Live webchat with Professor Richard Hastings, MONDAY MARCH 17, 9pm

[RowanMumsnet]

Following on from this thread, we're pleased to announce that Professor Richard Hastings will be joining us for a webchat next Monday evening.

Richard is currently a Professor of Education and Psychology and Cerebra Chair of Family Research in the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick. He is a researcher with interests in educational interventions, including early intervention, for children with learning disability (LD) or autism; mental health and behaviour problems in children and adolescents with LD/autism; and the experiences of families raising children with LD/autism. Richard is working to make research findings and evidence available to parents, including through his blog.

We hope you'll be able to join us on the night; if you can't make it, do please post up your questions on the thread in advance, as ever.

Thanks
MNHQ

What would you do if your 2/3 year old was diagnosed with autism today?

Thanks moondog for getting this all moving. I am honestly delighted to have been invited.

I'm really pleased that Mumsnetters get to share your expertise and insight in the never ending quest to improve services and outcomes for children and adults with special needs.

Thank you very much for doing this webchat. Like others on this thread, I have concerns about the suitability of enormous secondary schools for those with SN. My child has slipped through the net in terms of diagnosis - only ever diagnosis was language delay with subtle social communication difficulties - do I correctly interpret this as meaning autistic traits but insufficient for an ASD Dx?

How best can I protect his mental health on transition to secondary, given with this lack of diagnosis I feel I have to rely on kindness of teaching staff and my own best efforts. He is under no professionals as his language improved to within normal range some years ago, and he presents as v bright but v quirky and q touch anxious.

Professor Hastings, what is you view on schools and local education authorities who are refusing to use evidence based interventions with children with autism? Or those who ignore evidence based interventions and choose "eclectic" approaches instead?

Hello Professor Hastings. Thank y for taking your time to do this x

My son will be 5 in April. He's autistic, global delay & a few other problems. Very little speech.

I am having to fight for EVERYTHING. It's an utter nightmare.

Are The Powers that Be told to make everything as difficult as possible?

A person weaker than me would have given up long ago.

Many Thanks x

A cheeky further quest in response to your posts:

What question would you most like us to ask (that hasn't been) and what's the answer?

That was supposed to say 'question' though it is a bit like a quest I guess.

I want to ask a similar question to IE my child appears to be being forced to comply within existing provision and is being treated as though he has EBD needs when he doesn't but the school has an EBD unit to which they have added children with physical needs ( I suspect to make the unit financially viable). This is an independent school preferred by the LA to inclusion in mainstream schools in the light of rural maintained schools refusing to accept children with disabilities and the LAs fear that there will be complaints to the d of e if they name said mainstream school in a child's statement.

Is it right to lump disabled children together in the most cost effective units and is it really unrealistic and naive to expect our children to have their basic human rights upheld?

How would you support the oral expression of a child with AS? (ie written expression better than oral, struggles to 'find the right words', will generally NOT talk as too difficult)

And another vote for Stralight question re mindfulness for children with ASD too

Hello Richard,

I would very much like to ask for any guidance and knowledge of Autism and Adolescence. My eldest son now 20 years old, diagnosed as Aspergers, studying for his degree from home with the Open University and socialises through the local University Student Groups.

Also I have twins, a boy and a girl, just turned 18 years old diagnosed as both Autistic and Learning Disabled. In addition to the autism and learning disability they both struggle enormously with anxiety and of course lack of capacity.

Rumour says that when on the spectrum, adolescence can start early, also it can start late, there seems to be agreement however that it goes on for longer than for main stream peers.

Adolescence is a challenging time for all parents, particularly so with children further hampered by disability and particularly so when that includes social deficits, and limited grasp of the wider picture.

Is there any guidance as to how best to guide our children through this period of time so that they achieve the best outcome as to self esteem and sense of fulfilment as they mature into adulthood. They will clearly struggle with feeling included and satisfied when the normal avenues of success through work and relationships and their own family life is highly unlikely to be a reality for them.

Is there a rough guide to the age when someone on the spectrum might feel a contentedness and acceptance of their life.

I recognise this is a huge question but I am looking for a path though. There is a huge focus on children on the spectrum which is great but there is also much work to be done during adolescence and beyond.

Thank you for the opportunity to ask. Regards Angela

Hi Richard,

I enjoyed the Cerebra 'promoting wellbeing in children with autism' on Wednesday in Birmingham. I found the two presenters (yourself included) speaking about siblings of children with ASD very reassuring, and I hadn't expected that at all.

Now that you are in the area, is there anything ABA-related that you and your team are planning to work on? What research is in the pipeline?

Did you know that Warwickshire as a county are currently being very helpful (well certainly in our area) to families setting up ABA home programmes? Is there any way we can share this (what I think of as) good practice with other regions and authorities? I have no idea how this all fits in with establishing local offers etc: do you or might you have any involvement with this at all?

