[CraigSca]

It's funny how things flip/flop. At one time (and I believe it still is) ADHD was the flavor of the month. While my son is not dead-on Asperger's it's still the diagnosis that we see as being most accurate. As they say with any kind of diagnosis that's psychological "everyone's a little different". So, while my son cannot tell you everything about 1800's trains, he does have some definite, over-the-top interests.

Things are "okay" here. For whatever reason, there are just some days where Mr. Grumpy rears his ugly head and today is one of them. Everything stinks and everything is awful today. We still try to place our finger on what exactly is causing this (not enough sleep? too much sleep? anything we're missing?).

He's still a challenge for us at times, but overall things are better. We still take him to therapy once a week so he can understand normal, everyday interactions as well as the understanding of the perspectives of other people. We recently went over what to do when you hurt someone during playtime. Another thing we're working on is the whole "beggars can't be choosers" concept.

We're also taking him to a neurologist once a month. This came about due to some issues we were having a few months ago - his tantrumming was at an all-time high, he hated school, had no friends, etc. The doctor recommended Risperdal for us, which we give him only when he's having a particularly bad day (Mr. Grumpy). Our concern was that he was beginning to feel alienated from the other kids in class, hated school, etc., and he's only in first grade. It's seem to have helped - we were worried that a downward spiral of self-loathing, "I'm different", etc., would begin to show up in other parts of his life.

Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but we also had an IEP done at school with his guidance counselor, school psychiatrist, teachers and that helped get everyone on the same page. They give us progress reports daily (happy or unhappy faces on a piece of paper) to let us know what's working, what's not, etc. People still don't get it, anyway - so it's good to have constant interaction between us and the people he works with everyday. He's also in the mentoring program at school - he gets out of class to read higher level books (in his normal class they're still reading books like "See Spot run") which gives him a break from the monotony.

It's tough - has been, and still is. However, things are definitely better, and there are many more times you just see a kid who has difficulty understanding others but is working through it. Sure, nothing is normal here (whatever that means), but we all are armed with a wealth of information, and about 8 years of tactics that have worked (along with a much larger list of things that haven't).

If you ever want to talk to someone, I'm here as well.