Mindfulness: A Tool for Parents and Children with Asperger's Syndrome

Being the parent of children with an autism spectrum disorder, it is easy to lose control over the constant stream of thoughts, worries, and doubts running through your mind. There is, in fact, a lot to worry about. There is, in fact, a lot to plan for. It is easy to fall into a trap, a spiral, a never-ending chain of negative thoughts. Without mindful attention, this can happen without you ever being aware. This was the situation I found myself in 6 years following the birth of my twin boys. The first 2 years of their lives seemed like a constant struggle. The boys were born 10 weeks premature and spent six difficult weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Despite some concerns about their language development — concerns we initially attributed to their prematurity — we hoped that following yet another assessment at the age two, we might be able to finally put prematurity and all its related fears behind us. It was an unanticipated stunning blow, and we spent the next year living in alternating states of fear, denial, and acceptance while dealing with a set of challenging behaviors from not one but two very active and high-maintenance toddlers. had two main goals for my Buddhist efforts. One focus was to gain control of my runaway thought process. I hoped that by learning to pay attention to my breathing, I could learn to catch my thoughts before they burst into full-blown panic or obsession, as was happening so often. One night, in particular, I found myself outside playing an improvised game of the boys' own creation. It was a wonderful evening. Despite the limited amount of information from the scientific, Buddhist, or autism treatment communities, I decided this would be a positive avenue to pursue for my boys. However, with a lack of resources in this area, we were starting from nearly square one. Without literature guiding me on how to teach mindfulness to children with AS, I set out to devise my own program and began to search for tips on teaching mindfulness to young children, which I then could modify to suit the particular needs of my boys. To me, these seem to be obvious connections; however, a PubMed search on the words "mindfulness meditation" and "Asperger's Syndrome" still results in the disappointing "no items found." Perhaps, within this small community, we can develop the tricks and tools we need to teach our unique children mindfulness that we can, then share with the community at large. Perhaps too, we will learn the benefits for ourselves and find a way to avoid the traps of negative thinking and despair that plague parents of children with autism.