to help them find it, and help it grow and blossom as they do. This is critical, because every child is different, and so is their special something. It will be their foundation for most of everything for them. I can't stress its importance enough.

Children with Asperger's Syndrome can grow up to do amazing things. A lot of great authors have some form of AS, because they used their gift of their unique way of thinking toward coming up with worlds no one had dared dream before them. Many fantastic lawyers and politicians have AS, and they used their gift for organized and structured planning to conduct their followers and workers in a calm orderly and efficient fashion. Music is one of many products from AS children, from them putting together new pieces in their own creative ways.

Organizing complex orchestras because they used their gifts to their fullest! All of these children, grown to spectacular adults, have something in common. You, the caring adult in their lives, helped make it so by fostering their special something, and now it's blossomed like the beautiful adults they are to this day. You are the one who will guide your child to success, so long as you give them the love and care they need. That just about wraps it up. I hope you've gotten the answers you wanted and maybe picked up a few lessons that you didn't even know you needed. Take care because I can't wait to hear about your child over the news. Be proud of who your kid will become...

Welp, what do you guys think?  It took me a whole month to get this done XD. This topic hits right at home for me, and I think you can guess why. I hope you learned a thing or two about AS, and enjoyed my research paper! Chronigma here, and I will see ya guys later!