Aspergers/ASD support thread

Zara33

studentphil wrote: »

I got 32 on that test but I aren't AS so I am not sure how much faith you should put in it.

I agree!

I got: [SIZE=+1]Introverted:56%Sensing:50%Thinking:12%Judging:33%[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1][/SIZE]

PasturesNew

If you listed every trait of an AS person, most people could point to 1 and say "I do that/I am like that".

If the list is 100 long and you're pointing at 90 of them, then you probably are.

But along the way everybody will tail off. Having a score of 32 just means there are some traits that you have. But it wouldn't mean you were AS. It just means you have some of the traits on the list, but not all or most.

Nothing is black and white.

And perhaps it's like the X-Factor. If you watch all the auditions there are some you can tell are likely to win. There are some that howl like a dying dog. In the middle there are some that might make it through weeks 1 and 2, but when it comes down to the full set of criteria needed to become an overnight singing sensation and star, they just haven't got it.

And it's the same with this.

It was never presented as "THE test/proof". Just an interesting diversion late on a Monday night.

blue_monkey_2

Hi snaggles, I missed answering your thread yesterday, sorry to hear about CAMHS, ust focus on what today brings and hopefully they can liase with the school.

Are you any clearer in wher the school are going with this?

Ryan seems to have turned a corner at school and has been good last week and this. I then think 'he is cured' lol and then he gets home!!

FIL came around yesterday and Ryan was having a bit of a hyper fit and he just looked at us like we were ignoring that he was having a bit of a mad fit. The thing is, and I don't know if this is right, but what is the point in constantly repeating yourself over and over if he is not going to stop leaping around? I just let him get on with it until he wears himself out and unless he is doing something he shouldn't then I just leave him to it. FIL turned up at 6.00 though without telling us and stayed for an hour or so and the kids ended up out of their routine and the minute it got past 6.30 when the kids would usually be upstairs in the bath this is when Ryan started running and jumping around and laughing hysterically. You have to wonder don't you?

let us know how it goes snaggles. x

Zziggi

My DD (aged 4) is going for a ASD assessment tomorrow and I am looking for a bit of info & support about it.

I am a bit unsure as to what to expect. I thought girls didn't generally have ASD? ALso does anyone know if it tends to run in famillies?

My DS (aged 6) has been diagnosed with ASD (high functioning) and I think this is why they decided to assess DD. She has *some* ASD-type traits but mostly doesn't. My DS has loads of "typical" traits that you often hear parents of kids with ASD mention. When i look at DD i don't think she has any ASD - any traits that she has that could be considered ASD are traits that me and her dad have and neither of us have ASD!!

DD is bright (don't all parents think this - but DD's is in being given Yr1/2 work by the school and she is in Nursery!!!) she seems quite outgoing and not obviously socially awkward like some ASD. If anything, i would say she is a bit too gregarious and i have to tell her not to talk to strangers so much! She doesn't have any real obsessions except playing with dolls, which shows imagination (which Aspies aren't supposed to have). Although when she does play with dolls, she is re-telling/acting out what has happened at nursery with the dolls as kids in her nursery rather than imainary play. She is extremely sensitive to light, wind on her skin and smells (London zoo was a nightmare!). She point blankly refuses to use public toilets even to the extent of wetting herself because she says she will get "dirty" by using the toilets. Also whenever she gets her clothes dirty/spills down them she simply HAS to have a complete change of clothes. The wierd thing is, despite her obsession with clean clothes, she will wet herself rather than use public toilets and will bite holes in the cuffs of her coats and jumpers so they look messy. To me she is not aspie in anyway like my son. I'm not sure what to expect from the assessment - i think they are just doing it because DS is aspie and the HV thought her toilet & dirty clothes obsessions were a bit 'odd'. What do you all think?

blue_monkey_2

HiZziggi,

Have you got my daughter? Mine is the same as yours, I think that you should go for the assessment and not read anything more into it thean you have already. If you are not concerned that there is a problem then I would just be honest and tell them this - you had your son assessed because there is a proble. i do however think it great they want to assess her because her brother is ASD. that is brilliant I think.

Your daughter sounds like mine but I do not see her as being like my son at all,. She is very bright as well, in reception and she reads books for year 3 and she can write as well but she has the most horrendous tantrums and will get very violent with them and she is avery pedantic about stuff - VERY pedantic and life can be hard, but that is just how she is, I would not say it is ASD that is going to affect her life (in the same way it does my sons). However, go for the assessment and come out of it knowing you might learn something else about her and it means you will be able to make the school aware there is a possible problem in the future.

