<p>Hello! This is my first post. The mom of a high school senior just told me about this site over the weekend.</p>
<p>DS16 has Asperger's Syndrome, is VERY ADD and is G/T. So many issues! Are there any other parents of Aspies out there?</p>
<p>Welcome. To get meore responses from LD parents, I suggest you post your question on the learning differences forum at CC:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=612%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=612</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the link. Where on the board does one find a list of all the forums? I just see a list of 7 under "Top Forums."</p>
<p>If you click on Discussion Home (above the top forums list on the left) you will see a list of all forums.</p>
<p>Thank you so much.</p>
<p>By the way, I have a college S with mild Aspergers...welcome! Hope we can be of help!</p>
<p>HI from a hs senior w/ mild ADHD tourettes non + a non classified PDD...</p>
<p>there all mild but they come out on occasion..</p>
<p>I also have a college student with Asperger Syndrome.</p>
<p>I'm curious here, in light of comments on another thread, do those of you with kids who have Asperger's, do you plan to or have you generally told roomates/suitemates about that or do you find it better not to? If this is too personal of a question, please ignore it, because no offense was intended, just a genuine desire to understand.</p>
<p>There's a post from last year that's long about asperger's. Here's the link:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=152928&highlight=asperger%27s%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=152928&highlight=asperger%27s</a></p>
<p>This does not directly address the question, but there is a great article about Asperger's in the August 20th issue of the New Yorker magazine (it does not appear to be post online on their website, unfortunately.)</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>The question of disclosing their Aspergers to other students/teachers can be a very tough and personal decision for many students/young adults with Aspergers esp the more mild cases where they perform well academically and need only minimal accommodations if any at all. </p>
<p>In these cases their "disability" is quite hidden and the student may just seem somewhat different, quirky or just a little "off" socially. Students may find it very difficult to disclose partly because they themselves may have a hard time accepting their AS as a disability. In addition, there is still a certain stigma attached to AS that they may feel shame in admitting that they have AS. And because they tend not to have the best sense of humor it can be hard for them to "laugh at themselves" and make light of their quirkiness the way that other quirky people often do (although I think by this time in their lives, many Aspies are beginning to learn that this is a good way to deal with their social faux pas). </p>
<p>Fortunately by the time they get to college, the people they are surrounded by tend to be more tolerant of their differences unless they are perceived to be harmful or threatening in some way or too socially unacceptable, and as Aspies get further into their studies, many find it easier to develop friendships and relationships with others who have similar interests - even if those relationships may sometimes not appear to be of the same "quality" as social relationships that occur among more normal people.</p>
<p>Of course, many individuals with Aspergers have other LDs or other issues which are much more obvious and the disclosure issue for them would be very different, but also involves those specific issues and not just the AS. Many with AS will always seem isolated and alone, some prefer it that way, others may suffer emotionally as a result because they want to be accepted socially but just can't seem to figure out how. </p>
<p>But what does it really mean to say you have AS? There is such a wide range of behaviors and symptoms and emotions involved so, in a sense it can only be defined in terms of the setting or environment you are in - as well as by the person's own sense of who they are and what they want.</p>
<p>I doubt very much my S has ever volunteered this information about himself to anyone...the friends he has from hs are kids who have known him for yrs and have come to - slowly and sometimes with more than a few difficulties - accept his differences. After a yr in college, I doubt he has any real friends - kids who seek him out to do things, for instance, but he has more Facebook friends than anyone I know and very deliberately keeps in touch with various of these friends. And as a result he is at least included and accepted in many different groups of "friends", even if it is only on the fringes (and believe me, he has not been lacking for social contacts!!)</p>
<p>btw, I have heard some good things about the New Yorker article - it is written by a man with Aspergers. With any luck this link will work...</p>
<p>He was interviewed on npr, too. Hope this link works:</p>
<p>I posted on another Forum on the issue of disclosing to prospective colleges. DS takes mostly G/T, pre-AP and AP classes. His classmates all have terrific class ranks, but I'll be thrilled if DS gets out in the top 20%. I wish there was a way to tell colleges what a spectaular job he is doing, given the neurological cards he was dealt. His extracirricular activities will look pretty blah on a college application, but I really know how HUGE they are, given his disabilities. </p>
<p>In my law school class, we had a girl who walked with crutches. When she walked across the platform at graduation, she got a standing ovation, persumably for overcoming the adversity of having to walk with crutches. I wonder how many there were in the class who had trimuphed, unnoticed, over Asperger's or some other "invisible" learning differece.</p>
<p>missy: you might want to talk to your S's GC or teachers about disclosing his disabilities in their recommendations; that can be a good way to "explain" academic weaknesses or seeming discrepancies between test scores and gpa.</p>