Tell me about you ASD L2 older kid

[HangPyjamasByTheLegs]

We've just had official confirmation that our 3 year old is ASD L2. Utterly unsurprising, we've suspected since he was 18 months, glad to have got the diagnosis marathon over with...

But seeing it written down, along with all the recommendations, is mega overwhelming. And where I was taking every day as it came, I'm now wondering what the future might look like for him.

Can anyone tell me about what your older ASD L2 children are like? What supports they're using? Have they any friends or social activities? Our son is the youngest of 3 (other 2 are NT), how are their relationships with their sidings?

We're long-term expats in the southern hemisphere, so the system is very different from the UK, and therapies/schools etc will be private for the most part. Don't have a network here of parents in the same boat - though am looking to find that now

Thanks so much

Bump for any experiences?

In the UK parents are mostly not given levels which might explain why no-one has replied yet. My autistic DC wouldn’t be classed as level 2, so I’m sorry I can’t help with personal experiences.

The main therapies for all autistic DC are OT and SALT.

We don’t have levels here in the UK, as others have said and, to be honest, reading the descriptions of levels 1, 2 and 3, they don’t seem to make sense to me.

My DS1 (age 6) is currently 50% with a 1-to-1 teaching assistant at school, has movement/sensory breaks, special sessions on making friends and emotional regulation, his own desk/trampoline/laptop, and is probably going to have his support increased further when the school get funding. So, he looks a bit like the description for L2 and even L3.

However, he has a huge range of interests and can talk for England (more like L1). As is apparently common with autistic people, he has a very spiky learning profile - so, he was reading before he was potty trained, and he could do 65-piece jigsaws before he could talk.

I’d try to get more details about how your DS learns. Does he have a global development delay? Intellectual delay? Auditory processing delay? How are his fine motor skills? Are there co-associated conditions (such as epilepsy)? Without that knowledge, it’s really hard to talk about the future TBH.

My DS1 is a smart, friendly, chatty little fellow who plays with his (apparently) NT little brother just like any NT kiddo. If I can keep his mental health intact in a world that’s not designed for him, I fully expect him to have a career, relationships and kids (if he wants them).