Coping To Excelling: Solutions for school-aged children diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome

By Jennifer Allen

Coping to Excelling is a documentary and corresponding booklet shedding light on the topic of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome in school-aged children. Written by a Mother of a son with Asperger’s, this engaging series of interviews allows the reader to ‘see through the eyes’ of those on the high end of the autism spectrum while getting advice from experts such as Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Tony Attwood, Jennifer McIlwee Myers, Billy Edwards and many more! Topics include: Choices in education, bullying, overview of HFA & AS, Social Development and family life at home. Bottom line: This book will take these children, and their families, from merely coping with High-Functioning Autism to excelling!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Allen
• Release date: Feb 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301171972

Jennifer Allen

Jennifer Allen has a background in marketing and broadcasting, which includes positions at KLST-TV, Paramount Stations Group and Time Warner Cable San Antonio. Since learning her oldest son has a form of high-functioning autism called Aspergers Syndrome, Jennifer has been active in the autism community. Working with her family, Jennifer produced a children's animated series titled Ameriquest Kids (now distributed by Landmark Media) and recently released a documentary and book titled, "Coping to Excelling: Solutions for school-aged children diagnosed with High Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome". She maintains www.copingtoexcelling.com and currently speaks on excelling your HFA/AS child under their diagnosis. Jennifer remains active in her children's academic life through participation on the NEISD Special Ed Advisory Committee and serves as a Board Member of The Autism Community Network.

Book preview

Coping To Excelling

Solutions for school-aged children diagnosed with

High-Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome

by Jennifer Allen

Coping to Excelling: Solutions for school-aged children diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome

By Jennifer Allen

Copyright 2013 Jennifer Allen

Smashwords Edition

Dedication

This booklet is dedicated to my family unit. Herb, Sam and Charlie…thank you for your inspiration, involvement and unwavering support of this project. Also dedicated to my parents Charles and Yvonne England who have never ceased to provide unconditional love and support to their children and grandchildren. Foremost to God… who strengthens me.

May each of you find your core support.

With great appreciation

To Michael and Mindy Clayton for their combined talent. Together they produced more than just the artwork, graphics and layout on these pages, they also put their combined hearts into the entire Coping to Excelling project.

To Alex Mongiello who recorded unknown hours worth of interviews with High Def precision and Dean Schanbaum whose editing marathon kept Coping to Excelling on the path to the positive conclusion.

Also to my sister, Sharon Kaiser, who ‘burnt the midnight oil’ in an effort to keep the words and grammar at it’s very best!

Table of Contents

A Special Message from Dr. Temple Grandin

Forward

Meet the Interviewees

Chapter 1: Understanding High-Functioning Autism/Asperger’s Syndrome

C2E Worksheet: Let’s Get Started

C2E Worksheet: Explaining High-Functioning Autism/Aspergers

Chapter 2: The Family Unit

C2E Worksheet: Maintaining the Family Unit

Chapter 3: Education

C2E Worksheet: Choosing your Child’s means of Education

Chapter 4: Bullying

C2E Worksheet: Prevention and Management of Bullying

Chapter 5: Social Development

C2E Worksheet: Identifying the Needs for Social Development

Conclusion

Helpful Resources

References

A Special Message from Dr. Temple Grandin

Autism is a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum you’ve got somebody who remains non-verbal and very handicapped. At the other end you’ve got Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Thomas Jefferson and Nikola Tesla who invented the power plant. That intense, single-minded interest is what enables some of these people to do really great things. Autism’s a very big spectrum. At one end there are some very famous people who have done a lot of great things. Einstein had no language until he was 3 years old.

We’ve got to work with these kids to help them develop their strengths. If they are good at art, you need to develop their art skills. If they are good at math let’s develop their engineering and math skills. If they are good at writing, let’s develop their writing skills.

Dr. Temple Grandin

FORWARD

The journey with producing this documentary and booklet, Coping to Excelling began as a quest to assist younger mothers that are embarking on the journey of raising a child on the higher end of the Autism spectrum.

Careful to gather the most knowledgeable in their field of Autism and Asperger study, the interviews took many months to gather and many more to transcribe and assimilate. Excited with the diverse yet solid knowledge that made it’s way into a fluid form, I felt the step-by-step information would provide solid tools to assist parents though the school years or at least provide a great place to start.

What I never expected to occur on this journey was the impact of Dr. Temple Grandin. My intention of mentioning this is to share the enlightenment she provide me and my boys by her genuine interest, if not concern, on getting them on the right path by way of her experience living with Autism.

The powerful and insightful contributions Dr. Grandin has made to the Coping to Excelling program bears me passing on to you the reader. I’ll try and summarize so you too can benefit from her experience and wisdom. Here we go: An absolute for getting your child past the bullying, especially during the dreaded Middle school years, is by shared interests. Let geeks be with geeks! Whether it’s art, math, autoshop or rocket building, your Asperger child will certainly feel better around those with similar interests. Get them hands-on work experience and do not revel in the label of autism but in their particular area of interest.

Strong statement!

Let us celebrate their eccentricities and not worry so much about what others think. As you’ll read in this booklet, removing the obstacles and allowing them to be who they were intended is all we can do as a parent.

Bottom line, let’s take them from merely Coping to Excelling!

Jennifer Allen

Meet the Interviewees

The Narrator

Jennifer Allen

Jennifer Allen has a long and varied background in broadcasting and TV Production. Eight years ago, Jennifer found out that her eldest son, Sam, had autism and immediately chose to leave her full-time career. Embarking on independent productions allowed her to spend more time with her