Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome by Luke Jackson

Author:Luke Jackson [Jackson, Luke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846423567
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2015-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

Precise parents make cheerful children

Now, before any of you clear, precise-speaking parents with unhappy children get straight on to my publisher and give her a piece of your mind, I do know that life is not quite as simple as that! As much as I have no trouble writing, the subheadings in this book seemed to have been on the tip of my tongue (or fingers) and are sticking there like stubborn ulcers! More often than not, I have opted for the alliteration avenue (there – I am doing it again!) for want of any better option.

If any of you have AS children of any age and you can’t quite fathom them out, then think carefully about how you speak. Do you really explain yourself clearly enough? If you give an instruction, you should never presume that the child automatically knows what you mean. Things that seem obvious to you do not to us and our logic may be different to others’. AS people really do like you to call a spade a spade (that one is really silly, as if we would call it anything else!).

As I have illustrated, most AS kids are very literal, but as we get older we learn to understand these obscure ways of speaking. We also learn which phrases mean what and even use them appropriately ourselves. The difference between us and non-AS kids is that these are things that we have to make an effort to learn, whereas it seems that such things come naturally to other kids. A bit unfair having even more to learn in life than others, but hey, that’s life and we should just get on with it – no point crying over spilled milk. See I told you we could learn to use them appropriately!

If you have an AS kid or know an AS person, then don’t presume that they can automatically read the insinuations in your language. If you want them to and think it is important, then teach them. The same goes with things that seem trivial like tidying up. These aren’t trivial to Mum. She gets really bugged about us lot making such a mess. She wanders around muttering to herself about how we think there is no point having a dog and barking ourselves. We don’t have a dog! I had to go and look that one up because when she says that it is not a good time to ask for meanings – though one thing I will say about Mum is her bark is worse than her bite!

Parents, don’t scream at them to tidy their bedroom if you haven’t explained exactly what tidy up means. I know that a lick and a promise isn’t good enough (Ben brings a whole new meaning to that one!). If the instructions are clear – first pick up the dirty clothes, then put them in the linen bin, and all that kind of stuff – then at least the child has something specific to do (and then they can still ignore you!).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.