Interesting article re differentiating asd from other disorders

[nikos]

Thought this might be of interest to some of you www.icdl.com/distance/webRadio/documents/2-26-2004.pdf
I would so love to be able to get an evaluation from Dr Greenspan and his team.

what an odd thing for this other person to have said, tclanger. i'm constantly in awe of all that you do to help your ds, and all that you do to help others with similar issues.

It is an odd thing to have said tclanger, almost implying you should feel guilty. Which you absolutely should not.

How do any of us know what's typical and what isn't with our first children? If you're not anticipating issues with your child's development (and who is..) you just aren't looking for them. You have done absolutely everything you can for M, (and it sounds as though it's all paying off now) and have no reason whatsoever to feel any guilt.

what a very hurtful and untrue thing to say TClang. The medical/educational system is very difficult and stressful to navigate - certainly I found that the only professional who gave unbiased advice was private SALT. I think it's a little too tempting for well intentioned teaching staff to be protective over their professional fiefdom, and not be keen to take on board the parents' and outside expert's views. Without a DX it's even easier to slip through the system into a kind of no-mans land... obviously the extra help (if any) that an ASD DX might bring will vary a lot from area to area, and is no guarantee of good support.

"what they really need is for you to listen" is she living in a bubble where you can call up NHS SALT every day with your queries? if people don't live it or have relevant knowledge then yes, you need someone to listen rather than spout platitudes (he'll speak when he's ready, Einstein didn't talk till ad nauseam). But talking to other mums who have been there done that is often far more informative than an NHS consultation, particularly as regards benefits/dealing with the system etc.

I love Floortime. There's a good consultant in Wales (Sian Nash) who travels. The theoretical background to Floortime fits in very well with the research I do as well. And it's easy to do, compared with many therapies, sort of borders on a joy to do

"Oh my goodness I think I love you! I think I now understand what and why M isn't on the spectrum, but shares so many of the behaviours incl the stimming and echolalia. I have tried in vain to make some sense of this and this article makes so much sense. I brief moment of clarity until something else is thrown into the mix!"

Nikos, I love you too. I feel the same as Tclanger. It's starting to feel like it's coming together ........ I've got DH reading it right now. Am also encouraged that Mrs T. feels positively about the theoretical background.

I wish so much we could all go to the pub and talk about this for a whole evening - this is really the first account of autism I've read outside of mumsnet that makes sense to me.

Interesting that he sees sensory issues as the cause only of the "secondary" (albeit powerful!) symptoms. The "primary" symptoms he doesn't give a cause for in this article - perhaps though we could say they are caused by "perceptual" issues?