Autism

[mercury1983]

Hi All,
i have a few questions that i am genuinely interested about so please dont bash me for coming across ignorant. My 17yo daughter is currently having autism interviews - Q1 how can someone be diagnosed with answering questions? during the interview i was asked to go out and come back in. they asked if i had any questions - i have LOADS but didnt want to come across as difficult especially infront of my daughter. they spoke about traits of autism, how someone with autism may react in different circumstances i.e feeling pressure from a job or task (Q2 - dont we all feel pressure?) or how we figure things out differently (Q3 we all have our own way, dont we?) i have reading about different types and came across HFA -Q4 if a child is too intelligent for their age brackett, are they automatically assumed autistic? one question i did ask the 'professionals' was - so if a child is exceeding or needing a bit more help with mile stones are they autistic? (Q5) they couldnt give me a straight answer - it appears that autism (and ADHD) are labels of society - i cant get my head around these 'labels' if a child (or adult) is not doing things the way its expected in the "book of life" ......
please dont bash me as i said above my daughter is currently been assessed for autism (but i will be honest and say i dont think she has it) i think alot of todays stresses is caused by internet influence.

i hope someone can help me understand 😊

Hi,
Firstly autism is not a mental health condition so you'd be much better reporting your post and asking MNHQ to move your post to

SNChildren www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs
or SNChat www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs_chat
where there are loads of posters who can advise you as their kids have autism and they've been through the diagnostic process.

Q1 - It's not just answering questions, it's very specific questions and observed responses done in a clinical setting by professionals. For a diagnosis, impairment in three specific areas has to be present from childhood. Google Triad of Impairments

Q2 - A person with autism responds very differently to things as their brains are actually wired differently to people without autism, usually referred to as NT, short for NeuroTypical.
The two are not really comparable in some of the same situations.

Q3 - Only to a certain extent. Google Executive Function.

Q4 - No, intelligence is not a diagnostic factor in autism. Autism can affect a whole range of people from very very intelligent through to not very intelligent.

Q5 - no again, there's much more to autism diagnosis than milestones although knowing when they were reached or not can be helpful.

Do research and read up on Autism www.autism.org.uk/ and the diagnostic process but do be aware that autism can present very differently in girls and women.
Do research and read up on conditions that are co-morbid with autism. e.g sensory behaviours www.falkirk.gov.uk/services/social-care/disabilities/docs/young-people/Making%20Sense%20of%20Sensory%20Behaviour.pdf?v=201507131117

No-one's bashing you but to be the most help and support for your daughter, you also need to fully understand her condition and how she presents. You need to identify her triggers and learn to reduce the impact of certain things she reacts to, find interventions to help her. You also need to be able to advocate for her when she needs you to.

You have a steep learning curve ahead, good luck!

This explains the Autistic Spectrum
the-art-of-autism.com/understanding-the-spectrum-a-comic-strip-explanation/

My daughter is 17 and has just been diagnosed as ASD. We completed a questionnaire and then she/we had 2 hours of questions. They seemed quite random to start with but as they progressed it became apparent that the interviewer was looking for specific things in the answers she was giving. It wasn't a surprise when she was told she was autistic. She is very intelligent and very sociable but has had years of anxiety, depression and eating disorders all the result of autism. This is often how girls present. I am reading a book now which I can highly recommend - it explains so much why girls do not present in the typical autistic way.
amazon.co.uk/Women-Girls-Autism-Spectrum-Disorder/dp/1849055475/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542916299&sr=8-1&keywords=sarah+hendricks+autism]]

Yes, autism is diagnosed by asking questions. There’s no blood test or anything like that for it. And you’re quite right, that does make it subjective.

If she’s being diagnosed at age 17 then she is clearly quite mild. Otherwise she would have been diagnosed much younger.

And you’re quite right mild autism is a slippery thing. One person might diagnose her and another not.

So I guess the thing is, will a diagnosis be helpful to her? It won’t change anything. There’s no real help for her. But she’ll have an explanation for why she struggles with certain things. That may be very comforting to her.

She’ll still be exactly the same person she’s always been.

Sorry Salty but there is no such thing as mild autism. Possibly you mean high functioning which is very common ijn girls. Girls with autism present very differently to boys. Girls learn to mimic, fit in, hide their differences much better than boys but the mental toll of that is high.
My DD has HF autism and people do look at her in public and raise an eyebrow at her diagnosis, they don't see the mental stress she is under to portray the false front, they don't see the meltdowns at home. Once you know her it is very easy to see the signs but she does function well through life, is in mainstream school, very independent but she is most definately autistic.

