Trying 2 understand better that we may equip better~ 6 yr old son, adopted, considered for aspergers

Question

we have a 6 yr old adopted son that is under "trial diagnosis" for mild asperger, and has an overweight issue... trying to discern "trial diagnosis" said to be mild...he's also overweight...brilliant in awareness, retention, vocabulary, knowledge, but is obsessive over particular topics, domineering and strong willed... however: consistent discipline works well. fun, loving, socialable in comfortable environments, yet questionable in those where he is able to "test" other's will. Trying to ascertain any correlation in overweight / mild asperger's, etc. Any input greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I have aspergers and it's mild.

I can do basically everything anyone else can. I drive, I go to school and so on.

I'm very opinionated though, eye contact is bad and freak out in situations like theatres.

It may be worth getting him tested for aspergers/autism. Then he can get proper accomidations in school and help

Answer 2

well first try to keep junk out and sent him to play a lot. as for the mild asbergers: he sounds bite and i wouldnt worry to much about it

Answer 3

the overweight issue may have a little to do with it. we know a family who has a daughter with aspergers, and she happens to be a bit heavy too. Of course her dad is like 6ft 6inches and 300 pounds, so it might be totally genetic too.

anything on the autism spectrum is hard to understand. My son has PDD-NOS (kind of a step below aspergers) and I felt very lost for a long time. It seems to me that most of the psychiatrists do not take the time to teach you what you need to know to help your child. I found 2 particular books to be great resources. The first is "a parents guide to aspergers and high functioning autism" the other is "pretending to be normal". the second book is sort of like a biography of a woman who started to suspect that she might have aspergers when one of her children was going through getting a diagnosis. as of the writing of the book she could not find anyone to test an adult for aspergers. it has some funny stories about her life...like how her literalness got in the way when she found out she was having twins. the doctor said "I see 2 heads" and she instantly thought "my 1 baby has 2 heads" instead of "I am having 2 babies".

I would also check with your local MR/'DD agency. they have all kinds of programs to help you. My son has a grant of several thousand dollars a year to help pay doctor co-pays, OT, PT, adaptive equiptment (including his pull-ups...he is still a bed wetter at 12 years old), and even respite care (basically a babysitter). this money is based on his diagnosis and not our annual income.

Answer 4

My son (also adopted) has no attention span, but is otherwise brilliant.  We found it very difficult to keep down the clutter.  This is a constant distraction. Were i to do it over again, i'd have repainted the walls of several rooms flat white.

I expected that getting him to read would be difficult, and started reading him Harry Potter as a bed time story.  It gave him the idea that there might be stories he'd like to read.  Even so, he was behind for years.  But eventually, he got to the point of reading for enjoyment.  It happened all at once, on a Tuesday.  His reading took off, and he's now ahead, measured by the Michigan tests.  If only he could do math for enjoyment like i do.

I'm sure he'd do the same domineering stuff, but as he's in the 5th percentile for size (he's smaller than kids two years younger), it doesn't work. So he comes up with activity ideas and persuades others to try them. He's very outgoing, and it's working with kids twice his age. He tries battles of will with me, but i have infinite patience, and he's mostly come to accept it.  Sometimes, if i'm in a hurry, i'll ask him if he thinks i'll ever give up.  It's a real time saver.

Even if you can't get his weight down, you've got to start him on regular exercise.  Run with him?

One last thing. I'd gotten an engineering degree, but became an obsessive compulsive computer programmer while in college.  I might have gotten counseling, but got a job instead. Imagine being disappointed that it's time to go home. And it has the side effect of paying the bills. These days i hang out with obsessive people.  The astronomy clubs, for example.  It's not so bad.