If your child has recently been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, then you likely have more questions than answers about this little-known diagnosis.
This article presents answers to some of parents’ most common questions about Aspergers Syndrome.
What IS Aspergers Syndrome?
Aspergers Syndrome, named for Hans Asperger, an Austrian physician, is a milder form of autistic disorder. Both conditions are part of a larger group of neurological disorders known in the US as Pervasive Developmental Disorders, or PDD for short. The 2 most common symptoms are eccentric behavior and self-imposed social isolation. Sometimes speech is affected as well as gait and motor skills. Your child may also be exclusively focused on a particular area of interest, such as cars or astronomy. The social isolation comes from the child wanting to know everything about his or her area of interest and little else. Conversations are usually focused only on that area as well.
What causes Aspergers Syndrome?
Experts believe that Aspergers and autism have underlying biological causes, but are not clear yet on what those causes are. They do know that there are certain brain structure abnormalities, but do not know why they occur.
How are Aspergers Syndrome and autism different?
Aspergers usually begins later in childhood and has a more hopeful outlook. The child tends to function at a higher level with Aspergers too. Aspergers children tend to be clumsy, but overall have less neurological deficits than autistic children.
How does the doctor know for sure that my child has Aspergers Syndrome?
Diagnosis of most any mental/emotional disorder tends to be one of ruling out other conditions and noting certain patterns of behavior. There is no definitive test for Aspergers, but there are certain patterns, including:
* Significant impairment in social interaction, as demonstrated by:
- impaired nonverbal communication
- failure to develop age-appropriate peer relationships
- lack of shared enjoyment of activities/surroundings with others
- unable to reciprocate socially and/or emotionally
* Repeated patterns of behavior or interest, such as:
- abnormal intensity of interest in one or two specific areas
- rigid rituals that serve no functional purpose
- repetitive mannerisms, such as hand or finger flapping
- persistently preoccupied with parts of objects
* Significant impairment in developmental areas of functioning (social, occupational and other areas)
* No significant delay in language
* No significant delay in cognitive development or learning of age-appropriate self-care skills
If your child meets one or more of the above criteria, then your doctor may suspect Aspergers.
Is my child crazy or mentally ill?
Aspergers Syndrome in and of itself is not a mental illness; it is a developmental disorder. However, it is fairly commonly associated with the following conditions:
* Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
* Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
* Depression
* Bipolar Disorder
* Generalized Anxiety Disorder
* Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
How is Aspergers Syndrome treated?
There aren’t any treatments for Aspergers that will make it “go away.” However, by using a combination of approaches that address the three core symptoms of the disorder (poor communication skills, obsessive or repetitive routines and physical clumsiness); you can help your child live a fairly normal life. It’s also important to start treatment as early as possible. The treatment approaches your doctor recommends may include:
* Psychotherapy
* Parent education & training
* Behavior modification
* Social skills training
* Educational interventions
* Medications, such as stimulants, mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and SSRIs
Is there any cure for Aspergers Syndrome?
Unfortunately, there is no cure for this condition, and children do not “grow out” of it either. It is likely that your child will always find social situations and personal relationships to be challenging. But many adults with Aspergers are able to live healthy, productive lives, although they may always need support to do so.
What do I need to do as a parent of a child with Aspergers Syndrome?
The most important thing you can do is to get your child into a treatment regime early and then stick with it, even during the tough times. It will be worth it in the long run if you take steps to support your child’s progress and help him or her adjust and adapt. You can serve as case manager or coordinator, and try to involve all of your child’s caregivers in treatment as much as you can. You should teach your child self-help skills as he/she grows and develops. Look for treatment and educational programs that address your child’s problem areas. Get support for yourself too. You won’t be at your best with your child if you’re exhausted and frustrated.
Hopefully, these answers have addressed some of your most pressing questions. To learn more, search for information on the Web at reputable sites or look for a book at your local bookstore. Also, talk with your pediatrician and never be afraid to keep asking questions until you get answers you can understand.
December 28th, 2007
Posted by
raymond
General, Health, Depression, Reference
no comments
Business success starts off with “never say never.” Anyone can succeed in a business no matter their background or education, so get out of the way any doubts you have right now. Rather than doubt, you just figure it out. Many have started their business with far less advantages than you have. They just go out and do and succeed. So do not think you have to be smart, and especially do not be too smart. Some of those with the greatest obstacles were too dumb to think that they cannot succeed. Because failure never entered their mind, it never entered their life.
