ASD dd,? ADHD too? advice appreciated

[soupytwist]

Hi I have learned loads from reading on here over the last couple of years and it's helped with staying sane through the assessment and diagnosis process for dd (7).

We are now home educating due to unmet needs in school, and so much of the stress related behaviour has eased, and she is generally calmer and happier. However she continues to be very high energy (not really a problem, just exhausting at times!), but also very impulsive, eg grabbing the toddler's stuff or grabbing and pushing him if he's holding something of hers.

She can pay attention to activities of her own choosing, especially in her own room for 10 plus mins, but learning activities have to be short, snappy, hands-on and fun! Also she has moods where she just doesn't hear/listen to anything, charges around, shouts continuously etc.

There are other things like irritability, being very indignant at being told off, eg just thinking I'm being mean rather than thinking about her behaviour and generally being a bit 'all over the place' so that board games etc end up on the floor.

Anyway, thanks for reading, my question is could these things be part of ASD or is it likely there is some ADHD there. I'd like to make her life as easy as possible. Advice/ Ideas much appreciated.

It's best you posted this here, i could see it being ripped apart on another board, what with peoples ability to jump to conclusions.

What were her problems at school?
I'm not expert but the impulsiveness and short attention span certainly seems to lean far more towards ADHD than an ASD, even taking herself off to play for 10 minutes is a very short amount of time for a 7 year old.

Thanks Jason, she has ASD, and I didn't explain very well, but lots of sensory sensitivities, eg noise, tactile with clothes, so school uniform esp socks were a huge stress, busy environments are hard, eg classroom, lunch hall, playground, and she struggles to follow group conversations, work or play with more than one peer. Manages play with older, younger children better. Isolated herself in school a lot and was unable to make friends. Misunderstands social situations. Needs frequent breaks to regroup (not forthcoming in school). Continence problems. Needs to control situations particularly when anxious. These things seem part of her ASD, I just wondered if the other things I mentioned could be ttypical of ASD too or if there may be some ADHD too.

ah, From your OP i thought these were her only problems.
If she has ASD then it's probably all part of that, having mixed symptoms from other things is perfectly normal.

Thanks for your reply Jason, that's interesting. Still feel new to all this.

Thanks Poltergoose, she had an NHS OT assessment, which showed definite differences and made recommendations for school, but these weren't followed, and she was discharged without input. I've just booked an assessment at Starjumpz, so hopefully we can get a bit more info and ideas for home. I've looked at kids in the syndrome mix, but a while ago, another look would be good thanks for the reminder. I suppose it'll be interesting to see if a tailored sensory diet helps her calm and concentrate, hope so! I do think the sensory side of things affects her a lot, and she's becoming more able to tell us about them.

Forgot to say, we use quite a lot if PDA strategies too having read about it on here.. thanks for the answers guys.