There's no such thing as mild autism. There is successfully masked autism. People who successfully mask their autism are often less mentally healthy than they would be if they didn't mask. The stress and anxiety intrinsic in masking is overwhelming.

The questionnaire is trying to get at your memories of how your daughter was early on before she learned to mask.

I agree with the previous 2 posters. Girls learn how to function and hide their differences (mask). They learn to mimic to be able to fit in but the stress of this on a daily basis and the feeling different but not sure why, is so stressful hence the high rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self harm, and suicide. The first thing my daughter was told to do was to stop masking. How will it help her having a diagnosis of autism? She is applying to Uni now and already one university has taken it into account when arranging interview timings, it is a recognised disability and organisations and employers would need to take this into account at work. For her personally she feels a great sense of relief that it isn't her that is to blame, that she's not wrong, she is in fact just her and that's just fine, so long as other people realise that.

Right. So people who are non verbal. Not toilet trained. Have exactly the same severity of autism as your DDs?

That is very hurtful to parents of people with severe autism who have a very restricted life.

Everyone with autism who can get a job and live independently has mild autism. Compared to autistics who are non verbal and will never be able to live independently.

I am very new to the whole autism diagnosis with my daughter having been diagnosed only a few weeks ago, but I understand it as a spectrum - not linear from mild to severe, but more as a sphere. This is how my daughter described it as well. Her and my understanding is that autism may present differently but with similar features in each child - some will have more features of one part than another for example my daughter doesnt have as many sensory features. My understanding of the children who are non verbal and "more severe" is that the autism features are present but associated with learning difficulty which makes caring for them much more challenging. This is the explanation on the NAS website.

"Some autistic people also have learning disabilities, mental health issues or other conditions, meaning people need different levels of support."

This is what I am learning about at the moment and the NAS website has provided a lot of useful information.

Salty You may get a better response if you stop being so confrontational, there's no need for that attitude.

No-one wants to play disability top trumps.

So 2 posters attack me, and I’m the one who’s confrontational?

I’m not looking for a better response. I was truthfully answering the OPs question.

I’m not playing disability top trumps. But to claim there is no such thing as mild autism also implies there is no such thing as severe autism. And that is a very hurtful and insulting thing to say which I cannot let pass.

You are not being attacked, you are being given information because your assertion that mild autism exists is plain wrong.
But to claim there is no such thing as mild autism also implies there is no such thing as severe autism
That's not true at all.

There is no such thing as mild autism, autism is NOT a linear scale with mild at one end and severe at the other. It's a disability and would not be diagnosed by professionals if someone was "mild" enough to swan through life and cope with its challenges just like any NT person.

If someone's autistic they are born with it and will have it for life.

To reiterate what's already been said upthread, what does make a huge difference and explains why each individual with autism is unique is not only autism itself but all of the co-morbid conditions that manifest alongside it and the intensity to which they affect each individual and that individual's often variable ability to cope with them.

Don't hijack someone else's thread to assert things that are not true, particularly on a thread where the OP is encountering the world of autism diagnosis for the first time and is understandably confused.

Have you seen this thread, it may be a more suitable place for you to get your point across ?www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs_chat/3423296-What-impact-did-DSM-V-have-on-the-lives-of-less-independent-autistics?pg=1

Hmmmm. Your ‘facts’ are not correct. But I will leave Mumsnet again. Because it’s not a place where I can discuss things.

Sorry OP. You will only get one side of the story here. Even if you get 100 people giving well meaning advice, don’t believe that’s the whole story.

This place, like large parts of social media, has been hijacked by people with one point of view who don’t tolerate alternative viewpoints.

(Gee I can’t believe the depths the neurodiverse movement have sunk to. Those posters are awful!)

Our experience, son was questioned and so were we. History taken from birth to the day my son was diagnosed.

No children are not automatically assumed to be autistic if they're educationally more advanced from their peers.

And to Salt, it's not about mild autism versus severe, it's more complex than that. You can be on the upper end of the spectrum with very low anxiety (my sister) or further down the spectrum with very high anxiety (my son). It's not about who's worse, both are equally challenging to parent and educate but in different ways.

Oh and Op, they will not, I repeat not give her a diagnosis if they don't think she has it. A good psych will be well aware that girls mask it better than boys. Hell I've fooled people for years by masking it but the mental toll it's taken on me is huge.