Finally and most importantly, do you yet have a team of, ideally part-time, eager researchers who have Fridays free and are interested in gaining experience as an ABA tutor ?

Can I ask how far

Can I ask how far you should push going to school for a bright AS child?
My son is 15, been to 2 mainstream high schools, a pru and is now in a specialist school (who still don't have a clue when it comes to sensory issues). He can't cope in any of them, he will be 16 in 9 mths, he won't even go out of the house unless it's quiet.
Should I be trying to push him and "extend his comfort zone" or stop pushing him as its causing anxiety and self harm?He has no pediatrician and cahms don't seem to have much in the way of answers.

Have you any words of wisdom about how to improve interactions between AS adults ( parents, teachers) and AS children/ teens?

Richard do you have any views on 'screen time' and possible AD(H) D?

Hello and thank you for coming! I would like to ask a question on behalf of my friend whose just-turned 4 year old son is undergoing diagnoses for Autism.

He can speak but it is mostly Echolalia and he shows no interest in pens or paper but uses a computer and reads/adds up simple things already. His conversational skills are basically not there..and he does not ask for anything ever.

How can my friend help him to use pens and how can we encourage him to talk and make his feelings and thoughts known? He will not ever ask for food or other needs but only mentions lines from books or television...is there hope for him being able to converse?

As ABA has been around for decades, it is surprising that so little of the accessible information discusses the results and opinions of autistic adults, many that have previously gone through it. I find it odd that it's a struggle to find inclusion within academic discourse and the best location seems to be personal blogs of autistic adults and .

It seems so very odd that they aren't included - surely the end result is how it affects adult life. Even beyond ABA, autism is often portrayed and discussed in terms of children and their carers, young adults and older adults who have dealt with living with autism for decades barely get a look into the public discussion around autism. In disabled adult forums I frequent, this lack of portrayal and inclusion of adults with their condition left many to say that as children they feared they would disappear or die because they saw no adults versions of themselves. This obviously needs to be improved with greatly inclusion and better portrayals and often desired mentoring. And in a recent conversation about ABA on said forum, we've yet to have one positive response from an adult that has gone through it (the quiet hands issue was particularly a sore topic for many).

Has it changed so much in within the last decade that their opinions are out of date or has something been done to prevent the issues that came with problematic ABA providers? Because as a neuroatypical parent, with children on all sides, I am very uncomfortable with an idea or technique being held up as the Holy Grail that those who have gone through it seem to be so adamantly against, especially as I've already had one child damaged by an over zealous therapist that had an idea of what he should do now rather than what he actually wanted help with (it took months to help him recover from). Surely that is one of the most important pieces of evidence, the lifetime results, that oddly seems to be missing in most of the conversations around this.

Hello Professor,

I'm currently studying the course 'Understanding Autism' with the OU. It is an undergraduate, first year module the sort and I understand has a number of education professionals or teaching assistants taking it if they are lucky to get funding, as well as a great deal of parents of children with autism (as many are only able to access online studying due to their caring commitments).

A question in the course chatroom was raised as to why their Intervention chapter didn't mention ABA, only Lovaas, with an evaluation that spoke of intense 40 hours of 1:1 and punishments.

They gave two broad answers:

1. ABA is not included because the evidence base for it as a whole cannot be stated, as it is an umbrella term for a whole range of approaches, some with good evidence base and some without.

1. ABA is a philosophy about intervention which some do not find appealing, as it is 'adult directed' and carries the risk that the 'teacher' would decide what behaviour is desirable for the child to achieve, whether or not it is something the child wants to achieve.

I would be interested in how much you agree with these points, and what effect you think there might be for the children who these students are likely to regularly engage from NOT including ABA in these types of courses.

Thank you.

Hi Professor.

Happy st Patricks day from NI

My DS has AS and has no behavioural issues but has very weak processing speed (2nd centile) and below average working memory. Not sure how much of an impact his processing speed has on working memory but I was wondering what strategies you recommend for improving this and if you have an opinion on the many "brain training" therapies that are available

Thank you

Dear Professor,

There are a lot of people who come to this board for help because their children's behaviour is very difficult/unusual at home but very good at school. The referral system for psychological support wants teachers and school to play a crucial role in children and family getting the help they need. So when the symptoms do not show at school, families can not get the psychological help they desperately need. Professional (teachers and GP) seem totally unaware that ASD can be situational (i.e symptoms doesn't occur in all setting) or do not see the need to refer a child who "gets on very well at school" however serious the consequences on their and their family mental health is. We have had that struggle and our son was finally diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome after 6 years of seeking help. Please could you explain on this board that ASD symptoms do not always occur in all settings and suggest what we can all do to make more professionals aware of this situation so that families can get the help they desperately need.