Book advice - Aspergers

[steves1bear]

My DD was recently diagnosed with Aspergers. She is a bright kid so academics are not the problem. Our main areas of focus at this point are social skills and controlling meltdowns. We have a lot of information on Aspergers as a diagnosis so we are looking for information/books on strategies or guidelines that will teach her social skills/interaction and how to handle meltdowns. We're really frustrated because we live in a small community and her social interactions are limited to school and a few kids her age on our street. The school is being of no help at all even though they have established an IEP and are legally obligated to give her 30 minutes of counseling a week. We just found out a few days ago this isn't happening. We're not happy and are contacting the counselor who is supposed to be taking care of it. Anyway, that is a whole other problem, but because of it, my DH and I feel like we have been left on our own to establish anything that will teach her the necessary skills. We just feel really lost right now and have no one here we can turn to for help. If you have any suggestions, information, books, websites, anything that you have found helpful, we would really appreciate whatever you can give us.

Thanks,
Carrie

 

[bookwormde]

If you have not already read it get a copy of Tony Attwood's "The Complete Guide to Aspergers. Which is available on Amazon for about $17. It will give you much of the core knowlege yo will need.

Here is a link to a websight by the leading practitioner in the social skills area. which has links to other informatin also.

http://www.socialthinking.com/

You have to be willing to monitor and enforce the IEP. SHe should also be getting a comprehensive social skills program in school including individual, small group and generalized instruction and support in the classroom (individual and small group should be 2 hours or more a week).

bookwormde

 

[Susan C]

check out Michelle Winner at Socialthinking.com. I teach seventh grade, Social Thinking to kids with ASD. Her books are the cornerstone of our program.

Susan

 

[steves1bear]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll be taking a look at everything over this next week. I really really appreciate the help.

As for the IEP, that is a mess in and of its self. It took a good 2 months to finally get anything in place and we thought we would give the counselor a few weeks to get started and then follow up. Well, we should have followed up after the first week. We are really angry at the counselor because she is telling us since my DD academics are not hurting, she would prefer to follow the state's "rule" of waiting and watching and if they start seeing something, then they will act. My DH and I were both livid when we found this out because that is not what is stated in the IEP. We're trying to get in touch with the counselor, but we both feel like she doesn't believe us and the only reason they even set up an IEP is because we had something in writing from a licensed psychologist stating his diagnosis. Unfortunately, because of where we live, we are stuck with this school and counselor. This is one reason my DH is desperately looking for a new job in a different state. Sorry to ramble. These events just occurred in the last week and we are just floored by the lack of willingness to help.

Anyway, thank you again for the suggestions! I'm grateful there are people here who understand and can help!

 

[Bugsmom73]

See what is mandated under your states special ed laws. You may need to get an advocate.