advice.. new diagnosis

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[u]hi everyone

Our son Leo has just been diagnosed with mild autism - he's just turned 5. As parents we want to provide the best for him, to be happy and to achieve his full potential in life whatever he wants to do. He is not at school yet but we are looking for a good mainstream primary school that has some experience of kids with ASD. As we are beginners on this autism path we want to know from older kids with ASD what has helped them to gain confidence and overcome hurdles. What helped at school and home in terms of additional support, therapies, games anything at all that you think might be useful to help us help our son. And what didnt help too.. any advice you guys can give us will be so gratefully received..this is all new stuff to us. Thankyou all xxxx

You should post on the Parent's Forum. They have LOTS of information pertaining to raising children with autism.

I understand what your'e saying but was hoping to hear from older kids who have been through it themselves rather than parents. Its a different perspective to hear how kids actually feel about things. Thanks for the reply anyway

I understand what your'e saying but was hoping to hear from older kids who have been through it themselves rather than parents. Its a different perspective to hear how kids actually feel about things. Thanks for the reply anyway

When you say "kids" that you want to hear from, are you referring only to people who are now in the "kid" category? Or do you also seek advice from older people who may have made it through life, or at least childhood, with unacknowledged autism spectrum troubles?

Hi, libby123----welcome to WP!! !

There's a kids' forum, here:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum15.html

One suggestion that I have, as a BIG "kid", is you might want to look into diets for Autism. It has helped LOTS of people, here----MYSELF, included!! !

Take care,

Cat

Diet is definately something we are looking at - i agree it does seem to improve mood when certain foods are limited. I don't mean anything too specific emtyeye - simply people who have lived through young childhood and primary school with a diagnosis and what they have found helpful and unhelpful. For eg. would you have preferred a special school for autistic kids or did you find mainstream ok? Its hard to know whats best when you make decisions for your child..you want to do the right thing as much as possible.

Welcome - yes, the parents forum on WP will give you a lot of good info.

Another of the members here is EzraS who is a teenaged boy who is in a school for autistic children. His posts are very mature and insightful - you might want to private message him (PM) as he may be able to give you some good feedback on the school issue.

Take care

I second seeking out EzraS -- that young guy is astounding. Very insightful, very wise -- only 13!

What helped me the most was my mother teaching me to read very early, and keeping me buried in books. Of course there was no Asperger's back when I was five, but when I showed up for first grade I was far ahead of the other children, and much more interested in learning.

I am old enough that there was no Asperger's diagnosis readily available when I grew up. No one knew that I was on the Spectrum until two years ago. So I always attended mainstream school. I am really glad I did. I don't know anything about special ed really but I always did well academically. I did not really get bullied very much because I was pretty quiet and well behaved. I think the hardest thing about it though was that other kids did not seek me out to be friends with me so I was pretty much alone but since I like my alone time I don't know that it really bothered me. I was also very active in sports and that was really great. I think that any physical activity is really fantastic and really helps balance the mind and body. And spending lots of time in nature is really helpful as well.

I think for Aspergian little girls it can be different than Aspergian little boys though. Girls tend to do better in social situations like school and sometimes our symptoms don't really show up strongly until the pre teen/young teen years. That was definitely the case for me. I think my issues really started to come to light when I was around ten to fifteen. I can look back and see that there were obvious symptoms when I was very little but no one knew how to recognize them then. And because they were not screaming out and blatant, I fell completely under the radar.

I also developed Misophonia at ten which did not help matters. But as far as school, I might try him in a mainstream school and see how he does. If he can do well than that might really good for him. You can always switch him to special ed if he doesn't. That's the cool thing about Autism Spectrum awareness now that we did not have before. Now you have options.