The Lorax
Well-Known Member
A little background for the question...
My son is in high school now. He is 15.
He is mild ASD and almost a genius level intelligence. The excellent psychologists we have had said he will be fine as an adult. As you all know 80% of ASDs have trouble coping in the real world trying to find meaningful work that pays the bills. He is the 20%.
We didn't realize his condition until around 8. He passed the ASD test at the age of 5. But we suspected something was off since he was a baby. We thought he had ODD. Needless to say the home was incredibly stressful until he was 13. On occasion we lost it. No physical or verbal abuse. Just the old yelling telling him what to do something after we had enough. Once we realized fully how he is by observation and so much reading there is no more yelling. Which was mostly 1-2x a year we were just had enough.
Anyways that was needed for the question.
If I ask him to do something more than twice he starts chanting "I'm sorry" and goes into shut down mode. No matter how friendly, funny, cheery, happy, I make it. I even say no one is mad at you we are here to help.
A simple example is he has been up for an hour and asking him to get ready for school to be on time. He is always late which interferes with my work. If I push it now has cost me an extra hour as he shuts down. No reward systems do not work with him, we tried.
But overall he is a good kid. Doesn't do stupid things. Self manages his school work.
Why this chant and shutdown over simple things? Yes he likes school.
My son is in high school now. He is 15.
He is mild ASD and almost a genius level intelligence. The excellent psychologists we have had said he will be fine as an adult. As you all know 80% of ASDs have trouble coping in the real world trying to find meaningful work that pays the bills. He is the 20%.
We didn't realize his condition until around 8. He passed the ASD test at the age of 5. But we suspected something was off since he was a baby. We thought he had ODD. Needless to say the home was incredibly stressful until he was 13. On occasion we lost it. No physical or verbal abuse. Just the old yelling telling him what to do something after we had enough. Once we realized fully how he is by observation and so much reading there is no more yelling. Which was mostly 1-2x a year we were just had enough.
Anyways that was needed for the question.
If I ask him to do something more than twice he starts chanting "I'm sorry" and goes into shut down mode. No matter how friendly, funny, cheery, happy, I make it. I even say no one is mad at you we are here to help.
A simple example is he has been up for an hour and asking him to get ready for school to be on time. He is always late which interferes with my work. If I push it now has cost me an extra hour as he shuts down. No reward systems do not work with him, we tried.
But overall he is a good kid. Doesn't do stupid things. Self manages his school work.
Why this chant and shutdown over simple things? Yes he likes school.