Aspergers, Romy very kindly pointed me to this board

[alfiemama]

Hi everyone

Last night whilst reading a thread where AS was discussed, I thought Im gonna look this up as sounded familiar, anyway I found a list of the symptons and was amazed that what I was reading sounded like my ds who is 4 and started school sept.

So I bit the bullet and rang the HT who advised (sob sob) that they thought the same and have been assessing ds, they picked it up in first week of school. Ds flaps his arms a lot when excited and rocks as he is doing this, other traits aswell, obsesses over things and reads yellow pages and a-z etc.

He has always been a hard child and now feel well a sense of relief but havent got a clue how this will affect him.

We have a meeting with school next week and they are getting someone to asses him, they also said we did well to spot it, so thanks to this lovely site for that.

I suppose (and sorry for the rambling a bit shell shocked) Im looking for as much info on this as possible.

thanks

Welcome. We are about 4 weeks into having had the diagnosis of High Functioning Autism for both my sons, aged 10 and 13.

Just for information my moods have been all over the place since the letters came through the post. Some of my moods have been loving and understanding, the rest haven't. Hmmm.

To encourage you, my sons are the same as they were the day before the dx and they have loads of good points, funny, interested in things, chat a lot, make me laugh, can be understanding and perceptive. They have always talked a lot between themselves too.

Hi Widemouthfrog (some of these names really make me laff)

Glad someone understands about the flapping lol, we just thougth it was just a quirk of his.

I would also say that Aspergers isnt that well know, when I said the work autism she said " no hes definatelty not that", but when I gave her the link to Aspergers she said "crikey yes thats him"

I have just spoken to his teacher and she really put my mind at rest, although I do think he has it worse than me and hubby assumed, we just thougth mild, but she said he may need to get statemented and have extra help, and his speech isnt good, she also said he obsessed all day about ben 10

I thought my DS was mild as well until I started to see the observation reports from school. Its odd seeing your DS described on paper and you realise the extent of the 'quirks' that are all absorbed into your everyday life.

Recommend the Tony Attwood book, but it may be a bit too soon for you to take it all on board yet.

Our daily obsession is spiderman.

Alfiemama-you asked if anything other than dyspraxia can be linked with AS. There are a group of "co-morbids" as they are called. Dyspraxia is one; Tourettes is another; ADHD is another; there are several others.

Someone once described them as being like the Olympic overlapping circle sign in that they are separate conditions but often overlap. So a child with Aspergers often has one or more of the other conditions.

Just thought i would say hi, dd1 (4) has AS, she started school in september, at the moment she isn't getting help at school. She is a year ahead with reading and writing but struggles with the social side of things, she's very sensitive and can be controlling.

Dd2(2.7) is being assesed for ASD, she shows simalar traits to dd1, arm flaps, rocks, loves anything with wheels and can coplete a 50 piece jigsaw puzzle. The only thing id dd1 can talk for england and dd2 is non-verbal.

Dd1 gets dx next month, it has taken us 2.3 years to get answers, in the past year her AS traits have changed (for the better).

you know what, talking to all of you makes me feel normal, if that makes sense, ive been living in a world of constant ramblings and obsessions and its good to know that the things my son is doing are called something, god hope that makes sense, maybe I have it, aha

Hi Alfiemama

Also just wanted to say hi. DS2 has HFA - go the diagnosis on 14th Feb 07 - so almost 2 yrs ago - he is now 7. He attends a specialist communication unit - so speech has improved remarkably and there are only 6 other pupils in his class so brilliant for him.

Went through a stage when he was obsessed with Mr Topsy Turvey from the Mr Men - he slept in bed upside down (feet on his pillow).

Keep posting and reading the help, information and support is amazing.

Hi Helensmelons

Yeah I can completely relate to the mr men obsession, one of ds's was the frog that sang the ring ding ding song, you know that annoying one,

We also watched nemo about a million times.

Can I ask, and please forgive my ignorance here, but so far ds 2 is complete opposite, can it not rub off on him as surely they copy siblings and if this is the case could this be why siblings get it also, sorry probably made myself look really dumb there

also do I have to speak differently to him assuming that he has prob got it, ie we joke with him saying, oh you wont be able to do that, would he understand that this is us meaning we want you do it, Amber can you shed any light maybe?

