ASD girls forum??

[lisad123wantsherquoteinDM]

right lovely ladies, DH has started to build this forum now and hoping to be live by the end of the month
He has asked me to ask you what rooms we would like? Welcome and General ASD rooms are already there, what else? Do we mind having a for sale board? what about a services in your area? let me know
TIA

No blossomhill I always use this name. I only change for christmas etc

Loudlass the ARC is here

Bah humbug. My laptop doesn't have microsoft office on so I can't do it. Is there a way to do it without downloading it? My laptop was a (heavily discounted) ex display model that didn't come with office, and I can't afford to buy it. It always asks for a prduct code that I don't have.

we took the AQ for DD1 and she scored 47 , DH scored 27! I know I dont have ASD so didnt do it, but very intresting study.
Thanks for the hint about the mirror, i had no idea why HV kept commenting

LL if you search wired AQ you might get one you need to do, not sure how it works.

Lisa why did you about dd's AQ? (sorry awkward question).Don't want a real answer btw just was intrigued.

just seems such a high score compared, Im not at all embrassed by her, very proud in fact so no idea why

Took test and scored 41...but I don't think I'm on the spectrum - I don't see how I could be a teacher if I did genuinely meet the triad, especially communication and interaction. I definitely have elements of OCD and like routine, also not keen on random social stuff (as I get bored) so guess that's why I have that score, but I really can't see how I have AS, so guess it's just an indicator, not definitive.

I may be able to help here, Lisa you have mail.

you have a mail back MrA

I'm really not - I wouldn't be ashamed if I was, and I wouldn't be surprised if I was in terms of family history - but I do know a lot about autism, being related to and mum to numerous people with it, and teaching many with it too...and I really don't have it!

I think an online test is just that - an indicator test of issues, but no subsitute for a dx. If I had issues anyway, the AQ thing would confirm it, but I don't (well, I do, but not autismy ones except in relation to J!)

I think, when we have kids with autism, it sometimes makes us see it in everyone, even ourselves a bit. For some, that might be true and helpful. For me, it just makes me realise that autism is an extension in many examples of normal traits taken to an extreme level and so everyone has aspects. But it's only when those aspects impair your life significantly that you would seek or question a dx. My aspects, as I've said, are around OCD and control (or the illusion of control in a world where I have none!) and maybe that's where the questionnaire scored me highly, as well as the not liking boring chit-chatty stuff. But I have an excellent social life (when babysitting allows), lots of very close friends, a job where I'm very successful and that success depends on making an emotional connection with children and being able to read children to be able to teach them well and have always been successful socially and academically at school. Not saying this in a smug boasty way but it just all contrasts so much with my AS sister and that's how I can say I have no impairments which would make me ASD .

I wasn't saying people with ASD can't be teachers, btw - there's an article in the TES (Times Educational Supplement) this week about teachers / educational workers with ASD - but the subject I teach and the extra work that I do requires lots of communication and interaction to be successful and I couldn't do it if I met the triad of impairments, iyswim.

GMS there's a high taye of picking people up with AQ but things like OVD would skew it massively, so I think it would be that. Even the ARC that developed it say it needs a lotmoreresearch (but I think its great for what it is, an under developed test,and has a lot of potential).

Although it is true that teahcers can have AS- I used to be fine in a teaching environment and my last Uni Prof was clearly AS or OCD (or both- not jumping to conclusions on that alone,is my neighbour also). AS life chances depend on coping ability. I'm absolitely brilliant 1-1 orsmallgroup with children but whilst I was finewith a class of 25 and the kids liked me I was aware in myself that I was feeling mroe it.

Hmm, just googled the Baron-cohen AQ test, got to question 1 and thought it was very crude.

Work could be done to move towards a less generalised, less crude questionnaire for girls, since most girls take it as read that they will comply with social norms. It's hard that they often find the things that are gendered "feminine" the trickiest eg the building blocks of social interaction and multi-tasking.

