Aspergers/ASD support thread

seven-day-weekend

Sometimes my son will take a hint, but not usually, he normally would have to be told and quite often argues about it.

sock-knitter

hints and jokes go right over my sons head, he would need to be told straight, and then would probably argue about it

mousytrap

My son's got a diagnosis but no statement yet.

On Thursday, I'm invited to a meeting at his school, which also involves the head of his old school, and they tell me this is about doing a "Common Assessment Form"???

I know very little about this but gather it's something about trying to get all the different people that have seen him together and generally hurry along some help for him??? I think I also heard it was not related to applying for a statement...

Can anyone explain succinctly what this process is about and does it achieve anything?

Ta
mousy

Js_Other_Half

mousytrap wrote: »

On Thursday, I'm invited to a meeting at his school, which also involves the head of his old school, and they tell me this is about doing a "Common Assessment Form"???


Can anyone explain succinctly what this process is about and does it achieve anything?

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/strategy/deliveringservices1/caf/cafframework/

mousytrap

Cheers. I did find and read a little of that site, although I've got to say it fails on "succinctly". Probably written for folk working in those fields. It's going zoom, zoom, over my head...

Never mind. I'm probably suffering too much sleep deprivation...

Thanks anyway
mousy

julie03

my DS is seven nearly eight and had a reassement today( already been diagosed with dysphraxia) the doctor wouldnt commit to a diagnosis, because he talked today about something in his head called warrior world, where the warriors talk to him, and he says he can see the world he lives in and warrior world side by side, this started about 4-6 months ago. he is quite adament it is real and he hears them talk. she has said he has some sides which point to Aspergers and others which point to atypical autism, but because of this warrior world she is refering him to cahms and they will go from there.

my question is does anyone have a child with ASD/aspergers with this type of escapism as this is always what i thought it was, though im not a professional, cos otherwise i think it could be a bit more serious and it worries me a bit.

thank you

Allegra

I don't see anything unusal about this, especially at that age. In fact, it's a beautiful thing to have, this ability to retreat into an inner world when the outside world becomes too bewildering; it's also a prism through which the outside world is often better made sense of.

If he is happy to talk to you about the warrior world, listen for all you're worth - these characters could become a valuable communication tool.

Oh, and if you - or someone else - believes that a vivid imagination can not coexist with an ASD, that quite simply isn't true. I think the only time this would become worrying is if he retreats into the warrior world, or starts believing that world is more real than the one the rest of us live in.

skipsmum

DS1 is diagnosed with autism and adhd, and has no imagination at all. He would never dress up and cannot describe things he hasn't seen in real life.
DS2 is diagnosed aspergers and lives in a fantasy world in his head. At the moment there are various clone droids in there, as well as some dogs and an imaginary friend called Olly. At 10 he is still happy to go to school wearing Buzz Lightyears wings and an eggbox on his head.
I looked into this extensively as I couldn't see how two such different children could have such a similar diagnosis, but the thing about the autistic spectrum is just that, its a whole spectrum and most kids show some signs but very few are "typical".

Peanuckle

The thing is the Autistic spectrum does cover such a wide area but you also have to take into account how each child's brain copes with their environment. Some children can't process things quick enough and shut off from the real world totally, others create a mini-world inside their heads where they can retreat to in safety when the real world is too much and other never have that ability and lash out when the real world gets too much (and many, many more variants) It's comparable to how several children would cope with, for example, moving after the loss of a leg. Some hop, some shuffle, some insist on being carried, some use an artificial limb, all reasonable responses but dependant on the child's underlying personality and also their environment.

My eldest (who has Asperger's and is now 17) used to retreat into his own world when life just got too much, it did him no harm and seemed to be a safe place where he could talk himself through things that had happened in the real world that he couldn't cope with at the time. Almost similar to the way very young children often re-enact their school day with dolls and they take the adult role, it's all a way of making sense of the world around you. His younger brother however (also Asperger's and now 16) couldn't process things this way and instead lashed out whenever he just couldn't cope with all the information his brain was throwing at him, thankfully this has calmed a lot and he has now learnt that firing up a football game on the PS3 distracts his brain enough to calm down

[Deleted User]

My son has aspergers and Dyspraxia.., same route as you.., was diagnosed with dyspraxia because of some social difficulties and a more or less inability to write at 8 years and then with aspergers at 10 or 11. He was referred to CAHMs for the assessment and since they have never been out of our lives. But this has been a positive thing on the whole.

In spite of what your doctor said about typical and atypical.., this is perfectly normal for a kid with Aspergers. Just because he's been referred to CAHMs because of his 'vivid' imagination, it does not mean he has something else wrong. I have heard my son have conversations in his room when no one else was there lol. Very worrying for me.., but it comes and goes. Sometimes he needs to talk to a mysterious other sometimes he doesn't.

I don't know if it will help, but after making this post, I am going to make another one, showing an example of something unbelievably good my son has written in school. This is part of the 'world' my son sometimes lives in, its a product of his very vivid imagination. Like u, I do worry about how much he distinguishes between reality and 'his imaginary world' and yes, sometimes the barrier between the two gets blurred. But I think quite firmly, having lived with it, for some years that this is just a part of aspergers/autism, not an indication of serious mental illness like schizophrenia (which is what I wondered about). My son is obsessed by games, tells stories about things that he swears blind have happened to him. But they haven't always, quite often they happened only in his imagination when I ask around. Usually he invents these stories to explain some intense emotion he's feeling that he needs to express (I hope that makes sense) but its hard for us ordinary mortals tied to concepts like 'truth' and 'lies' when dealing with the real world lol. Particularly when u are a panicky mum and hear some wild story about what awful thing has happened to him today. Then I have to turn into a detective and find out what, if anything really did happen and decide if I need to do something about it lol.

Its a part of living in the wierd world of having a child with aspergers.., it may be different to the world we live in but there's nothing wrong with it.

And it does have a certain wonder to it as u'll see if u read my next post https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2527057.

Best of luck