Tips for managing one Asperger's athlete
Both #1 and #2 are physically active. This is very much by design and lifelong persistence. #1 often enjoys team sports and personal bicycling, but these activities are also agitating, disturbing, and anxiety provoking. He’s very sensitive to criticism, very insensitive to advice and feedback, and by nature macho and blunt. That is a hard combination, but #2 is harder. I think #2 may be more typical of the active Asperger’s athlete.#2 does not like exercise. He does it because it helps him psychologically as well as physically and because he wants to please me. I encourage it because it’s critical to his mental hea...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - July 18, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adolescence Asperger ' exercise sport Source Type: blogs
Besides this blog: Facebook page for my book project
My posts are always intermittent, but they ’re a bit less frequent as I’ve been posting on my book project in a Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/sphone4all. I’ll create some ‘check it out’ posts in future for people who don’t do Facebook, but if you’ve been assimilated there you might “Like” that Page.Here are some recent posts of possible interest to people reading this blog. You don ’t need to login to Facebook to read them, just dismiss the annoying dialogs that might appear:Book chaptersSafety and the smartphone - free chapterMessaging and texting - free chapterCalendaring - free chapterLocal present...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - July 14, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: smartphone smartphone4all Source Type: blogs
Besides this blog: Facebook page for my book project
My posts are always intermittent, but they’re a bit less frequent as I’ve been posting on my book project in a Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/sphone4all. I’ll create some ‘check it out’ posts in future for people who don’t do Facebook, but if you’ve been assimilated there you might “Like” that Page.Here are some recent posts of possible interest to people reading this blog. You don’t need to login to Facebook to read them, just dismiss the annoying dialogs that might appear:Book chaptersSafety and the smartphone - free chapterMessaging and texting - free chapterCalendaring - free chapterLocal presentat...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - July 14, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: smartphone smartphone4all Source Type: blogs
Special needs urban bicycling - what streets are safe?
A few weeks ago I wrote abouttrying residential-urban (Saint Paul, MN) bicycle commute with #2. I realized he wasn ’t ready, so we’re focusing on his mountain biking. He rides with a team I manage. It’s hard work for him, but he keeps persisting. I now do a scaled practice with him — about 50-70% of our novice rider practice routine. I got the scaling idea from my own CrossFit hobby — where I’m about 50% of the male athlete standard.At that time I wrote that #1 was doing relatively well with his bike commuting. He has quite different cognitive traits; the two boys have complementary strengths. Then, on a fami...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - July 14, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: ADHD adult autism brain and mind cognitive impairment exercise health smartphone smartphone4all transit Source Type: blogs
Special needs urban bicycling - what streets are safe?
A few weeks ago I wrote about trying residential-urban (Saint Paul, MN) bicycle commute with #2. I realized he wasn’t ready, so we’re focusing on his mountain biking. He rides with a team I manage. It’s hard work for him, but he keeps persisting. I now do a scaled practice with him — about 50-70% of our novice rider practice routine. I got the scaling idea from my own CrossFit hobby — where I’m about 50% of the male athlete standard.At that time I wrote that #1 was doing relatively well with his bike commuting. He has quite different cognitive traits; the two boys have complementary strengths. Then, on a famil...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - July 14, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: ADHD adult autism brain and mind cognitive impairment exercise health smartphone smartphone4all transit Source Type: blogs
Ella enchanted: understanding ODD
#1 has more than a few features of oppositional defiant disorder. Especially before his meds kick-in.It occurred to us today that it ' s the opposite of the heroine ' s curse in " Ella Enchanted " . Instead of saying yes to everything he must oppose it, even if he has no particular objection.There is something comforting about the struggle. (Source: Be the Best You can Be)
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 26, 2016 Category: Disability Source Type: blogs
Ella enchanted: understanding ODD
#1 has more than a few features of oppositional defiant disorder. Especially before his meds kick-in.It occurred to us today that it's the opposite of the heroine's curse in "Ella Enchanted". Instead of saying yes to everything he must oppose it, even if he has no particular objection.There is something comforting about the struggle. (Source: Be the Best You can Be)
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 26, 2016 Category: Disability Source Type: blogs
Hubris
“Pride goeth before the fall” doesn’t mean first you lose your pride then you fail.It means “the famine goeth before the plague” or “the herald goeth before the king”. Get cocky, hit the wall. The sin of Hubris.Did that one this weekend. Asked too much of my guys. It could have been worse. Ended up being a lot of driving for me and a lot of stress and yelling for #1, but there was nobody around but his brother. I could have handled my own frustration better, but I think we all survived with minimal scars. The car didn’t crash. Nobody rode their bike over a cliff.The morning after I did my retrospective. Wh...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 18, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adult exercise Source Type: blogs
