Autism Spectrum Disorder

kiwigal wrote: It is possible to get diagnosis around that age or even earlier in some cases. My son is 6 and was diagnosed at 22 months. Early the diagnosis the better it is in the long run. He is very complex as he has got some traits to autism but he doesn't act autistic as he wants to communicate and socialise.[/b ] He is non-verbal with very few words, he is the most affectionate kid and loves being around other adults/kids. We treat him like a normal kid if he is naughty he knows what time out means or taking the computer off him. He is in a mainstream school.

Isn't it funny that the autisum spectrum is so vast - I highlighted the words above in bold cause - my son is always communicate and is not shy with strangers at all. He has lots of friends and at lunch times plays soccer or rugby or whateveris happening at the time with a huge group of people.
But when he was younger it was not so easy for him - one thing I found helped was letting him know that he was 'different' but then said everyone has a difference and so not a bad thing just sometimes other people do 'get him' and so be be aware of it more.
My son has never had a teacher aid and has always been mainstreamed although i understand this isn't always the case for some IE: an autisitic child is in my daughter class adn there is no way he could be without a teacheraid as he is hardly to non communcating and has outbursts alot.
And yes ds is very good with computers/gaming machines and electronics in general.
One thing now that hes older is though its really hard to get him motivated on something - he is such a cruiser and always has been but now that he is getting close to ending his schooling he really has to motivate himself to get a job - he wants to be a policeman (bit scary considering recent advents in napier)

There is a DVD out on Autism now, was advertised in our local paper forget what it is called but if you ph the Autism place in Auckland they will put you in the right direction

aww hun be brave i was a nut i keep wanting to run away with my baby yelling leave him alone theres nothing wrong with him lol big hugs i still have tears for him now it relly can be hreat brecking

aww hun keep pushing maybe go thur your docs mine were no help at they said that james was fine big hugs

Im going to sneak myself in here.........
James is nearly 2 and we have known from the day he came home something was not right, he has what we call quirkey behavours.

I went to the doctor about them all a month ago, he referred us to a pead, who without meeting us referred us to early intervention, they have met with James x1 and have decided to put him in day care for a few hours a week with an aid to build up a report then we meet with the pead after one month........

In the mean time we are still living with violent meltdowns all day, night terrors, and a boy who wont speak......... this is all such a long process.........does it sound right to the people who have been here????

Im most terrified of them saying nothing is wrong with him, our family is falling apart at the seams.

Big hugs to everyone in this boat xxx

Thanks for the reply, we do know alot of the things that set him off, but some of them are honestly unavoidable, he doesnt like to be touched or picked up alot of the time, and that is something I have to do.
He also likes to play on his own, this is hard to explain to a 4 year old sibling when they are only trying to interact, if James is having a good day he will want to play (somewhat) with his sister but she is terrified "do I play with him and risk being the center of one of his melt downs" or "do I ignore him and he gets angry at me"

Im a huge advocate for picking battles and I have done this for both my children, Kayla seems to play up on it though because James gets away with far more than she does, then I feel bad

How do the rest of you get around this issues?? Do you have anymore advice??

Thank you so much in advance

Thats good news emmaohara! Know what you mean about feeling scared though xx

I will be interested to see what they say to you and what your next steps will be, make sure you keep me posted

yes we disability allowance for him ($80 also must be the norm)which i agree aint much but if any of you out there are applying for it and have special circumstances such as.....still in nappies/wets bed/dietry needs/medication etc you can get more, you just need to supply some proof.

gee Kell sounds like your going through alot of what we do...yes i agree alot of it is unavoidable which makes it so hard aye. we take things one day at a time...great days and shockers where i just wanna go to bed and cry!! ( which i have many times) i know around 80% of relationships breakdown when dealing with these issues and i'm thinking that we all have our guys around which is great!! sorry if i got that wrong for anyone...do tell if you are on your own and how you cope~~
Siblings do cop ALOT dont they!!! i am lucky to have a 14yr old boy as well who is over 6 feet and quite strong!!! so thats fantastic when we out and Enson decides he's had enough....mr 14 can easily scoop him up (enson a bit of a pipsqueak) and take him straight to the car...thats our emergency plan!! whereever we go...lol...but yes we find he has to endure some slight unfairness on our behave just to keep the peace, so we make sure we make up for it in other ways..thankfully hes old enough to understand.
we decided not to have any more kids as we felt it unfair to the boys to devide our time and energy even more....and what happened recently???thats right we are now due for num 3 in aug (hence the massive gap)
big shock for us...and with all honesty we had a decision to make and any earlier we wouldnt have been able to cope, but the timing seems ironically right and enson is so keen to know all about the baby, helping with everything thats being organised. its great to teach him and thankfully he loves babies of all kinds...

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I don't have any kids yet, but I have 2 georgous nephews. The oldest nephew (nearly 3) is so very smart and so curious about the way things work. He does have eye contact and has lots of cuddles too. He counts very well and has lots of words. He is incredibly fussy with food and doesn't tend to play with other kids or his wee brother too much. He sounds like he has a lot of things in common with your kids. I work in the disability sector and have suspected for a wee while that he is on the ASD spectrum, as has my mum and a few other family members. However, how do we mention this to my sister? She has never indicated that she thinks there is anything wrong. How do I bring this up with her? I have been thinking I need to do this for a while, but he is going to kindy soon so getting an assessment as soon as possible would be beneficial. Help!!!!

hi all...havent checked on here for a while...
oh good luck emmaohara, please let us know how things progress
Rovic..arent you great!! yeah it is a tricky one and i would have to agree with emmaohara as some need to clink onto it themselves. i only say that as we had a similar experience with my cousin. their boy is obviously on the spectrum but do you think we can tell them...no way they got real offended(sad but true)
once he starts socializing with other kids any problems that are gonna arise will then...if they all coping with no probs let them be, but if things start to go abit pear shaped then you may have more of an oppourtunity to bring the topic up...
good luck..