Making Growth Easy With Autism Spectrum Disorders

This is an article containing strategies on creating growth. As we all know, this is extremely difficult for anyone. One of the topics I love to write about is how much we fight ourselves and make this process quite difficult or impossible. Of coarse we don’t do this intentionally, it is our subconscious way of coping with difficult situations, feelings, or thoughts. Why would we go to all this trouble to make our lives so difficult? It is the very skill that keeps us okay in the world, keeps us from getting better. My point is, we shut ourselves off from the available resources out there; the really simple resources that are always immediately available to us. I continue to use words like we and us because this is something every human lives with. This is also something that greatly hinders growth when it comes to helping your child or yourself.

We can learn from extreme examples like addictions. People who suffer from a drug or gambling addiction don’t want to ruin their lives. They didn’t set out to destroy the very things they worked so hard to obtain in life. As I said previously, our subconscious mind is extremely powerful and will do things without the conscious mind even knowing. What are we fearing about change? Vulnerability. Being vulnerable is not being safe. I have listed some concrete ways on how to use this approach to address areas in need of change.

When addressing difficult behaviors in your child, find the easiest environment to begin
When desiring to approach social situations differently, find and use the person that will make this the easiest
Remember the natural dip or step backwards that occurs with every attempt at growth or change
When success just isn’t happening, step back and evaluate where you could restart with less of a challenge
Learn from others and ask for help
Take micro-steps
Plan strategy and steps and communicate with significant other

Good Luck, and please comment below with updates or questions. You can also follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/andrewvogl