Parents with AS

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I mean this in the sense of, do your parents also have AS?
I've not been diagnosed but am utterly convinced i have AS, and after speaking to my Mum and getting her to read the literature- we think she has aswell.
I bring this up, as so many parents with AS children always talk about the way they act, but my Mum never saw the things i did as a kid as being strange such as not wanting to play with other kids, having sensory sensitivity, fussy with food,etc.
I think if your parents are NTs it must be really difficult as it seem they see their kids as being so different fro them and t a degree 'a problem'.But as my Mum is very probably AS, she never made me feel different or wrong in that sense.
or am i talking utter rubbish??!

After doing some research there seems to be alot of history of HFA/AS on my father's side of the family - my son has HFA and I have cousins with children who also have HFA. I think I am more Asperger's than HFA as I did not really have any speech DELAYS as a child, but my inability to speak in public as a child seemed more anxiety related. My father I know has sensory issues but he seemed to be very social so I don't think he has true AS - unless he was one if those who was able to "fake" being social very well. There are other relatives who I think had AS also. I don't know though that it made things any easier because nobody knew what it was and so you had people with these different behaviors and not necessarily knowing how to deal with them. However, there was and is a sense of acceptance of people being just they way they are without this striving for social status, ect.

The first time my son started shrieking (for what appeared to be no apparent reason) I just KNEW that scream and immediately thought he was going to be like me. BUT we took him to 3 different doctors to confirm the HFA diagnosis because I had not heard of that before. I am able to understand alot of his behavior and notice triggers and the rigid thinking. That has made it easier for him because I recognize those kinds of uncontrollable behaviors and focus on coping stratagies instead of punishment.

No you are not talking rubish. I have AS and my daughter, when she was 7yrs old, was suspected of having ADHD. The more I learned about AS I noticed that My daughter also has traits. Unfortunatley, she lives with her mom, who is not AS and thinks that my daughter is just picky, because she is super sensitive to some materials of clothes which she says are itchy, and is very picky with food, when she is with me, i don't mind the quirks, I just work with them, because I know that I myself am similar. When she gets her sudden bursts of energy, we both act silly and just let go, I know that when she is with me, she hears less complaints about her behaviour than when she is elswere.

SO I can see how your mom is to you the same way that I am to my Daughter.

I belive probally both my parents are AS, my siblings all show signs too.My 14 year old son is maybe my 7 year old daughter my middle one is NT. For me growing up in the family I did I never realy knew anything else my 14 year old is like me in many ways so is my daugther . WE thought there was something wrong with my NT son becuse he didn't act like me as much as the others whose quirks were written off as being like me or my family. My whole family is full both sides with very quirky people and was always looked at as strange

I think my father was...and my mother is also. Both avoided/avoid social contact, have massive collections of things, and thrived on routines...we liked gadgets, hobbies, and things.

We were all I guess you could say "picky" eaters (I think I existed on macaroni & cheese for almost a year when I was little I wouldn't eat anything else, my father had 3 eggs and 2 pieces of toast EVERY morning)...hated loud noises, never bought clothing that might itch, and cut the tags out of everything the minute it came out of the shopping bag. Alot more things others I see view as "strange" or "different".... but I always thought everyone else was "strange" for not being the way we were. LOL

When I visited my dad I noticed he only had one friend, maybe. My mom's a social person though, and luckily she's rubbed off a lot on me.

Hey,

Yes, I believe ASD has genetic links. I have diagnosed Aspergers's. My son has diagnosed PDD-NOS. My daughter is currently being assessed, she seems to have problems with printing and sentence structure - dysgraphia. I think my father was on the spectrum. I also have neices and nephews with learning issues. It's good in that I do understand the difficulties they are having, it's bad in that I worry I'm not teaching them what they need. Do I make it too easy because I totally get it and really they should try toughing it out or learning from trial and error.

Oh well, that's all.

Jetgirl

I see a few likely undiagnosed on the spectrum on my father's side of the family... noone in the immediate family but me and my oldest son but I am also a parent myself with AS and a child with Autism and a non-autistic child.

I am not diagnosed with anything but my son is AS dx'd. The professionals that work with him at school say there is no way that I am even close to AS. But....when my son was little and we noticed he was so different and experienced the world in different ways; non-social, robotic, zoned-out, picky eater, unengaged, routine-bound, extraordinary senses of smell and hearing and extremely quiet and obedient, I kept reassuring my husband with comments like, "He's fine. He's just like I was when I was his age and look at me now. He'll grow out of it." I recognized that he was very different and exactly like I was when I was a young child. I truly thought that he would "grow out of it". What I couldn't foresee is that he would not grow out of it but is noticeably affected today at 12. I began to become more engaged and learned many coping strategies by the time I was his age. I could observe and mimic. He doesn't seem to be able to do that. (at least not yet) One huge difference is that he is very social and desires contact with others whereas I did not want to even be around other people. All in all I think it has been a good thing that I felt a special affinity for him. I have not raised him in the same way as I have his siblings because the "regular" methods of instruction and discipline would not work with him. I am very grateful that he is my son. He is very unique and I love him alot.

It wouldn't surprise me if my father had been an Aspie. My mother tells me he was an "absent-minded professor" who spent days on end in his lab with his computers, and had to be reminded to eat...

My mother is NT and she was always angry and disappointed in me because I never wanted to play with the other kids. Dad is AS and in denial so he was angry about it as well... even though he never would have either.

I tried to fit in during the first part of my childhood; but after the fifth grade, I realized that even successful contact with other human beings did not make me happy. Consequently, I stopped trying and instead began to analyze, logically, the behavior of those around me. Today, I am capable of imitating NT behavior quite well--at least enough to be thought of as "quirky" rather than "freaky"--though I still find the usual "small talk" contact with NTs very boring indeed.