Aspergers/ASD support thread

seven-day-weekend

[url]http://www.aspergerfoundation.org.uk/infosheets/introduction_as.pdf[/url] HERE is a summary of what AS is, but what I like is on page two they list the positive personality traits that go with Aspergers Syndrome.

Sarahsaver

My waters broke slightly when i was 19 weeks Pg with DS1 so in a way he is a miracle baby! he cklearly wanted to be here, even though at the time I was told to 'wait and let nature take its course'.
He was a very early walker, 8 months, climbing very soon after that :eek:

seven-day-weekend

Well that's three of us with threatened early labours and three no-crawlers.

My son did not walk unassisted until he was 14 months,but he'd been walking holding onto furniture from about ten months.

He could however, speak in sentences at a year old!:eek:

blue_monkey_2

Hi everyone,
Wow, it feels like the last year has whizzed by!! DS is now in full time - he has started a new school this year in reception - and although it take s abit of co-ercing to get him in the door, he is doing great. I had the teacher round to do a home visit and gave her copies of all the paperwork with his problems. The school have told me that so far he has not shown any aggresion towards the other children. Still not made any friends though from what I can gather. They did tell me he was very bright.

DD doing OK too, settled into her new Year 1 well.

I was thinking this morning that everything over the last year seems like a dream. My mum has sold the house, completing very shortly and it is weird to think that we can never go back there.

I was wanting to ask how you get a diagnosis for AS? I have lost track of who we have an have not seen to be honest, I've been to the docs this week and saw a lovely doctor, he has read the notes and I explained that 4 docs have wanted him to be seen at CAMHS but they have refused, each time with a different excuse, but he is going to refer me.

Who diagonises the AS? I have been to the ADHD clinic, he sleeps so I do not think he has this, but I am sure he has, or has traits of, Aspergers. The ADHD doc said he had autistic traits, but who gives a disgnosis for this. I beleive I am waiting for an appointment with the Communication Disorders Clinic though, could it be this?

I hope everyones elses little (and big) ones are doing well. It is odd having the day to myself. All I have done is shop, LOL. I am even off to the Gym tomorrow, free trial for Curves. Stock is being delivered next week and then I have to reopen the website, I've been working on it during the evenings and when I get a spare 5 minutes but we are still oficially 'closed' until next week. Happy days!!

blue_monkey_2

LOL, all you with late developers!! Ryan was 2 1/2 weeks early. At 6 weeks we bought him one of those mats with mobile things you put on the floor and they lay on, I could not work out why if I put him on it and walked off, I'd come back and he would be off the mat.... at 6 weeks he was pushing himself around the floor with his legs. He was sitting at 3 months and did crawl... at 3 1/2 months.... I remember walking in the bedroom when he was 5 months and he was standing up in the swinging crib and I thought 'heck, need a new cot today' and from then on he was up around the furniture. Then he took his first steps unaided on 31st October. Go figure!! He was just under 7 1/2 months!! And he has not stopped since.

In the holiday we went to a gymnastics club, I was paying, turned around and he had climbed to the top of a very large column in the middle of the room to 'touch the ceiling'.

Sometimes I look back and wonder if I imagined it all, I see other peoples babies at the same ages and they are not doing anything and it all seems very strange. I found some pictures the other day at his sisters birthday party when he was 8 months, and there he was toddling around.

shazrobo

hi bm, after reading your post, i wanted to add, both my sons have severe ADHD, and both sleep very well, only sleep problem they have is early wakening.

my sons were 4 weeks early, and could roll over from being a week old, my hv at the time, accused me of not putting them down in the right position, til she saw for herself. also climbed early, walked early, from 13 months old, i struggled to get daniel in a pushchair, he wanted to walk everywhere, no matter how long it took, and from 18 months old, we stopped using the pushchair altogether, they would even walk the 2 miles to nursey, even tho it would take over an hour. now they 13 they expect to be taken everywhere in car, how times change lol

seven-day-weekend

My son could push himself up on his arms (like press-ups) from the moment he was born, although he didn't walk until thirteen months and had no teeth until eleven months. He could talk in sentences at a year! My husband has written in his diary for April 1981 when Ben was 14 months old and his dad was lying on the floor and Ben was sitting on him and Ben shouted 'Look Dad I'm on the front of your back!' At fourteen months! (And how clever to know the concepts of back and front and use them in context when he didn't know the word for chest).

It does seem as though our Aspies do some things incredibly early - in some cases sitting up or walking, in my son's case press-ups and talking - but other things very late - in my son's case it was things like tying tie and shoelaces (he still struggles with a tie). He didn't learn to read until he was almost in the Juniors but once he realised it was fun he took off and soon had a reading age of 14! It does seem that a majority of AS children did not crawl, isn't that interesting?

seven-day-weekend

Aaaawwww - a trip down Memory Lane: Just read another entry in my husband's diary for November 5th 1982, Ben was 2years 9 months and we'd decided it was time for his first real fireworks! I can picture him now in his little duffel coat with his hands over his ears and his little worried face, saying (and this is the bit in the diary) 'I don't like this, I want to go to bed now, actually I don't want any more, it's too loud. Can I go to bed now, can I?'

So we stopped the fireworks and put him to bed.

Anyway, no more reminiscences, I promise! It is a good illustration of how well he talked though!

Sarahsaver

The first picture of my son is immediately after i gave birth, him still covered in goo, me all messy, body parts all over the place, and there he is immediately rootling around to be fed! He has not changed one bit!

At school a supply teacher made a comment about my DS being 'a lovely lad but he can be VERY naughty' so the learning mentor set her straight. Her reply was 'oh i think they label children too readily these days' PAH!!! We have so much evidence from tests, physical, psychological and so on.

in answer to 'how do you get a diagnosis/who diagnoses' well i have been seeking help since he was 3 and he is 8 and a half now, and DS is too complicated to yet be given a 'cut and dried' diagnosis as he has several 'untypical' traits.

But you see from the comments of the supply teacher diagnosis is not necessarily the golden ticket! You still have a potential lifetime of justifying yourself and your child to the world.

I have often told people I wish MORE people were like DS, sensitive, insightful, inquisitive, not afraid to do things which are 'different' or to have very different interests from his peers.

blue_monkey_2

Thanks guys, I guess I'll keep on waiting them to see what happens. Jus so frustrating as I fell like I am not doing enough to follow things up.

It's nice to know that our Aspies come along once they find something they enjoy. Ryan is getting books home from school now and he has started reading a few words, he is showing an interest and can get him to sit down once a day and read it so that is a good thing.

My 2 do not like fireworks at all and this is why we got the ear protectors for them, they work and now we can watch the fireworks. From the car or house anyway, LOL!!

Does anyone elses children have after school things that they do? I have Ryan down for the Gym, the kids went during the school holiday and he loves it so much and is a real natural. I was watching the boys from the Boys Squad and I think Ryan would love to do something like this but the training is very intense and I did not know if it would be suitable for him. It is a real commitment with 2 hours 3 days a week after school and then weekends too. I am thinking ahead really as he is just amazing without knowing any real skills. The chap who won the pummel horse bronze at the Olympics said that his mum sent him to gym as he was always hyper. And it set me thinking. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this??