Good morning! I stumbled on this community fairly recently and would like to dip my toe in. I would be so grateful for guidance on what resource is best for us. My son is 14 and he was diagnosed just 2 years ago. He's what they termed HFA at the time but I've since learned that it's outdated to refer to it like that (apologies I'm still learning). Since his diagnosis I've poured myself into researching how best to support him. We love him so much and would do anything to support him but he shuts down and doesn't let us in very much. He's extremely talented in music and plays/composes with his piano, horn and violin. Music is his outlet and a stim in some regards so we give him lots of space to explore it. But he is not motivated to do much of anything in school or at home. He also lashes out at us if we ask him to do anything. I'm so scared of doing the wrong thing - if we push him too much will it make him burn out again? (he experienced a severe burn out at the end of his 5th grade year - before we got the diagnosis. We had no clue what was happening and I know now how we handled it with "traditional parenting" actually fueled it further). Yet if we don't push him are we failing to prepare him for the world? It is a daily internal struggle to pick a path and I feel like I'm falling apart and going insane. Most of the resources I come across do an excellent job helping me understand Aspergers/HFA but don't guide me with action on how to support him in growing into an independent adult one day.

Posted by Maoc2002 at 2023-01-25 13:05:40 UTC