Please come back and let us know how it went, won't you. xx

Zziggi

blue_monkey wrote: »

HiZziggi,

Have you got my daughter? Mine is the same as yours,

she has the most horrendous tantrums and will get very violent with them and she is avery pedantic about stuff - VERY pedantic

Oh, how could I forget to mention DDs tantrums!

Yes it does sound like we have the same daughters! As for pedantic - she will argue that black is white - and she is almost convincing and presents a very logical arguement even for a 4 year old! She is very narrowly focussed which can be a blessing or a curse. It may make her inflexible & rigid in the future OR it could actually make a focussed in a positive way to achieve what she sets out to achieve. I hope its the latter.

MyUserNamesTaken

You know, Tony Attwood and his team are working on a new way to diagnose Aspie girls, as AS tends to have a different impact on girls than it does on boys. Girls are far less likely to get a diagnosis, as their behaviour is normally put down to "being a tom-boy", etc, etc. It was widely assumed that AS in females was extremely rare. Turns out that it was an incorrect assumption. AS is far less frequent in females than in males, but is also far less likely to be picked up in females. In other words, there are a lot of girls and women out there who are Aspies, but haven't been diagnosed due to their aspieness exhibiting itself differently. To give you an idea of what I mean:


I was a tomboy - never played with dolls. I was more interested in lego.
I was quite happy sitting there for hours playing with my lego on my own.
I was not interested in playing with anyone else (girls or boys).
I was frequently mistaken for a boy as a child (short hair, skinny, dressed in trousers and t-shirt - nothing girlie about me).
I was very loud and bossy (to the point of being called obnoxious).
When puberty came, I didn't want it to happen. I could not handle the changes taking place. I tried hard to stop my boobs growing, etc.
I remember wishing that I'd been born a boy!

PasturesNew

I understand that there are 4 boys to every girl diagnosed.

I wouldn't say I was a tom-boy as such, my sister was more of a tom boy so maybeit's just a relative perception. But, looking down that route, I'd say of me:
- I never had dolls/didn't like dolls
- I loved the train set/cars
- I loved climbing trees/walls
- I couldn't be loud and bossy, that was my sister's job
- I've never "done" hair/makeup/clothes. Even now I am sitting here with about 3" of roots showing in streaked hair and I haven't even brushed my hair for about 2 weeks, I just pull it up in a scrunchy. Nobody sees it/me anyway
- I've never wanted children
- I don't like babies, if somebody at work were to bring one in, I'd hide in the loos until they've gone
- I used to fix all my own cars, mechanically/change brake shoes etc
- I have a boy's viewpoint on a lot of issues, mainly issues where I really don't understand why most women are so irrational about some things.
- I have absolutely ZERO taste in clothes. Don't know what suits/fits. NO idea about colour or coordination. No idea about style whatsoever. Never have had. So I don't bother. I wear jeans and hoodies all the time mostly.

I'm sure I could find more, but really, nobody's reading

PasturesNew

Aspies and Marriage

I read that Aspies rarely marry.

I am single, never married, never lived with anybody, no children.
I am late 40s.
It is unlikely to happen now.

This isn't through any lack of desire to hook up with people, or even because there's something especially distasteful about the way I look. It's just, I think now, that I have never seen nor made any of the "dating signals" required. If anybody ever pursued me I would be edgy/anxious in their presence and many of my Aspie traits would have made conversation with me a peculiar experience from their point of view.

In fact, I have always said to people: "If the man of my dreams walks in here right now I'll take a quick peek, then I won't ever look again in case he sees me looking". That whole eye-contact things sucks eh! Never wanted to make eye contact with a bloke I fancied. Worra nut I was/am?

So I guess most who entertained the thought of dating me simply gave up trying to spot a signal being given out, or just wrote me off as "a bit weird, can't quite work out what, but odd".

If a bloke is talking to me, I've always taken it as that: a conversation. And, in ensuring clarification over things I was probably quite rigid/formal in my initial speech as I was trying to work out the score and if I needed to be wary. In doing this I now realise I have made strange defensive statements. Now I think back I seem to recall quite a few have almost leapt back saying something along the lines of "no need to be so defensive". Which, I am afraid, made me more so because their sudden change of voice/attitude startled me and made me more anxious.

Worra mess eh!!

Zara33

PasturesNew wrote: »

Aspies and Marriage

I read that Aspies rarely marry.

I disagree i know of several people both male and female whom have gone on to marry, have children, get a job and live a contented life. Autism/Aspergers ain't that big black hole there is light at the end of the tunnel.