You can actually do much better in your own business than you can working for someone else. Two qualities you need are to be a stickler for stingy and the emboldened self-determinedness to go out on your own. A home business is the way to go because of the low overhead. You have home expenses you already pay, so you just convert your current space to the place where you also generate income. The icing on the cake is the tax advantages you will get. Find out about them by researching and educating yourself on any and every kind of advantage you can get as a businessperson. Be shrewd and responsible and your dreams become possible.
Even from home you can sell online to everywhere in the world that has a delivery route. First though, you have to get familiar with what you are doing. The first phase is gathering knowledge, skill, and experience. So when you first do a home business, start out part-time so you can continue getting income from your regular job. Later on as the money starts coming in, you can quit that job and go full tilt as a professional in your business career. If you are a non-working spouse, you can go all at it right away to greatly add to your household income, keep ahead of bills, pay off debts, and build up savings. But if you want your cash flow to really grow, it is best to reinvest in your business.
You can choose whatever you want to do with your business. Something that interests you will keep you motivated, and something that appeals to other people will keep you in profit, but it does not have to appeal to all people. You will get your most loyal customers by focusing on a niche, a distinct specialization of products or services dealing with the wants and needs of certain groups of people. For instance, there are general clothiers which are businesses that makes or sells clothing for average people, then there are specialized clothiers that makes or sells clothing for the big and tall, those that cannot find what they want that fits them from a regular clothing store. The specialized clothier develops a relationship with their customers by conversational questioning and saying, “I’ll see what I can do”… or structured surveys to find what it is they want in a type of clothing in order to provide them with exactly that.
Once you have your business, you promote it by going after your target market. You do that by putting the words “Big and Tall” in your advertisements for clothing, then place your ads where your intended prospects will most likely find them, like in a magazine read by sumo wrestlers or basketball players. In advertising by direct mail you might get a mailing list of people who have bought over-sized clothing before. Online you can advertise on search engines using the keywords “extra-large clothing” or some other apt description of your product.
Experiment with different ways of advertising and different words in your advertising to find the combinations that work best. Also observe and study the ads of others in your industry. Track the effectiveness of what you put out. That is how you hone an advertising system. You need to take this part very seriously because business needs responsive customers to succeed and business failure can most often be traced to ineffective and inadequate advertising campaigns.
There will be features to your product or service, and you should get in the habit of describing how those features benefit your customer, how your product or service will make your customer’s life easier. Collect testimonials from satisfied customers so you can show the results of what happens when doing business with you. This will help you with your advertising and give your business credibility. Stories of how you have filled someone else’s need or solved their problem have a very persuasive impact on getting others to try you out. You definitely want people to believe in your product or service even when they have not tried it out yet, so give an ironclad money-back guarantee. A guarantee and testimonials are great tools for disarming skepticism.
Stay in business by tweaking your advertising and cutting all needless expenditures. Learn about the lucrative advantages of press releases and joint ventures. Cut costs at every corner in every area of your business because the less money you have going out, the more chance you have of staying in business. Buy supplies from auctions, wholesalers, or direct from the factory. Rent or share resources. Look around for the best deals and alternative avenues like bartering. If you can get away with dirt cheap, then do it. No money for payroll? Enlist family, it’s how many a family business started out. Borrow goods but do not borrow money unless absolutely necessary as debts can kill a business. Obtain used stuff instead of new stuff and even then try to haggle for the best price. Remember that you are now an entrepreneur. Be a prosperous one by pinching every penny and promoting every day. SEIZE THE PAY!
December 28th, 2007
Posted by
raymond
General, Business, Education & Training, Reference
no comments
Over the last decade PowerPoint has become one of the most important presentation tools in both companies and education. At every important meeting you run, you’re expected to create a PowerPoint presentation that will inform each attendee of your meaning in a way that is clear,concise, and to-the-point.
PowerPoint presentations can be utilized for several purposes. In education and in edifying meetings, they use illustrations and easy-to-read text to help attendees to grasp the information being given.
There are several hints you can follow to create PowerPoint presentations more quickly and efficiently. One is to quicken the choosing of fonts by previewing fonts in the font toolbar. To do this,simply go to Tools/Customize, click the Options tab, then click “List font names in their font.” Another idea to speed up creating presentation slides is to set a default text style for your slides. This both helps to make your PowerPoint presentations to appear more professional, and it speeds up their design. To set a new default, go to Format, then Font. Decide the changes you need, then click OK.
