Anyone else noticing the uptick in open hostility towards people with ASD?

[FFSakeDrinkSake]

As the title says. It feels like it's open season recently. In the last few weeks alone I've seen many threads questioning the validity of Asd, the credentials of those diagnosing the condition, the 'explosion' of diagnosis', the 'fact' that you qualify for extra benefits if you are autistic and/or have ADHD, the apparent drain on resources kids with ASD have on the educational sector depriving others and most recently the idea that someone (self diagnosed) can 'outgrow' autism. Most of which contain the worst misinformation about what we're trying to deal with on a daily basis and making it sound like we're just trying to .. i dont even know tbh.. scam our way through life?

Disclaimer NATAAT.

It is well known that a diagnosis will 'help' a DLA assessment. Without this then the evidence supplied has to be extremely compelling.

I'm sorry I don't and I don't want to guide you wrongly. Educationally there is a very strong case because it is statutory. I'm sure it's worth looking at. If it is in their ehcp I would contact sossen as provision is not being made. Also if the la have commissioned it or school have commissioned it on behalf of the la.

I guess though it depends what you want, it's very good evidence for help with funding transport if post 16 or fully funded transport before 16. It's also good evidence for a care assessment if you need respite.

Have a think about what you want. Ipsea or sossen are worth a call. There is a Facebook group called educational equality which Is incredibly helpful.

I'm not sure kids using phones on the way home from school means they rarely have to give eye contact!

Yes, but the science that underpins this is nowhere near developed enough to use brain scans as a diagnostic tool. Our understanding of the brain and whether a supposed ND brain always looks different is still in its infancy.

Surely it depends on the purpose of the travel training? If its purpose is to help people travel independently, then there is no point doing it with a child who can never travel alone.

What did they say? You can record the without permission (you are legally allowed to do this for your own use) then have it transcribed. It can be used as evidence for all sorts of things. Educational tribunal, discrimination, dla, pip....

You could also have them say it verbally then follow up with an email confirming what they said and asking them to correct you if your understanding is wrong.

yes it’s the point to travel independently but I feel like they should be teaching them ways to cope so they don’t run off or put themselves in dangerous situations. But they have refused them the service because they run off

I really wish, just once, we could have a thread on this topic that doesn't descend into uneducated ablest shite from armchair experts with no qualifications, no lived experience but somehow seem to think their insight based on their friend's brother's old neighbour's dog's professional experience allows them to spout crap about how everyone has 'autistic traits', underground benefit smuggling rings able to expertly coach a child to display social communicative issues through hours long assessment, and people buying autism diagnoses from the queue of medical professionals so desperate to prescribe the magic autism cure pill that they are willing to risk their career over it.

I accept I have no right to control who posts. I actually have a pretty high tolerance, but I'm out now. Thanks to the people who didn't fit into the above. There have been some really interesting and educational posts but as usual when the thread got popular posters jump on to show their true colours.

My daughter is very obviously autistic. I see a lot of parents in her class pushing for a diagnosis but I actual think it's quite hard to get an actual diagnosis/assessment when it comes to the final part- lots of people seem to think it's dished out on a plate. Not in our experience, plus you have to factor in the waiting game for ADOS etc.

alot of parents with Sen children don’t want their children in a mainstream setting. It’s something that’s pushed by the government (or last government at least this one hasn’t had chance yet). The drive at the minute is to push more and more children into mainstream without support to see how they get on, so this includes children who are non verbal, are not able to follow instructions and are doubly incontinent. Parents know their child won’t manage in a mainstream setting and it isn’t fair on other children but what are they supposed to do other than fight the Sen system legally which is time consuming

@ByLoudSeal maybe they do not have the expertise in that area? Perhaps you need another service instead.

It’s clearly not just that one incident is it though? Screen use has massively reduced the amount of time children spend socialising, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they feel less comfortable in social settings now than they used to.

@SummerDays2020
https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/understanding-autism/education/exclusions-know-your-rights

I like to point out to those people that if those with ASD end up being more in number than them, it will them that will be neurodiverse...

And also that a society run by people with ASD would run on time and in budget with people actually saying what they mean...and scratchy labels and strong smells would be banned!

Of course it wouldn't be like that. Folk with ASD are as diverse as those who are not. Those kids who need support in education would have needed support anyway. And there are plenty of kids in schools who need support who don't have ASD too.

They pretended she hadn't got enough achievement points to go. I didn't know that about recording. So I can record a meeting and I don't need to get anyone's permission?

I did do that and it is also written in minutes taken by the school. I'm in the middle of the complaints process. The school have made it as difficult as possible.

Yes you can record for your own records. You couldnt directly use the recording for other reasons, it's only for personal use but you can transcribe it.

If she could never get the amount of achievement points because of her autism or they haven't accommodated her (possibly less points or targets she can make) or have given her targets that involve her autism eg sitting still if she needs to rock to regulate, that is also wrong.

Does she have an ehcp? Can you request a reassessment of need? If no ehcp, can you do a parental request for a needs assessment?

Get some proper advice, ipsea or sossen. Continue with the complaints procedure at school but go through a more legal route to get her needs met. The school complaints procedure will just take up time and energy that is probably better spent elsewhere.

Also consider a subject access request at school and the la and or any nhs services or other services. There are templates you can use online. You may find that you get half a conversation from one place that a different one hasn't disclosed.

I don’t know the exact figures in uk compared to other countries but I know in my la there are a small number of children in high cost specialist independents that cost upwards of £100k each plus transport. These aren’t necessarily children they started out as being particularly complex either, often they have been in mainstream, started not managing, have had Sen funding or ehcp needs assessment denied, gone through at least one tribunal to fight for support, all the time their needs are increasing due to needs not being met in school so eventually the expensive specialist independent is the only place that can meet needs. This might have been avoided if some lower level things had been put in place at an earlier stage but schools can’t afford it and la’s just turned down assessment requests and make parents fight for years

Because schools are underfunded in general, costs like staffing, heat and light etc have gone up massively and funding hasn’t increased by anywhere near same amount so schools have to cut costs which generally means less general class TA’s. So kids that may have had low level amount of help now aren’t getting this and their needs escalate, only way for them to get any support is by applying for ehcp

Only if you qualify. I don’t and neither do 2 of my children. 1 does though. We all have a diagnosis x2.

Well that’s the problem with the current system and it’s about to get worse as more and more complex children are now being pushed into mainstream. Councils have got themselves into a vicious cycle of not being able to provide early intervention as they are already overspending so they cut early intervention which means those children then deteriorate and need more costly support which means costs go up, and so on ….

Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it. I'm just exhausted with it all.

La run special needs schools are generally quite cost effective, the issue is there isn’t enough places in them, this means that children either are in mainstream with high level cost of support, higher than a special school would be or a specialist independent which are extremely expensive per child.

But why should lack of early intervention mean more children who are non verbal and doubly incontinent? For caring parents there is lots of advice out there.

Totally agree with this. My youngest child is showing signs of autism and adhd. He lost his dad when he was 5 in traumatic circumstances (suicide). I strongly believe the chaos leading up to his death and my poor mh since has altered his brain.
I've attended a few ND support groups recently and my take home was that there are cases (not all) where home life, trauma etc is the cause. I also believe the world we live in today is causing issues. Screen time is definitely a big factor!! So many have no attention span these days. I found the point the Ed psych made earlier very interesting!