Aspergers/ASD support thread

Peanuckle

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

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On the plus side found out that teaching himself to read at 3 has a name - hyperlexis or someting.

hyperlexia

My eldest has this, he taught himself words from just before 3 and went on to have the ability to read anything by 6. He didn't understand 90% of what he'd read but this has developed over time. He's now nearly 17 and doing the Scottish equivalent of A level English. He uses a laptop and has support with planning essays etc but has come a long way from the little boy who read special needs reports just because the teacher left them on the desk in Nursery and repeated it word for word at full volume in the playground at home time :rolleyes:

Js_Other_Half

I came across this site detailing an application you can buy via itunes for your iphone or ipod touch. It is specifically designed for people with autism (or who are brain damaged) to be able to communicate. I believe the app is about £150 <!!!> but much more portable than anything else currently on the market.

http://www.proloquo2go.com/spip.php

Peanuckle

Sorry I haven't been around this thread for a long time but it's been chaos here as usual.

Got a strange question though, has anyone heard (or had any experience) of someone with Asperger's temporarily losing their sight as a reaction to extreme stress?

The reason I ask is last Friday I got a phone call from Al's school (he's nearly 17 and in mainstream) to say they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive for him and could I meet it at the hospital? the only information they could give me was his eyes were twitching wildly but he couldn't see anything at all.

When we got to see him at the hospital he was his usual calm self but couldn't open his eyes and when helped to the eye was still twitching. As he has had long term eye problems (congenital cataracts and various surgeries to remove scarring) he wasn't too freaked out about not being able to see but a little concerned he might miss his computer time if we didn't get home til late :rolleyes:

After checking him over the doctor couldn't find anything and sent for his notes to be brought down. We asked for the lights in the consulting room to be dimmed as they were hurting my head and sat waiting. In the half an hour it took to get the notes Al's vision came back to normal. What a relief!
The only suggestion the doctor could give was it "could" be a case of what he called conversion. Al had had a busy and stressful day, in fact he'd said to his support worker earlier on that it was the best day of his life. He'd been offered a work experience placement that could lead to an apprenticeship, his new part time job were due to email his first shift details through and just before his vision went someone in the base squirted his shirt with juice and two younger lads threw screaming tantrums. The doctor thought that all this stress built up and the screaming was enough to cause his system to "shut down" and the blindness was the result.

Jeez, long post, sorry
Short version - have you ever heard of "conversion" and if it happens again is it just a case of moving to a calm environment and waiting for it to pass?

kabie

Not having any medical basis to answer but answering from personal experience:

I'd say that it's certainly a possibility, even leaving aside migraine (which can cause loss of vision without pain). Disturbance of the senses in reaction to stress is pretty common in autistic people, the severity of the disturbance can vary greatly, has he ever experienced anything like this before, even mildly? What does he think caused it?.
If stressed I can experience blurred vision from mild to severe, I certainly can't read and sometimes couldn't see enough to move about safely, I've never totally lost my vision though. These sorts of disturbances can be frightening particularly if you don't realise what's happening; for non verbal autistic people just imagine the impact without the tools to explain what's happening or find out why.

I do sometimes experience migraines with visual disturbance but I can tell the difference. For both causes I will try to tell someone who can help and get to a quiet area asap, as you suggested. I find that under the duvet in the dark is best but not really practical at school. Mostly now after years of experience I can feel things coming on and will try to reduce stress : move to a quiet area, leave an argument etc before the onset.

(I can be affected in other ways too by stress, eg balance, hearing, language comprehension).

Peanuckle

The support base he uses at school have a calm room he can use, it's actually a walk in cupboard that has been emptied and padded out so the children can go in and rest in the dark when they need to. Sounds daft but it works.

Many Thanks, I will suggest that as a course of action if it happens again. Obviously I'll still get him checked out but he can wait in there til I get to the school as he was far more stressed by everyone panicking and being taken out to an ambulance at lunchtime with the entire school watching on.

cloverfan

hi i thought i would introduce myself...am 32 years old with DS1 aged 14 and he has adhd, DS2 is 10 and has adhd and odd, i also think my daughter is possibly adhd too but she is only 4. I am really stressed at the moment. How do other people deal with things? i.e when DS2 is hanging round the table leg refusing to get in car for 2 hours? what about when he is lashing out at other people? what should i do? any advice would be gratefully appreciated as i am really feeling like i am getting desperate.

wornoutmumoftwo

My son had his assessment for a diagnosis a couple of weeks ago and went back today for the feedback, and they have decided he isn't autistic/aspergers and think his social and communication problems are a part of the way he is developing as he is making good progress due to the fact he goes to a special school part time.

They did mention ADHD as he was quite restless/wandering off in the assessment but again said they didn't want to diagnose him with that at the moment.

One of the assessing doctors is actually his school doctor so she'll be keeping an eye on him.

I don't really know what to think now, I was all hyped up to accept an autism diagnosis, and although I'm glad he hasn't got one - now I feel that I don't know what he's got?

JBD

wornoutmumoftwo wrote: »

My son had his assessment for a diagnosis a couple of weeks ago and went back today for the feedback, and they have decided he isn't autistic/aspergers and think his social and communication problems are a part of the way he is developing as he is making good progress due to the fact he goes to a special school part time.

They did mention ADHD as he was quite restless/wandering off in the assessment but again said they didn't want to diagnose him with that at the moment.

One of the assessing doctors is actually his school doctor so she'll be keeping an eye on him.

I don't really know what to think now, I was all hyped up to accept an autism diagnosis, and although I'm glad he hasn't got one - now I feel that I don't know what he's got?

This is similar to my middle child, my younger son. He had delayed speech and development, also had a lot of autistic traits, eg obsessional behaviour, difficulty in socialising. However his paediatrician said he was definitely not autistic, even though his younger sister has severe autism. To this day it is still extremely frustrating not to be told what is wrong. He senses himself that he is slightly different from other people, life is very stressful for him.
Worn out mum, this is only a suggestion but it has worked for us. I usually treat my son in the same way that I would treat his sister. In other words I use techniques that I have learnt regarding autistic children and apply them to both of them.

wornoutmumoftwo

I usually treat my son in the same way that I would treat his sister. In other words I use techniques that I have learnt regarding autistic children and apply them to both of them.

Thank you JBD, Yes, I do this too. My son's special school specialising in the autistic spectrum and I've had a lot of technique advice from them over the years, he is very obsessive, can't socialise very well and has communication problems (he likes to stay on his subject and doesn't listen to others).

He's getting all the possible support he can at the moment anyway, so a diagnosis wouldn't have changed that anyway, where I live they are really hot on support.

I'll be seeing the pyschologist soom anyway as he still isn't behaving in school, if I can get him to behave there I think i can cope with anything else.

JBD

Worn out mum of two, I'm glad you and your son are getting plenty of support.Sometimes I feel 'ASD' is only a label, we are all individuals with our own set of problems. I think the best thing to do is to take 1 day at a time and just to be there for our children as much as we can.