We had tremendous discipline issues with D15 when she was a preschooler. Nothing worked... and she was sooo stubborn, and so smart, it was a very difficult time. Looking back, I can see now that some of our issues were related to her Asperger's. She had NO IDEA that she was making us really angry or behaving in a really inappropriate way when she refused to stay in her room when she was sent there. At the time I thought she just didn't care, but now I think she really didn't get it. We used to have to hold the door of her room shut to keep her in it when she was sent to her room. Timeout was not possible, I think it would have required tying her to the chair to get her to stay in it!
She has (thankfully!!!!!) grown out of a lot of that as she has gotten older. We have learned to make sure we are very explicit in our expectations and voicing our emotions out loud so she can't miss them. And she has learned that she has to really pay attention to expectations and emotions of others, too.
