Friday, May 6

Crying and Asperger's

Aspie children often have a hard time with emotions and emotional control.  For Turkey this gets manifested in two different ways - rage and crying.  Thankfully they rarely happen at the same time.  And thankfully crying is the more dominant trait; rage can be very dangerous physically. 

The tears come out all the time, several times a day at home and at school.  You know that line in "A Christmas Story" when the BB hit Ralphie and he says "Quickly I whipped up some tears." That's Turkey (not in the why to cry but in the how).  

Turkey will cry because he can't find something (and that something is more often than not right in front of him or in his pocket), cry because it's not his turn to be line leader at school, cry because he forgot his lunchbox on the playground and can not go get it immediately, cry because he made a choice and doesn't like it 5 minutes later, cry because he's hungry, cry because he's tired, cry because there is a ladybug in his room, cry because his brother is crying and it's too loud... do I need to go on, I think you see where I am going.

I suppose there would be less crying if he wasn't always loosing things, and we're working on his "executive skills" as they are called; but we are no where we need to be.

Turkey has a hard time making and keeping friends because of the crying and I often fear others (adults) may see him as a cry baby.  And I suppose if it was 40 or even 20 years ago, he would be labeled a cry baby (as Asperger's wasn't recognized back then).  But he is not a cry baby; he's just a 7 year old with Asperger's trying to figure things out... and we'll get there.  It's important not to criticize the crying, as it makes them feel like there is something wrong with them for crying.  So for now, we'll listen to the crying and work on his organization skills, and be thankful that rage (while present) is not dominate.  

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