Support to ASD parents, not just the kids

[mamadadawahwah]

Having just had my ds recently diagnosed with ASD I spent the next two days finding all the help i could. Where i live an excellent charity provides help to parents from the moment of the diagnosis onwards.

I wonder whether such organisations exist where you are. Obviously, its our kids with this diagnosis and they need all the suppor they can get. But parents need support and training too. We need to know how best to continue work with our kids at home. If we fall apart it wont do our kids any good.

not that i've found....and also this made me think of the fact that when (as my boys are)they are in mainstream and not supported in any 'intensive' way at all....that the child gets no 'intervention' at all unless the parent provides it

So in my case...I do the social stories.... i explain how to appear sociable ...i explain thinngs when they take things very literally....

It just dawned on me the other day that when your ASD child is not 'severe' enough to get support in school...that they get NOTHING!!!

My ideal would be something like a SALT session every week...2 weeks evenm monthly...where the child is part of asmall group...where they encourage social skills...develop social stories...and have discussions around things like "what would you do/say if this/or that happened?"
Also...at our local autism 'special' school the children there get taken to town/cafes /supermarkets etc...as opart of their education...to help them learn the 'way of the world'... this is often too difficult for the parents to do.....and extremely beneficail to the child. They also practice things like making sandwhiches/drinks etc...what i call "daily living" skills.

I would pay for this kind of support group...why oh why is there nothing for kids like mine?

We're visiting a charitable trust in Northumberland on Friday, which was set up by the family of an autistic boy who found that after diagnosis there was no help available so they set up their own. They run workshops for parents, social skills courses for the children themselves etc. I'm hoping to get J on the after-school fun club - apparently it's subtly structured play so that the children don't realise they're being taught social and behavioural skills. They even have an autism friendly barber and dentist, which I think is great.

here

That said, nobody directly involved in J's case told us about it. I was given their details when I enquired about a Barnardo's support group for parents.