Re: Digest Number 4395

[Guest guest]

Here's to all,

My son was recently diagnosed as AS. I was pretty sure that he was anyway.

He is 10 and this is such a put down to him to have this syndrome. I have

tried to help him understand it isn't so bad, and that he is very intelligent.

He

has had such a time in school socially, so I am homeschooling him and his

little brother who is 8. One of our concerns is that he may isolate. I was

hoping to hear from others, especially those of you who homeschool children with

AS. What do you do to make sure the AS child doesn't isolate? Our community is

small, and there aren't a lot of activities here. Not that he wants to do most

of them anyway. He gets a long great with his little brother, and my grand

daughter who is between the two in age. I have been told that isn't enough. We

do

things as a family, and enjoy our time together, but I am being urged by

others to get him out and more involved with other kids. Should I push him? He

is

much happier now. Lydia, Mom, Adopt Mom, Homeschool Mom,etc. In WY

[Guest guest]

Hi Lydia,

My daughter is 6 and diagnosed HFA and we have been homeschooling

since June. I, too, worry that my daughter doesn't get adequate

social opportunities. At least your son has his younger brother to

interact with daily; my daughter is our only child and there are

almost no children in our neighborhood.

Since my daughter has fewer social opportunities now, I want to try to

help make sure she has at least a few that she has a good chance of

succeeding at. We have done the following:

1) put her in a homeschoolers clay class with 8 other kids. The

resistance of the clay is good for her sensory needs and hand strength

and she loves art, but she's not thrilled with the layer of goo the

clay leaves on her hands.

2) kept up 2 regular playdates at home with 2 girls she's known since

preschool

3) gone to several homeschool park afternoons to try to meet other

homeschoolers

4) signed her up for Girl Scouts. They haven't started yet, so we'll

see how it works out. If we get desperate enough, we might start our

own troop.

5) encouraged her OT to bring her 13 y o homeschooling daughter along

with her when she does therapy at our house.

Maybe something like this would work in your situation. Maybe

something like Big Brothers is available. Maybe you could hire some

slightly older neighborhood kid to come over and do things with your

sons. (You could call it babysitting, but it would really be hanging

out and socializing while you " get some things done " .)