Any Medical Conditions? Check box on forms

[Arithmeticulous]

Do/would you check it for HFA? I'm signing DC up for a holiday club, first time ever post-diagnosis - yes or no?

And would you pass details of diagnosis onto swimming and music teachers, Beaver leader etc who have been seeing DC for ages?

Thanks.

I would if I thought there was the slightest risk that my child might get into a situation that escalated due to lack of understanding- or even might be put at risk, because the adults in charge were not aware that he might not have the same awareness of risks or consequences as others of his age.

I always remember the time friends brought their dd for a sleepover with mine and I left the two girls pretty well unsupervised all evening and night, because I assumed that the other little girl had the same understanding of risks and boundaries as dd's other friends of the same age; it was only the following morning they told us that she was on the spectrum.

She had not had a meltdown but she had wanted to try some potentially very dangerous games, and her lack of understanding of boundaries had made dd very uncomfortable.

With appropriate information, we would have been just as happy to have her; we would just have done things differently.

It didn't occur to our friends because she was the eldest, so they just weren't used to the casual approach of parents with NT children. Just like I sometimes had to remember that other parents would not take into account dd's lack of balance and liability to falls.

Thanks. I haven't quite got my head around what to do re play dates and parties yet either.

Arithmeticulous, I would be very open if you intend to leave somebody else in charge of your child; it really isn't fair on them or your child if anything happens that could have been avoided with a little information. It's like leaving a child with an allergy without telling the people in charge: I would be very angry if somebody did that.

Even with teenagers, a little knowledge does help.

Dd, who has severe anxiety issues and a history of self-harming and failed suicides, has a friend who regularly makes inappropriate jokes about mental people, cutting yourself etc without picking up on the reactions of dd and her friends. If she didn't know he was autistic, she would have written him off long ago and probably tried to get him excluded from their group and circle of friendship, because she would conclude he was just a nasty person who didn't deserve to have friends.

As it is, she deals with it far more sensitively and calmly, trying to defuse the situation without blaming him for his lack of sensitivity, and he is still part of the group.