Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Raising YoungLink

I realized a number of things about my 12 year old son, YL. I understand why he has so many difficulties. Maybe the reason he needs to be first playing a game, is that no one has ever put him first in real life. The world, or at least one loving adult, needs to devote and revolve around meeting a child's needs so the child has a chance to build a solid foundation. YL has not had that.
Having two kids, I chose to take care of the squeakiest wheel, the one crying loudest but that left YL unfulfilled and quite lacking in love, affection and the attention he needed. My bad.
I noticed a number of things on our four day, cross-country drive:
1) YL seems surprised when I'm willing to listen to him, make eye contact and engage in discussions.
2) I feel that he has only gotten attention by being yelled at. He really likes soft talk. I think we were so quick to point out when he was getting in our way, interrupting game, TV show or bothering us when we were tired....he thrives on kindness and being the center of attention and being spoken to with respect.
I didn't realize what a terrible job I was doing...I may never have realized if I hadn't left...this move will give YL the opportunities he never had and couldn't get in Michigan...a single parent revolving, supporting, loving and paying attention to him.
I'm not sure I'm saying all this right...it's such a huge issue with multiple facets. I know...that I'm going to make up for his years of neglect....I am devoted to making up for my mistakes. YL Finally Takes Center Stage!!!!

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