Social Work visit for ds (autism) any advice?

[Eulalia]

Hi and apologies as usual for not being on here in months and always returning when I want something. If anyone has the time to help with this then I would really appreciate it.

A reminder that ds is 6.4 and has autism, mildish I suppose although am increasingly finding him hard at times. He's at mainstream, primary 2 with support and is doing well there. However at home it all falls to pieces. He constantly bugs dd (3.7), hitting her, shouting etc and if they do play 'nicely' together it usually involves being descructive. They are both very very active and will happily jump on all the beds, throw things etc. ds has also just started making loud shouting noises sometimes at ds2 who is 4 months now and will obviously cry. ds and dd are fine on their own but I seem to spend all my time when they are together trying to separate them, shout at ds and ineffectually punishing him and of course keep ds2 out of it as they both will annoy him.

Anyway you get the picture. SS are at last coming for an assessment next week.

Do I exaggerate things to push for help? Do I tell them things I don't want to admit like I've resorted ocassionaly to smacking ds which I hate, hate hate but out of desperation as nothing else seems to work.

I did get a leaflet from the Carers Support Worker who came yesterday which is helpful but its more geared towards looking after an adult, elderly person.

Anyone have any advice and experience of this? Thanks so much, sorry I just don't have time to go through all the threads searching for more info on this. Thanks.

[nikkie]

Not a lot of advice but do tell all the worst things as it is usually the only way to get help.Maybe not the smacking though.
Hope this bumps for you and good luck

[SoBlue]

You should definately tell them the worst it can be but balance it with some fairly ok days. I had a visit a few months back my ds ASD is aggressive at home and school so i provided evidence from school to back that up. I stressed as my ds requires support in school in that short space of time how much more so do i. Also with being so demanding i have no time for myself to recharge my batteries and if im down how am i going to cope with him then i will need even more help. Its about being pro-active not re-active. Obviously with other children you need to spend extra time as ds is taking up most of it and if you had sometime without him, you could do that. I was awarded 6hrs a month last week. HTH

[Eulalia]

Thank you nikkie and SoBlue - the meeting is on Monday so will let you know how it goes. There will probably be more meetings too.

Good to hear you got some help SoBlue.