All that paperwork

Post Reply New Topic

Hi - As a mom of a 13-year-old boy on the spectrum who has much more interesting things on his mind, I thought I would throw this out there to see what others think. Even after a heavy purge of my files, I still have lots of stuff relating to my son's initial diagnosis, evaluations, treatment plans, little projects he did with some of his therapists, etc. I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of this stuff in case he some day cares to see what our journey was like in the early days and perhaps laugh (hopefully not cry) at how outdated some things seem, how on- or off-target we were, etc. Understanding that no one else can speak for my son, I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced an interest in seeing these sorts of things from their childhood, or wished that their parents had saved their files so they could look through them and answer the question: "What were they thinking?!" Would be interested in your thoughts. Thanks!

Don't get rid of it. You.never know when he will have to justify his diagnosis, and since Autism starts at birth, you'll have a paper trail.

What saved my husband at work was getting diagnosed. What made the diagnosis possible was a ratty 0-5 years baby book which his mother wrote milestones and stuff in. His mother said he had no delays, but looking at the rough time line, he did.

The only thing separating my husband from HFA and Aspergers is no speech delay, all the other stuff was way off. Without that rough time line and reports cards, he would have had nothing. On the surface he passes, but spend more than 30 minutes with him, the whole thing unravels.

Photograph the projects, then toss. Keep any thing official.

Thanks. Indeed I would keep any official diagnoses, etc., but I was thinking more of all the residue of therapies, strategies, etc., some of which were on the right track and some of which were not.

I hope my parents haven't thrown any of my documentation away. I'd be curious to see it. Maybe will son will feel the same way when he's older, maybe he won't care at all. Seems like it's best to err on the side of keeping it.

Definitely keep it! My mum recently sent me all of my report cards from the entirety of my schooling, key projects etc. In my memory I thought I'd done okay in school until I started taking drugs, but the reality is that I started struggling when I was about 9, before I finished primary (elementary) school. I started getting detentions and suspensions in early high school, a lot more than I'd previously reckoned. Even from that late primary school stage I was having issues with submitting work. A line that is likely familiar to a lot of Aspies, 'Bungle has the ability but lacks application,' started to appear a lot earlier than I'd remembered.

I can pretty much guarantee that keeping these records will help your son later in life.

KEEP IT! You have no idea how hard it is to apply for any sort of income assistance or work/educational accomodations when you don't have your documentation handy.

For years the only documentation I had was from my original autism diagnosis 15 years ago, stored in some school division archive, so when I transferred school divisions, dropped out of the high school I transferred to, and tried applying for assistance (it's a long, sad story...), I had nothing to work with.

It wasn't until months of negotiation with a career counselor, and a failed attempt at completing a job training program, that I managed to get an assessment with a neuropsychologist, and thus new documentation and a re-affirmed diagnosis.

Now, I'm finally on the road to getting on my feet, getting my high school diploma, doing my post-secondary, and hopefully starting a career in IT. If it hadn't been for that assessment, I would still be stuck in a rut.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I definitely would have kept documents for official diagnosis, report cards, and things like that, but wasn't sure if my inclination to keep the rest would just mean a burdensome pile for my son to sort through later - or perhaps just trash without ever looking at it. I'll hold onto it for him. Thanks again.