Hi Alfiemama

You are doing ever so well. At your stage I was a cringing blob of denial. anyway my chap is now 13 and has Asperger's or HFA (who knows!) major dyspraxia, dyslexia and some other visual processing stuff as well as some speech and language stuff. Sounds bloody all written down like that. He is the nicest child in the world (although he can still drive me potty), is very caring and incredibly helpful to me at home.

I worry about him but I'm not as bad as I was when he was first diagnosed because he can do so much now. He's away with his school in Spain at the mo. Its really good that your primary school have picked it up so early so that strategies can be put in place for him.

All the best.

We find DS2 does copy some of big brothers behaviours, especially the tantrums, but he is definitely not on the spectrum. You can't 'catch it' in this way. In fact, even at 2.5 he already seems to understand that there is something different with DS1 and often seeks to reassure. Kids are incredibly perceptive.

Definitely try and keep your language simple and to the point. Do not assume he will get a joke, and in fact jokes may even be a source of anxiety. If on the spectrum language is likely to be very literal and he will not understand euphamisms and other turns of phrase easily. This will become more obvious as he gets older.

Thanks Widemouthfrog

Lol yeah didnt think he could catch it, just like you said think he will copy little quirks, Im so glad they have each other espcially now.

Good idea about the jokes, gonna be so hard, as we have always done this, its a whole new world.

thanks again

Hi everyone

Can I just ask, a friend of a friend is a child phsycologist and has said that if genetic it would be from fathers side of the family, is this always the case

The teacher today, had made a book for Alfie and will write in what he does during the day, they have one for homework but this is a bot more thorough so they seem really pro active

Alfiemama, no, I think it can be from either side of the family. I know a fair number of ASD children whose mums are also on the autistic spectrum.

Hi Amber

Thanks, very strange of her to say this, its just my dad has depression and I am convinced he has it shows all the signs (now I know them lol) and I think that if he has and was diagnosed may help him.

Just a thought, you might like to write in the book from school too - a home-school diary. this helps keep the school informed and gives them a better overall picture of DS. We do this and it works very well

Hi Widemouthfrog, thats a good idea, I will do that.

Just out of curiousity I have just done the online test that someone posted www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php (sorry cant do links) as interested to know if it could have come from someone, well obsessed with it actually lol

anyhoo I got

Your Aspie score: 150 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 73 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie

and made hubby do it and he was likely to be NT

So does that mean more than likely my side or could it skip generations, sorry for all the questions

Alfiemama, no-one really knows at the moment. There's hundreds of ideas on what causes autism, but not enough testing and research and science to prove it. They think there's a genetic link but exactly how it works and gets passed to some children but not others is still a bit of a mystery. It might skip a generation, I guess, or it might happen in a family where no-one else seems to be on the Spectrum at all.

If you're interested, you could ask your GP to refer you for a proper diagnosis to find out about yourself. Might take a long time, though - there are not many people who do adult diagnosis so there's often a waiting list unless you go private (expensive!)

Hi Amber thanks for replying, it seems a huuuuge minefield out there.

At the end of the day I dont think I have done to badly, just may answer a few questions for me, when I was little I had a bad experience with a man jumping out at me and this then led to years of compulsive behaviour for me, I would obsess about washing my hair, then I would put that obsession onto something else, in the end I had obessesion after obsession, still have if Im honest.

Funny but now that we are telling people that ds may have this AS they are all going, we thougth something was wrong but didnt want to say anything, arggghhh they all thought it months ago, wish they had pointed it out.

My Father in law wife even said "dont you think you should have a word about my ds" to us.

One thing I dont understand is this hfa and lfa, understand its about iq but still unsure, also did the online test (cant remember what its called) but ds got moderate pdd

Hi Mumslife

Ooh I didnt know that thanks, I know that if I do have it not really anything to be done for me now (and managed so far) but if it helps me to understand my ds then thats got to be a good thing.