Foggyrock
Beta
"When autism is your mountain, you will never have to climb alone"
Feel free to browse around and get to know Foggyrock. However, you will need to login/register in order to fully participate

FoggyRock Blog
The dreaded teenage years. Posted By: Kim Howell
Posted On: 05/01/2008
WOW. Seems hard to believe that my boys are now young men. I have 4 children, but only 2 are Autistic. The other 2 are NT. My NT are mine by birth, my Autistic sons are mine through love - they are my husband's birth children.

My sons are now 14 and 15 (in July he will turn 16). I've always heard that puberty is tougher on autistic kids. Harder doesn't even get close to describing what it is like. I'm probably being a bit of a downer, but this year has been so hard on all of us - my oldest son, his teachers, his aides, his siblings and his parents. Over the past 5 months he has regressed to throwing temper tantrums, whining, crying and shouting when he doesn't get his way. This morning was a prime example - he didn't want to go to school. It was a battle that left me emotionally drained. He has a great aid at school and she was able to get him calmed down and focus on his "work" within 30 minutes. The event is probably forgotten in his mind, but I find myself dreading this evening, wondering what kind of battles await us.

Sorry, I guess this has just been a hard day and I'm looking for the magic wand to fix it. I'm not usually a downer.

Wish me luck. . .
Tags:  Autism is the "Its all about me disorder. Once you learn that and can negotiate (A.K.A. bribe them) then it becomes easy to deal with.
       
4muskateers wrote this reply on 05/01/2008
HI, are both of your boys verbal and on track academicly? Julian is home schooled now...I am not crazy about sending him back, but only time will tell...

shannonj wrote this reply on 05/02/2008
I guess it makes sense that the teen years are rough for our kids on the spectrum, because they have to deal with the same hormonal rollercoaster as every other teen on the block...My son is 13 and has never been easy, so I'm not looking forward to the next few years either...Hang in there!

Carol wrote this reply on 05/03/2008
My almost 14 yr old has been difficult to deal with lately. Today he dumped his basket of freshly laundered clothes on the floor because he didn't want to take them upstairs and put them away. He constantly teases his younger brother and has a (monotone, scripted and predictable) answer for everything! Just another adolescent with autism.....

View Reply:


Our Supporters