my son has asperger syndrome too. and like your daughter he loves to draw. he loves art, he will draw on any paper he can get his hands on even on the pages and covers of books. while I discourage drawing in books. I encourage his art. I let him draw when ever he likes. but he has to finish his homework first. and it dosn’t interfere with school, his daydreaming does. the teachers are impressed with his art work. its hard for me to go on with this answer but I’m making his goal this year to be to understand and recognize the differences in a persons character or personality. knowing when a situation is bad or a person may not be a nice person. knowing body language and facial expressions. this is what he will be learning. he need to know the difference between teasing and bullying. ect. right now he is learning life skills. cooking, traveling around on the bus, shopping, he’s just turned 12. and I am so afraid for him because people look at him as a normal 12 year old, and when they discover that he acts a little different they call him weird. parents please educate your normal healthy children, tell them that not all disablity can be seen, not all handicap people are in wheelchairs. this is a different kind of diversity so just treat everyone with respect, I am sorry for the long post but whenever I talk of my son’s autism my heart breaks all over again and I cry. he is alos learning math ,science ect. I’m badly in need of a support group right now.

i have a child on the spectrum,,she is doing better as far as interaction goes,,but some things we did to help her we started her in thearpt with an ot one day a week,,we also took her to church everyweek,.,.but it does go back and forth,,what i mean by that is this,,she may have a great week and then the next she will not sit talk to play with any kids,,,she will be in special ed for 2 yrs and from there they will see how she goes from then on,,,but special ed is a great program,,,its not all that people think it is,,they have thearpists there and teachers specialized in this field,,(if the school system has teachers for that)

I know how hard this is,i have gotten so many diagnoses from drs,,,PDD NOS,,,on the spectrum,,,Autistic,,,sever sensory disorder,,and other say shes fine,,,but we as parents know if something is going on,,we just need to help and fight from our kids education,,,good luck

I’ve completely dropped out of diagnosis driven remedies. I’ve turned to alternative therapy and have seen dramatic results in a short period of time. It is my opinion (BASED ON PERSONAL OBSERVATION) that the public school system, while well intentioned, is quite frankly, not qualified to deal with the talents of the mildly autistic child. The public school system is very adept at documenting all the things that are not quite up to par but try asking the same teacher what is going well and they are stupefied. This year I’ve made it perfectly clear to my son’s teachers that as parents we are o.k. with “odd.” As long as his behaviour is not disruptive to other students, leave him alone. As long as he is learning and retaining information on par with grade level, leave him alone. However, I do let the teachers know that their input is valuable and any concerns will be addressed in PRIVATE therapy. My child is much happier being a little weird . . .

Here are some websites with ideas for IEP goals:

http://www.bridges4kids.org/IEP/iep.goal.bank.pdf

http://www.kid-power.org/samples/goals.html

http://www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/education/iepsamples.html

girl scouts is wonderful. small groups that encourage teamwork and friendship. i have one child in my troop with autism, 1 with adhd and 1 with add.

My son has autism and we have him in the boy scouts plus we will have him have play dates at my house where he can be with one of his fav. classmates and then he gets to be with them one on one. this has helped him to grow socially at home and at school.