middle functioning asd ?

[autumnsmum]

Hello autumnsmum here once again thank you for all help given previously , my son who is six is on the autistic spectrum, I have asked various people , family members as outreach etc where they think he is on the spectrum and they have all said some where in the middle , I am wondering how this will affect him with school etc as it seems children are generally described as high or low functioning.As I have posted before the school are considering sa in six months if he hasnt improved , he has hypermobility, huge social problems, difficulties with handwriting and maths, sorry for long post any replies would be welcome.

Well my DS (who is 4) has been described as 'moderate', which I think is somewhere in the middle of mild and severe. I cant answer your questions though because my DS is younger than yours and I worry about it all the time.

He will be affected at school. Especially in the areas you have mentioned.

Bit hard to say anything more than that....

We've also been told moderate, I suppose the trouble is they are changing all the time and no one can say where they will be in a years time.

Good luck. xx

dd1 has been described as: moderate, medium-high funcitoning, and severe! so take form that what you will.

FWIW, my take on it is that she is high functioning, but her autism is severe. which sounds like sitting on the fence, but her ASD is totally pervasisve - I am a poster who always comes down on the side of saying "she is ASD" rather than she has ASD, iyswim?

so, while dd1 is fully verbal (with a langugae disorder), has reasonable. if delayed, self help skills, and is learnign to read and write (she is 6), her ASD is severe - it still rules her life.

can I ask, why are you delaiyng a SA? you can apply yourself, and thereiwll be countless delays in the process anyway. If I were you, I would not wait fo rthe school to do it, I would write myself to set the ball rolling (wich, in fact is what I did - it took us nearly 3 years ot get a Statement for dd1 regardless)

DS scored as moderate on assessment tests. But in my view he is severe - and indeed fits the latest DSV draft guidelines for diagnosis as severe ASD. However his IQ is at least average and quite possibly above. So due to his IQ he scores well on some parts of the tests and pushes his score into the moderate part of the spectrum. he also has some language, but is about 2 years delayed (he is 4) in his use of language although he can read and spell many nouns above age level.

I prefer to think of his autism in terms of each area because he is a mix.
So socially he is severe ASD - improving but we have only moved from intolerant to tolerant, actual social interest is still very low.
Language he is moderate-severe (but I hope / expect this to improve with age and therapy)
Repetitive behaviours (Stim) very severe.
Play skills - severe
Routines / rigidity - mild
Behaviour - mild / occasional challenging behaviour (well controlled by ABA)
Sensory - mild
IQ - normal

So in terms of the triad he is severe but his IQ and lack of sensory issues compensate a bit.

He has been described as severe and complex; the most severely affected child I have ever seen (paed); high functioning; moderate ASD; too mild to need specialist teaching; and so severe he needs 35 hours a week ABA. It really depends what you are focussing on or what agenda the person you are talking to has.

You can get your child tested by indep EP eg Vineland and IQ tests. Had we not got an indep EP & ABA report for Tribunal we would never have known where he was as no-one from the LA is bothered to find out. BIBIC will do similar tests but my DS was too young to do them when we went. Going to BIBIC is probably the cheapest way of getting a full assessment.

AM,

He will be affected at school particularly in the areas you already mentioned.

Tell the school you will be applying personally for a Statement now. DO NOT WAIT SIX MONTHS FOR THE SCHOOL TO ACT BECAUSE THEY WON'T. You will blame yourself then for not acting yourself sooner either if you go along with their weaselly words.

Why d'you think they're waiting six months as well?. Your son will soon be attending Juniors so they (the infants) won't have to deal with the paperwork that a Statement doc entails. They don't want the work!.

I am warning you now this is probably what they are thinking. You really cannot afford any more delay; time is of the essense here.

i waited and waited and was fobbed off thinking they knew best not realising why ie paperwork and the funding for it,and was never told I could apply myself oh how i regret that wasted time {sad] Attila's right dont wait

Ds is diagnosed as moderate, he's sixteen today so you'd think I'd be able to give you an indication as where your ds might fit but I can't really. At times ds has seemed HFA and at others such as now severe. He did learn to speak but now chooses not to, he did interact but now chooses not to, he used to have extreme challenging behaviour but now is extremely well behaved. So I would say that yes he will have difficulties but where they will lie and to what extent is anybody's guess really. Sorry

hello, I'm brand new here, had to join as soon as I read your post. My son will be 5 in july, we're about 6months into getting his diagnosis for ASD. We've been really lucky so far - I have a fantastic HV who voiced her concerns before he was even 2 and a great creche who got him extra help after his first week with them. He's at an assessment unit now rather than mainstream which should help lots with getting the statement. Like everyone else here I think you should push for that now, i've heard that it can be very hard to get and take forever. I wanted to know what you meant by "hypermobile" DS likes to run - it seems to be his form of stim he'll race between 2 spots until he's panting and sweating but can't seem to stop. It's disturbing to watch and can be hard to pull him out of once he's started. It means he can find it hard to sit still to be able to do the "classroom" learning. There is a big part of me panicking that he will not be able to learn to read or write. Sorry for length - could go on for pages given half a chance

happy birthday to yr DS asdx2 this is what i was saying to a poster on here the other day some aspects will worsen some may decline over time its ever changing i think , so know one can really determine the extent our DC will be affected my ds is 10 now and hes changed a lot im guessing he will a lot more esp as hes now going into puberty

stepfield - "hypermobile" usually refers to what they used to call 'double jointed', loose ligaments etc so the child has [impractical] flexibility in their joints. In my dd's case it's mainly her ankles hips and wrists, but to a degree everything's affected.
I was reading because DS1's another high to middling /asd diagnosis, socially he is fantastic, can do empathy and all sorts, but he's hypersensitive to fabrics, textures, light, sound, everything sensory really. And inflexibility (of thought) that disables him completely at times. He's 10. His routines and inflexibility have got much worse over the past 18 months but at school can hide the fact that he has ASD at all . Bewildering.

Thanks so much for all your replies ladies am recovering at present from shopping trip with dd11 said ds6 and 16 month old dd, nener again , thanks again for all your opinions

Hello again sorry I just wanted to add happy belated birthday to asdx2s son