taran0

best thing for walls never wallpaper, plaster skim the walls and then paint them (not expensive to get done), whenever they get battered, just fill any dents and repaint. let the kids dirty and scribble them then once every three months put a new coat of paint, walls looks like brand new! never wallpaper, its useless when you have kids. NO CARPETS! wooden floors and rugs, rugs cheaper and easier to replace then carpets. wooden floors pretty much kid proof. wherever possible find solid items or as solid or cheap as you can find. that way easier to replace and when they get broken you don't feel so bad. find items with less moving parts, harder to destroy them or break parts off.

these thigns have prob been mentioned before but i thought it would be great to share my son now 3 almost 4 has been having a hard year and we have really struggled with him, i have been very busy with work and study at the same time and his behaviour has dropped being very hard to deal with, possessive, violent, whingy etc, etc it has been a knightmare and my wife has been callign em at work crying some days.he also has been very violent towards one year old sister, who likes to pinch everyone. well now, his behaviour compared to 6 months ago has improved 200% what we did to have such a dramatic change over 6 months, i don't really know... I started working less days a week, took more time with him, to play footy, to play games, to dance, to run about and be silly, take him to the park, just to be around and be a lazy dad I bought him an old imac for �20(the multicoloured ones), very old and slow, but he loves it can do painting look at his photos and play music and watch finding nemo dvd, only two wires and everythign is built in inc speakers and mic. a GREAT BUY! do it now and cheap as chips. now when i work on the computer he works on his and doesnt feel left out. the best thing i did was ROLEPLAYING i said to him you be the daddy and i will be the kid, so i got him to dress me, feed me ,carry me down the stairs, and sometimes i would have a little tantrum the funniest was when he was changing my clothes and i had a tantrum over not wanting to wear the blue jeans and he told me off and said that mummy said i had to wear them and i really blew off into a tantrum and pretended to cry and you KNOW what he said "Don't worry daddy, your going to be ok, OK? don't worry." just try it its good fun too, he will now bring my food in to me, bring me a drink, and get me more when i need it. also whenever i am doing some work around the house I give him a job to do and he loves it. in a weird way him being on the other side of the tantrum and being the parent has made him appreciate us more. he comes up to us now every now and again and says "are you ok?" "daddy is a good boy" you need to get kids involved and treat them like a bit of an adult as if they have an active duty and role in the house, give them some responsibility and encouragement. i get him to hold my tools for me, carry stuff, hold things and explain to him what i am doing so he can ask questions, and show him how to fix things. he now brings me his toys and says can we fix this. he loves washing the car, loves holding the hose pipe, so we do that every week. i also sorted out the backgarden which was a jungle and made a nice lawn so he can play outside as he hated being stuck indoors. needless to say, he is much happier, and a joy to be around he comes up to us now and sometimes says "I love you aswell" (dunno what the aswell means, but its cool) Still has a tantrum now and again, and cant stand his little sister touching him, but he can actually play with her now and has become quite protective and caring over her. i am able to discipline him more now as he knows that we know that he can behave better. hopefully we can continue this good period taran0

well here's oneI have asd but noone believes me.that's stereotype because they have a certain idea of what a personwith autism is. taran

I'm in much the same situation as yourself I tend to tell people but find that they don't really realise, or understand it, and tend to dismiss it. because unless you have lived through, or read about it in depth you won't actually know what it is about. even a friend of mine who is a doctor kind of dismissed it and said nahhhh your fine! you are. I tend to tell people and then email them a set of web links to give them the information to understand. most of the time i just email them, tell them and then give them the links if soemone is a close friend it will make sense to them as they have been aroudn you enough to see some of you in the descriptions on the websites. Taran

thanks my wife has contacted the gp for an appointment and also phoned the health visitor who was very supportive and explained that it can be a long process. so here goes ..... Taran

dude I wouldn't worry too much . I tried to do a degree in 1999 but didn't make it past the second year. igot offered some work so I took that as it seemed an easier option at the time.I am just going back now doing a masters. I have always tended to go to the lecture and then disapear asap. I never hang about at uni. on my degree course noone even knew iwas on the course until I came in to hand in some work.has taken me a long time for me to be able to go back and I still struggle with it but a lot easier then before.if you need the break. don't bust ur balls over it as u still can go back later when you feel ready.I think its great that your actuallt going out there to attempt it. taran

hi I havent got a clue about schoolls and stuff, but my 3 year old son has just got a place in a full time nursery in september, i know he shows strong signs of having aspergers, and i know i have it. I know that he is going to struggle there, he hasnt had a diagnosis yet but my wife will be visiting the gp in a week. I checked on the nas website and found a school near me which can deal with children with aspergers, what i wanted to know was how hard is it to get your child into one of these schools, and do you need to have a diagnosis, and what is the process of trying to get your child into the school. I am really worried as i now whats going to happen when he goes to school, i would prefer he went somewhere where they understood aspergers and better equipped to help him. he is also going to go to the GP to get a referral for diagnosis but all the horror stories i have heard of mis-diagnosis or no diagnosis at all really scares me. thanks Taran

