[Lillyleaf]

Hello,
I was wondering your guys opinon on something. I was doing a camp with some kids and one little girl was stream line asperger's. The camp leader kept touching her and pulling her away frmo things because it took her a little bit longer to change activities and focas on a new thing compared to all the other kids.

It drove me crazy because of the whole touching thing. i'm not sure why but I know i HATE being touched and I think that it just made her worce. She was a great kid and I grew attached to her. The rest of the kids in the camp treated her a little diffrently but they were nice enough. I felt like the instructor made her more diffrent then she was.

I told her this and she admits that she has never met anyone with aspergers and didn't go look up more on it like she should have. In fact she seemed to exspect the girl to be slower then everyone else. It drove me up the wall. I hated how the instructor treated her. I was wondering what was your guy's opinion on this.

Thanks,

~Lillyleaf~

[objtrbit]

I feel you're right here-I don't have aspergers but I know I wouldn't want to be handled that way. I dated an aspie and he had issues with touching and stuff..so I can imagine it could only aggravate the situation.

If I was that kid I know I would hate treatment like that-as a camp leader you can't just leave a kid by themselves, so I know that might cause stress if it's time to go but one of the kids is not ready...I think I would say "hey, we better hurry or we might miss something fun" or something like that...I wouldn't be yanking peeps though lol.

Good eyes yo, must be stressful to watch stuff like this happen!

Take care,
-obj

[Omers]

She is lucky it wasn't my kid.
If an aspi is having trouble with transitions you let us know the schedule and do count downs until the transition to the next activity, Many of us are touch sensitive and it will make things worse. Also being that overtly controlling especially in a physical way is very hard on an aspi.

[Yoda]

I agree w Omers. My son isn't aspie but he does have ADHD and when he was younger I would let him know when we were changing activities. "Ten minutes until ----" helped him wind down what he was doing.

And I agree that the campleader was out of line by using touch to that extreme. I don't like to be touched and that would upset me.

[Visioneer]

It's really good that you stood up for her, and it's a good thing you were there to recognize what was happening and straighten the woman out.

It's hard to watch kids particularly being treated in a manner that makes things worse because people don't understand what it's like for them, or expect them to be less able, or get frustrated if they act differently, before they have even bothered to explore their limitations and strengths, and not be respectful. It leaves a mark on kids.

I'm sure she felt bad about it when she realized what she was doing, and hopefully you taught her something she can use in the future. So, good job on that. That little girl was lucky you were there.

[grandma100]

I know my family of bipolars doesn't like touching unless it is predetermined like a high five and my aspie grandson really avoids touch because he's afraid he will pee his pants or something bad. I like the idea of activity transition countdowns though. Thanks to whatever genius for coming up with that!