Diagnosis = help v not labelling HFA

[Confusingsituation]

I'm having a bit of worry about this
DS has been diagnosed as having HFA but he is young and having been able to track down some experts, I have been told the outlook is good.
They sat on the fence for ages but I think they have finally come off the fence because it means help can be put in place.
The flip side is that he has now been labelled. I didn't mind this but some kindly ? relatives have put this worry into my head.
Anyone further down the road than me, can I ask you was it the right thing to do, to have the issue named? Can it ever be harmful??

[StarlightMcKenzie]

What Ellen said. It isn't a label it's a sign.

It is also protection in law against discrimination and gives an entitlement of reasonable adjustments in the community, education and employment.

Without this sign, you may be given a label of naughty, disruptive, rude, which once given and acted upon are likely to lead to further labels of aggressive, emotionally disturbed and vindictive.

[coppertop]

Bluedoo - My ds is now in Yr8 at a mainstream secondary school. I have no idea whether his teachers have/had any preconceptions about autism, but I can honestly say that they have never placed limits on ds or his ability. If anything, the opposite is true.

When he reached some of his end-of-Yr9 targets when he was still only in Yr7 or Yr8, they immediately set him higher ones and encouraged him to do even better.

At parents' evening it soon became obvious that they saw ds as an individual rather than just a generic 'boy with autism'.

[bluedoo]

Thanks coppertop. That is reassuring. We need to keep thinking this through.

[mummytime]

I have a sad story. A woman I know went through a lot of her adult life feeling different, and unhappy that she felt so different. She was diagnosed with depression, and even had EST.
It was only when her son was investigated for dyslexia and came out with a diagnosis of Autism, that it feel into place what her "problem" had been all along.
I am sure there are many more out there, and really need the correct "diagnosis" so they can be given the correct information to help them deal with life. For example: this woman had an older daughter, who she really struggled to understand as her daughter wasn't as "rule following" as her mother.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

"I find it deeply distasteful, that adult (usually) women are ganging up on little (usually) boys and hanging this massive label on them."

That is extremely offensive.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Only 15% of adults who received a dx of autism are in employment. This is the statistic that encompasses the full range of ASDs.

[MareeeyaDoloures]

Its the patient (initially parent) choice whether to share any diagnosis.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

There are some parents on this board who have not gone down the dx route, but imo it is because they haven't needed to as they have understood in detail their child's difficulties and been able to source the appropriate provision.

For the average parent to pretty much way above average, the battle provision is hard enough without having to regularly be denied resources on account of no paperwork.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

I don't see dx as an answer either, sadly. It's a word to give a shared understanding of a starting place and importantly for us, a way to hold people to account for things ds was and should have been entitled to without a dx but wasn't getting.