Random Thoughts

Last night I got to read some of the Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism kit that I downloaded from austismspeaks.org. I will be glad when the hard copy arrives because electronic copy kept messing up and I was only able to read about 13 pages. Since I did not get to read much there was not much new information for me. I read about the past again, Hans Apserger his patients and the symptoms which I have touched on in the last blog. It also mentioned that no one knows the cause yet,but it has to do with the brain and genetics. It did have a comparison chart of strengths and weaknesses that I really liked. I will screenshot that and add it to this.

It introduced me to a couple of new terms that I liked. Executive Functioning and Theory of the Mind. I knew what both were, just have never heard that terminology. Executive Functioning is simply your ability to organize, plan, remain focused, and control inappropriate behaviors. Theory of the Mind is your ability to interpret meaning from another person's physical cues, such as emotional display and how that relates to you. These are both struggle points for Jackson. The had a list of items for Theory of the Mind that made me think of Jackson.

1. Difficulty explaining ones behaviors
2. Difficulty understanding emotions
3. Difficulty predicting the behavior or emotional state of others
4. Problems understanding the perspectives of others
5. Problems inferring the intentions of others
6. Lack of understanding that behavior impacts how others think and/or
feel
7. Problems with joint attention and other social conventions
8. Problems differentiating fiction from fact

These are all things I have seen with him, but I have also noticed improvement in all the weak points and that is where we need to focus, on his improvement.
They gave some ideas to help school age kids with the Executive Function such as homework logs to track assignments, breaking large assignments into chunks to help him remain focused, setting closer to the teacher to reduce noise and distractions, day planners or PDAs, and posted schedules. While Jackson is too young for some of this stuff it is definitely some good ideas to keep in mind for the future and seating location and such could help him even in Pre-K.

Another thing as Asperger's is that kids with this tend to more likely to have other issues such as ADHD. This is something we need to keep an eye on. 


We learned through this process that he is low on ferritin which can affect his sleeping and behavior. We have been giving him iron and chewable vitamins to help with this. We also gave him Melatonin the night before at the suggestion of the doctor to help him calm down for sleep. For two days now he was went to bed and went to sleep without fighting and without being up and down numerous times. This has been a relief, we just started the iron and such so I am not sure if it has been luck, the iron, or a combination of both. I am going to keep updating his sleep behavior in here because that is something that this can help us tangibly track.  * *Unrelated side note: It is very difficult typing with the head of a 1 year old in front of the monitor that is trying to type as much as I am. If there are any typos in this part it is probably Alaina helping me. **

Today is Saturday so I do not have to worry about work monopolizing my day. I will hopefully get to do some real reading on this today and have some new information to write about in the morning.  I have still not looked into AS and the animal connection. I am putting that in here where it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of things I want to research about this.