What would have helped me as a girl would have been having someone articulate my differences to stop me thinking I was either dreadful or "special" and to realise I was merely different in some ways but just like everyone else in others. I found hard things easy and easy things hard. So I tended to withdraw from social interactions and was often very lonely.

It all paid off later though when DH met me and fell for my independence!

Linglette its a screening test rather than a dx, so crude is what it is tbh. You kinda want all people who might be on the spectrum no matter how they present to flag up, which willm ean by defauklt I think a lot of false positives. The ARC themselvesadmit it needs morework,and their seeming advice is that if you get a high AQ result and have concerns that existed prior to the test then youmight want to see your GP: I think thats sensible.

I did suggest in my essay that a refined version (or CAST ?CHAT dependent on age) may be used for people with closefamily to screen themselves, but until allareas have the facillities to look as as in adults then thats a waste of time, tbh.

You're right though, there should be something mroe specifically aimed at girls providing it isrememberd that not all girlsfall into the hard to detect category, someof the girls I know with ASD are presenting just the same as their male counterparts. The girls I know with ASDmight fit the sqaure of imapirments I wastaliing about yesterday (sensory being the fourth point-can get link if you want to research), so it might be that todevelop the right tests, we need totake that step back and revisit what we are looking for, if that makes sense? Girlsmight benefit asmuch from one of the toolslooking at adaptive behaviours as a conventional baseline test.

ok ladies, do i have any voluteeners to help me run this forum? not needed yet but may do in the furture and as im still working its hard to be there alot

Well the latest thing from what I see is that there may be an environmentaltrigger to a gene

So if GMS did ahve it and her son did also,it might be a staright OCD in GMS but her ds was exposed to trigger (or a different combo of genes or some birth trauma etc etc etc)and it manifested as ASD.

I would thinkmost adults would know if they are at risk tbh, I always knew Iwas a bit different- its putting a name to it that has happened, not much more (although the name has brought plenty of other info with it forme about things I do).

And there will of course always be many people on a borderline as well who are not but almost are. IYSWIM.

Peachy, yes, that's the word I was looking for - I think the OCD-type-stuff skewed the results!

mumslife I know they're co-morbids and I know it runs in families but I also know that I don't have it as I don't meet the criteria either by ICD-10 or DSM-IV standards. And even if those standards change slightly, I don't meet very many of the communication and interaction ones. Like I said, routine/ OCD type stuff, yes. But not the rest. So I don't have ASD, as you have to meet the criteria in all 3 areas (on DSM-IV)

Ok great
Yes is open to proffessionals, I guess but each memeber will have to join before posting and will be keeping an eye for lurkers too
Now another question, as well of the for sale board for memembers, how do we feel about having a section for proffessionals to advitise their services in your area? Im thinking alot about ABA and private CMs or playschemes? how do we feel about that?

Cant wait to get this live, DH is working hard to make it just right

no his fine, but likes to get things just right and i would like it to be sucessful from the start rather than half arsed one iyswim. He loves anything that keeps him busy and his mind off other things right now
Ok names ladies? any suggestions?

I think professionals is a good idea, makes things easy forpeople.

Things to bear in mind that I'm sure you've already thought about...legal liability insurance is a good idea and not hugely expensive. Also which country the data is stored in (if you're grabbing space off a USA computer for it, it may find itself covered by terrifying USA libel laws, for example) so you need to be specific about which country's laws you want to apply to it and put that on the site somewhere.

The AQ test is very much a general quiz, as people have said. The full tests involve the EQ and SQ tests (also available online) plus extensive questioning of you and family members. But when they've looked at the AQ results compared to what people found from a full diagnosis, almost 100% of people scoring over 37 were found to be on the autism spectrum in the diagnosis. Mine's 43, with a very high SQ-R result and very low EQ result.

No good at running forums - don't have the ability to manage the interactions without panicking myself to a standstill, so have great admiration for those that can.