Asperger Toolbox -- First blogversation

Just by way of introduction, my name is Kris. I'm the mother of two young men with Asperger's [and a daughter without!], and the adventure has been quite a nice, long trip without a road map. There is probably more than a bit of Asperger's in our family tree, with my best guess being my father AND my father-in-law, and I think of my husband as kind of a translator.

My son Will was diagnosed when he was almost 5, almost four years ago, with PDD-NOS [Pervasive Developmental Delay -- Not Otherwise Specified]. It seemed to be devastating news at the time, but as I began to read books on the subject, I realized that those books also helped me to understand my older son, who was 15 at the time.

I'm going to try and post when an idea occurs to me that might be helpful -- ideas that have been helpful to my sons in the past, ideas that are making life easier for my son currently, and ideas that might be good conversation between all of us as parents of children with Asperger's. I am in total agreement that Asperger's is the kind of syndrome that does not need to be "fixed" but, having said that, if I can give my son a boost in a helpful way, help him to feel comfortable, make friends, feel like he belongs, I'm going to do it. If I can make one more social situation fun or happy for him, then it's a worthwhile success.

I look forward to hearing from any of you out there with your own good ideas. Sometimes there are ideas that come to us in the middle of the night, on the train, in the car, and often these are not things we've heard at autism conferences or read in any of our specialized books.

Thanks,

Kris