AIBU?
To really not understand...
jamoncrumpets · 28/11/2019 17:58
How some parents can't seem to work out that their kids are autistic before they start primary school?
I've read at least five threads this week about kids with no diagnosis struggling in mainstream school. Kids that aren't even yet on the ASD diagnosis pathway.
How could your kid get to five and you not notice that they were autistic? Honestly?
To be absolutely clear I am not talking about parents who have noticed differences and have started on the diagnosis pathway - I know myself from experience that it can take up to two years to get a diagnosis.
I'm talking about parents who have not even begun that process.
I'm genuinely baffled by it.
BlueGingerale · 28/11/2019 18:04
I had no idea till my DS was 8.
I worked full time from when he was 2 months and didn’t really know any other kids his age.
He was fine at home because we adapted to him without realising we were.
I’d also never heard of Autism besides Rainman (DS is currently 19) and he was nothing like rainman.
School were complaining about him since nursery. They kept telling me he was naughty. When he absolutely wasn’t at home. They never told me they thought he was autistic.
Basically until he was 8 no one ever told me they thought he was autistic and I knew absolutely nothing about autism.
RandomMess · 28/11/2019 18:16
@jamoncrumpets
No querying their child's behaviour etc with the school, asking them if they think there is something possibly "wrong" with their child...
Actually one DC was diagnosed as just having anxiety by the professionals because they're eye contact is too good for them to be autistic.
BlueGingerale · 28/11/2019 18:18
Autism absolutely has grown.
Not awareness.
How many kids did you know when you were a child who were autistic? I don’t mean had a diagnosis. I mean, knowing what you know now, how many kids in your school behaved like they were autistic?
I do not remember a single kid in the 70s or 80s who had behaviour that would now be diagnosed with autism.
JellyTeapot · 28/11/2019 18:19
Schools are the gatekeepers of any assessment or support round here. I didn't realise my DS was possibly autistic until I had his younger siblings and the differences between them were clear. And I'm a teacher who has taught autistic children. I still don't know if he is actually autistic or just quirky because I've been struggling with school for the last two years to get him on the pathway to assessment. Which he may not even get anyway because it's all so woefully underfunded. It's not always black and white, it's very easy to not realise what's going on even if you have some experience.
Greggers2017 · 28/11/2019 18:21
You do know how wide the autistic spectrum is don't you?
Some children don't display symptoms until they start school. When they are starting to socialise with other children their own age.
If the child with ASD is a parents first child and they don't go to baby groups etc, what do they have to compare their child too? They don't so therefore do not know their differences.
stucknoue · 28/11/2019 18:22
Should say aren't as much trouble! My dd was diagnosed at 2, that is very young - most are at school. And yes some parents don't realise there's an issue because they are undiagnosed autistic themselves - my stbexh never accepted the diagnosis because "she's like him" but he won't go for diagnosis
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