autistic sons social skills

I am very concerned about my 15 year old son who has high functioning autism. His social skills seem to be worse than the other kids in his asperger classroom  and nothing seems to be improving. He speaks before thinking and often his remarks are off the wall without common sense. People assume he is not bright, but in IQ testing, his verbal and nonverbal areas are in the normal range.  Executive functioning and working memory are low, so  testers dont add the scores because they feel it misleads. Sometimes he is given second chances in testing because  he will blurt an incorrect answer before thinking--but knows the right answer.    I have noticed when he is on ritalin, there is an improvement with his interacting and he comes across clever.  Its as if the stimulant helps him think before he speaks.  Unfortunately , none of the stimulants last longer than a few hours for him and they cause him anxiety.    My hope is he will socially mature in time ( will always have a problem, of course) and we will find the "right" stimulant that wont cause so much anxiety and tics .    What do you think?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

His social problems are typical of persons with his disorder and the best intervention is a social skills/social problem-solving group. His working memory and EF problems are typical of ADHD, so it is not surprising that he achieved some benefit from the psychostimulant. While there are many stimulant products available, when you boil it all down there are really only two choices: methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine. If the medicines he has used are from one of those two 'families' of drugs, it would be worthwhile to choose an option from the other of the two families. If he is not able to use either of the two families of stimulant medications because of the side effects, a trial on Strattera would be prudent. Finally, relative to his WM deficit, you may want to consider Cogmed Working Memory Training, a software-based approach to enhancing working memory capacity. The five-week, at-home, computerized program helps many children and adults to enhance their working memory (and attentional) skills (see www.cogmed.com).

[cinnie12]

Thank you so much for your help. I will look into the things you mentioned.!