Our Aspergers Teenage Boy

Dad reports:
Tommy and I had yelling this morning. I tried distancing myself from him this morning but he was extremely sharp tongued and with the serious deadlines I have today my stress levels couldn’t handle it. My apologies to Tommy for dooming his school day.

Mom reports: Tommy’s evenings are getting better since I stopped trying to get him out of the bath in a reasonable time frame. I now let him soak for hours. After he falls asleep I wake him and gently wash his hair. He grumbles about being cold briefly but falls asleep in his bed quickly. No night-time kitchen raids. Once I find an extra pair of jammies or two for him, the evenings will be perfect. The mornings are a different story altogether. He has a time limit for getting up, dressing and eating before the bus arrives. Tommy only has one speed and it’s not a good one for morning madness. Something has to change because the screaming and crying is intolerable for the rest of us.

Dad reports:
The IEP or M-Team or whatever they want to call it on Wednesday lasted 2.5 hours. We arrived 15 minutes late (looking like bad parents) and started the meeting by being offered an opportunity to talk to the school psychologist in private. I explained my discontent about the approach being used to review these reports despite our numerous requests to see them prior to the meeting. The psychologist explained that she was unaware any requests had been made and that the reports had been available since November.

The reports in my eyes were shining. The summary is “Tommy is austistic and aspergers and all his other issues are secondary to the aspergers. He needs accommodations made for his aspergers.” Ok. Nothing new but now they have yet another document saying the same thing.

I liked that the school psychologist and independent consultant both found Tommy to be a nice, likeable person that simply needs more love, encourage, reassurance and TLC. His teacher’s comments within the report did not mirror theirs and she seems to want him labeled violent and dangerous.

The meeting although long and in the end not very productive was not unpleasant.

Dad reports:
My almost daily call from the vice principal of the high school yesterday was not to send Tommy home but to explain the bill we would be receiving because Tommy chose to slam a door so hard that the safety glass broke.