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I have an Asperger's daughter, age 22. Didn't get a diagnosis until age 17.5, so from birth to then I didn't have a clue what was going on. Since then I've become her strongest advocate and having had to jump through high school hoops, then on to help from local services like DORS (Dept. of Rehab Services), Center for Independent Living, Center for Communicative Disorders and a therapist who specializes in families with kids on the autistic spectrum. Bottom line: get a diagnosis as early as possible, learn as much from reading and support groups online and in person and focus on your child's strengths. These are special needs kids with an emphasis on "special".

I know very little about Asperger's, apart from its being in the spectrum of autism. How is it diagnosed? What are treatments? I know a few other FReepers have family members with Asperger's so I imagine there is a lot of info available right on the forum.

BTW--if any of you have a ping list (or know of a ping list) specifically for challenged families, call 'em up!

As most of you know, my 13 yr old son has Aspergers. There is so much on the net to help out with this syndrome, here is a link with FAQ's about it, and how it relates to Autism

http://maapservices.org/

(sorry, haven't figured out how to do that thing where a link just looks like click here)

Hitting puberty has been awful for him, but we are dealing with it as best as possible.

Grellis, you asked how he was diagnosed. When he was about 1 1/2 yrs old, I knew something was wrong. He was not walking, not talking other than just saying the same word over and over again- nuga- and he was unable to parallel play. We thought it was because of chronic ear infections he had, luckily, I had a wonderful doctor who listened to me when I said, "he looks right through me like I am not even there" we got him to a child psychologist, and he diagnosed Pervasive Developmental Disorder... at age 2.5. When he was 9 he was reclassified as Aspergers.

Sarasota, I have no problems with him at school, he gets great grades... he has no friends...