Atypical minds and developmental support: we haven't learned much in 15 years
< p > I wrote < a href= " http://bestyoucanbe.blogspot.com/2004/09/autism-services-directory-launched.html " > the first ‘best you can be’ post < /a > almost 12 years ago. #1 was 7 then, #2 was 5. E and I already had years of experience with cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum, and atypical minds. We already understood how worthless the classifications we’d studied in medical school were. Autism, ADHD, Asperger’s (defunct now) — very r ough labels that are primarily useful for obtaining services and perhaps for initial medication selection. < /p > < p > We thought there would be progress. < /p > < p > Th...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 7, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: research Source Type: blogs
Atypical minds and developmental support: we haven't learned much in 15 years
I wrote the first ‘best you can be’ post almost 12 years ago. #1 was 7 then, #2 was 5. E and I already had years of experience with cognitive disabilities, autism spectrum, and atypical minds. We already understood how worthless the classifications we’d studied in medical school were. Autism, ADHD, Asperger’s (defunct now) — very rough labels that are primarily useful for obtaining services and perhaps for initial medication selection.We thought there would be progress. There really hasn’t been much that we’ve seen. We still have most of the original classifications (frozen in DSM V) and I haven’t seen an...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 7, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: research Source Type: blogs
Special needs bike commuting -- it's cognitively demanding
< p > This is probably more obvious to most people than it was to me. My judgment is distorted by a lifetime of urban bicycling. < /p > < p > It was very difficult to teach #1 and #2 to ride a bicycle (it would be easier today - we know more). Almost as hard as teaching them to swim. They did well in the end though. #1 competed in high school mountain biking and I think he is a relatively safe urban cyclist. His impulsivity and rigidity are balanced by native caution and seemingly strong visual processing. < /p > < p > #2 has a substantially higher IQ than #1, but he ’s a weaker bicyclist. We did a trial bike ride to ...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 7, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adult autism cognition exercise sport Source Type: blogs
Special needs bike commuting -- it's cognitively demanding
This is probably more obvious to most people than it was to me. My judgment is distorted by a lifetime of urban bicycling.It was very difficult to teach #1 and #2 to ride a bicycle (it would be easier today - we know more). Almost as hard as teaching them to swim. They did well in the end though. #1 competed in high school mountain biking and I think he is a relatively safe urban cyclist. His impulsivity and rigidity are balanced by native caution and seemingly strong visual processing. #2 has a substantially higher IQ than #1, but he’s a weaker bicyclist. We did a trial bike ride to school today; he did well with guida...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - June 7, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adult autism cognition exercise sport Source Type: blogs
Beware passport process post-guardianship
We’re renewing #1’s passport. Should be routine, but he is now in guardianship.The post-guardianship passport process is currently undocumented. Our local passport office didn’t know the process. We’re now told we need not only the letter of guardianship but also the court order. All certified. The letters we’ve received on this have been misleading or incomplete.It is an amazing mess going on for 2-3 months now. Our next stop will be to contact the office of our local Senator.Be warned. (Source: Be the Best You can Be)
Source: Be the Best You can Be - May 31, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adult legal Source Type: blogs
Universal data access for all Americans - what would it look like?
The NYT has another “digital divide” article, this time using Detroit. I think they might be doing a series on this topic.The problem of net access isn’t unique to Detroit, it applies to every low income American, which includes pretty much every special needs adult. A smartphone (net phone?) isn’t an option, it’s a necessity for modern life [1]. That’s one the reasons I’m writing my book on smartphones for special needs teens and adults.It’s not hard to give everyone a smartphone. We’ll be drowning in cheap Android devices soon. The problem is data access. Home WiFi, which is notoriously unreliable and c...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - May 22, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: adult cognitive impairment money smartphone smartphone4all support technology Source Type: blogs
MMGuardian - Review of an iPhone parental control and usage monitoring service
Yesterday I wrote about using MMGuardian with an Android device. Today I’m continuing research for my book project and my upcoming local (St Paul, MN) presentation on May 25th by reviewing MMGuardian on an iPhone.Google and Apple have taken very different approaches to remote restrictions on mobile devices. Google has almost no built in restriction capabilities, but third party products like MMGuardian or Screen Time can dig deep into the operating system. They can monitor and disable SMS or phone services and they can lock the phone on a schedule. I haven’t used MMGuardian enough to know if this affects battery l...
Source: Be the Best You can Be - May 18, 2016 Category: Disability Tags: smartphone smartphone4all support technology Source Type: blogs