hi dunno if anyone ever brought this up but I did a search on the forum and nothing came up so here it is. I work as a 3d Visualiser for an architect and an interior designer, and in my spare time i make my own 3d games, and I have always been fascinated by 3D digital modelling and design as long as i can remember. I always had problems at school, not understanding or losing interest, I had problems with pages of text and information in tables etc. but show me a 3d environment or a computer game and I could master every level. My interest in games and computers led to me getting employed in the field related to 3d and game technology. I was just wondering if anyone had seen the benefits of using 3D for engaging young people with autism spectrum disorders. aloowing them to explore environments they wouldn't usually go to , or experience larger environments in a more safe way, or design and explore their creativity I have been looking at my own son who is 3 and is a lot like me and how I will be able to motivate and engage with him as he gets older. These are some ideas I?ve been thinking about. SKETCHUP There is software called Sketchup which is really easy to learn how to use 3d package, designed to be so easy even a kid could pick it up. We use this package at the architects to mass out buildings and during concept design phase. see a house made with sketchup there have been loads of reports that children with autism are benefiting from playing with this software and creating 3d objects and environments. They have even setup a PROJECT SPECTRUM, with lesson plans for parents and teachers. "Project Spectrum was developed by the SketchUp Team at Google to help people with autism take advantage of their visual and spatial gifts. The idea for Project Spectrum originated when we began getting phone calls and emails from users telling us about how much kids on the autism spectrum were enjoying SketchUp. As the calls kept coming in, we learned that people with autism tend to be visually and spatially gifted?that, in fact, they think in pictures. When people with these gifts get their hands on powerful, easy-to-use 3D design software like SketchUp, sparks tend to fly." Children with Autism Architect Their Ideas Using 3D Design Software <---checkout the link and the video. GAME WORKSHOPS The other thing that I think would be really useful for engaging the older children would be Game workshops, where rather then Playing games all the time they can get involved in making their own game. I have done a few games workshops with young teenagers and they all seem to really enjoy it. What we do is get an existing game engine and teach the kids to make their own game level and character. Its really great Fun and the look on the kids when they can walk around their own creation is awesome. Immersive environments and vr are great tools for letting young people practise creativity and also work through real world situations in real time. I?m currently doing my masters and am studying how computer games can be used to visualise and test the performance and experience of buildings. I recently created an entire island in 3D (so that whenever i feel i need to get away i can retire to my own private island and explore the trees and hills heeheehehhehehe!) my island PAPERCRAFT This is a great one and really great fun my son loves it. Paper craft is like origami and you print out the designs on card cut them out and glue them together to create a 3d model from it My son is mad about finding Nemo so I got a finding Nemo paper craft sheet and we both put it together. photo of the paper nemo we made You can get loads of things to make, and I have even started to make my own paper crafts, from 3d models I make on the computer. They range from very simple to very complicated. I recommend getting a cutting board, craft knife for older kids, safety scissors for younger kids, and a safe quick drying glue like uhu. Here are some links http://s-waka.com/paper/works.html epson papercraft page MINDMAPPING finally i was thinking of mind mapping, this has been the most essential tool that i have found in the past few years. any project or work that i do i will use mind mapping software to create a mindmap. i find it so easy to organise my ideas and thoughts and its easy to add change and update. i use a program called mindjet mindmanager but you can try a free trial online one called heres an example of a mindmap example of what a mindmap looks like i hope you can see the images because i can't seem to see them in my browser Hi Taran0 - Image posting is disabled on the forum, which is why you can't see your pics! We also have a rule about direct links to commercial websites, which is why a couple of your links have been removed. I have left the links to the origami sites and google sketchup, as these both offer freebies that aren't 'time limited' or otherwise directly linked to commercial products. A link to our rules and guidelines can be found at the top of the forum header bar for future reference. Hope that helps. - BD ohh! sorry man, just like me to jump in without reading the instructions first! hehehehheee! ive changed the images to links.... - taran

I've been reading this forum for a while now, since I found out about autism spectrum disorders.. every post I read it's just like another tick on a list from my life...... yes that too and that it all finally makes sense, I felt happy that I had finally realised why I never fitted, but sad that all those years had gone by, I could have got help, I could have done better, I could have understood a bit more... not tried to fight myself instead of learn to work with myself but, overall its great to finally realise that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! I just have Aspergers! so I want to say hi! and that you guys are not alone! I have some great ideas, hopefully i will get the time to put them into action. Taran