Caring For A Child With Asperger's Syndrome: Caroline Green's Story Video

Asperger's Syndrome, or NLD, is a form of Autism. Find out what it is like to be a caregiver for someone who has Asperger's Syndrome in this video.

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Set a schedule
Live by a routine
Lay out a game plan
Be understanding

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Caroline Green is a caregiver for her son, Sam, who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was 9 years old.

CAROLINE GREEN: I'm Sam Green's mom. My name is Caroline Green. And Sam was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when he was nine-years-old. I am his primary caregiver. So Sam was two when I noticed first that he had symptoms that something was amiss. The symptoms were banging his head on the floor, pulling people--kid's hair, not being able to control his temper and struggling in school. The formal diagnosis came when he was nine, and I took him to a pediatric neurologist. In the beginning, before I understood what was going on and he would act up and behave in public, I was very embarrassed, angry. I didn't understand. I had a hard time with it. Once he was diagnosed, it was sort of a relief because it put a picture of why he was behaving the way he was behaving. The neurologist, my husband and I worked together. The three of us came to the decision that we did not want to medicate because of the side effects and because we felt that that's not the way we wanted to go for Sam. We went with the choice of speech therapy, occupational therapy, adapted physical education to strengthen him without medication. Well, there are many different support groups, parent support groups, online support groups, psychiatrists, psychologists that you can tap into; plus, dealing with friends of children that have this, getting together, talking about what you're doing for your child versus what they're doing, learning about new treatments, new technologies. It's a very, very big syndrome and they've come a long way. The thing that I learned that's most important about this is that they have to have a schedule. Routine is the utmost importance. If you don't have that and there are changes that occur, the children have a really hard time with it. So everything has to be talked about in advance. And if you go and you change something, you have to let them know in advance. You have to get down to their way of thinking. Their brain is much more intelligent than our brain. I would tell you, as a parent, that you are not alone. That's the most important thing, that there are so many other people out there whose children have Asperger syndrome. And that while it seems overwhelming in the beginning to talk to people, to do research, to go online, to take them to doctors, to get them tested, to try and avoid the drugs if they can possibly help it and just to be a united front because you have to be on the same page.

Caring for a Child With Asperger's Syndrome: Caroline Green's Story Video

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