Since PowerPoint in sales talks and other meetings is such an important tool, it’s important to spend some time learning how to improve your own PowerPoint presentations. For both beginner and advanced users,there are always tricks to be learned to make your talks more striking and effective.
If you have important points to make, particularly if they’re whole paragraphs, include them in handouts. If you’re giving a energetic presentation and want to keep your audience’s complete attention, make sure to pass out any handouts at the end, as they can be distracting.
If you want to put together truly striking PowerPoint presentations but don’t have either the time or the information to do it yourself, PowerPoint templates can be a good option. There are many free PowerPoint templates available for download on the internet, but if you want really high quality and professional looking templates, you might want to think about paid templates.
Don’t use too many bullet points and particularly don’t use paragraphs to get your point across. You should be doing that yourself. Also, don’t pack your presentation with graphics, fancy animated transitions, and graphics. Remember that the talk is about the information. Especially for sales presentations, you don’t want anybody in the room to depart feeling that they’ve wasted their time watching fancy cliparts. Too many extras on your PowerPoint slides will take away from from your presentation rather than add to it.
As a normal woman cannot absorb more than ten new ideas in a sitting, each of your ten slides will give you the highest effect. It should take you about five minutes to display each slide. Much more than that and you’re rambling. Much less, and people will question the requirement to have that slide in the first place. A twenty-minute talk leaves plenty of time for set up, and allows questions to be asked after.
PowerPoint is one of the most effective presentation tools you can use for business meetings and sales presentations. A quality PowerPoint presentation helps to underline your meaning while giving the audience pieces of information that will stay with them. While a good presentation will help your business and add to your meeting, a bad one can do just the opposite.
www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk
December 28th, 2007
Posted by
hroberts
Business, Software, Accounting
no comments
You would surprise how people ask for low carb diet information. As you see, that everyone is dieting nowadays and it is used to be just a teenage girl who wanted to lose weight, but more and more people are aware about the way they look. It is sarcastic because we are more obese than we have ever been as a population, and we look ourselves more seriously in the mirror everyday.
You see, the Atkins diet food list is a dream comes true for any food lover because you eat as much as you want, practically anything that you want to eat as long as it doesn’t involve starch. Dr. Atkins has really created a system that works for us carnivorous Americans better than anything else. Remember, all the Atkins diet information that I have indicates works well as long as you can stick to the diet, you will lose your weight rapidly.
For more information about low carb diet programs, please visit our web site http://www.tomnicoli.com/carb.shtml.
December 28th, 2007
Posted by
Cristina
Health, Womens Health, Weightloss
no comments
Californian coastal towns are desirable places to live and Carlsbad California is no exception. It offers culture, sport and the natural world. There are various lagoons in the area that are very important in the preservation of threatened species of animals. Commercial enterprise thrives here too with a mussel production site and a sea bass nursery. There are lots of activities available such as hiking, bird watching, biking, sailing, Kayaking, jet skiing and motor boating.
The Flower Fields of Carlsbad Ranch fill the air with wonderful scent. The colorful annual display blossoms every March in 50 acres of gardens, divided into different areas such as the rose garden and orchid greenhouses. The fields are also known for their poinsettias. Visitors can tour the fields on a tractor ride.
The local skate park is a favorite haunt of young people in Carlsbad California. The concrete park has gentle lines and is suitable for novice skaters. Skateboards and roller blades are allowed but bikes are not. Skaters must be equipped with helmets and knee and elbow pads.
Music lovers are fortunate in having an unusual museum in the city. Called the Museum of Making Music, it contains five separate galleries of exhibits that tell the story of American popular music since the 1890s until the present day. There are over 450 vintage musical instruments on display and further hands on instruments to try. An archive of audio samples gives examples of music over the years. The museum is a valuable resource for those interested in the subject in Carlsbad California and it organizes live performances and lectures.
Lots of children and adults too, love to go to a Legoland park. Legoland California, opened in 1999, is the third park of its kind to open. It’s a great family day out with rides, shops, restaurants and as much Lego as can be imagined. The park is divided into eight themed areas, which include a Medieval Castle theme. Dino Island has lots of Lego made dinosaurs and a mini roller coaster. One of the most popular areas is Fun Town, where kids get to drive electric Lego cars and steer Lego boats.
The residents of the city are proud of their local heritage and the Carlsbad Historical Society is a non-profit organization with its own museum and collection of memorabilia. This Carlsbad California museum contains furniture from the time of the early settlers and agricultural artifacts. There is also an impressive rose garden and Victorian herb border.
December 28th, 2007
Posted by
georgechao1
Travel
no comments
