NobbyNobbs

they dont explicitly say you must have more friends to do anything. but for example in the mafia one, the bigger your mafia the more money you can get, the more fights you win etc. in the farming ones you can only get a bigger farm by having X number of neighbours. sneaky people! i love having my language set to pirate, it always makes me happy when i'm having a grumpy day.

they will play music into headphones for her so that will help her to stay still (hopefully!), and its not that easy to move around as you've got your head in a sort of cage thing. however, it's VERY loud when the scan is happening which isn't nice. when i had mine i walked out and my mother who was in the waiting room said it was too loud for her and she was in a different room! i would call up the MRI unit and ask if there is some kind of drug support that would help keep her calm and still. not ideal but the MRI wont work if she moves as it blurs the image apparently

we had two day/night wetters. i presume you've been through all the usual things, avoiding certain foods/drinks, regular toileting etc so i'll focus on the practical solutions we discovered. pampers/huggies disposable bed mats. you put them under the bed sheets, theyre like a thin, flat nappy which absorbs the wee to stop it going on the matress. they aren't plastic-y and dont really rustle if you put them on properly. we also lined the backseat of the car in them to stop the seats being soaked when they wet in there. our two also hid their dirty underwear everywhere, in fact, we found a dirty pair in a cupboard the other day and those kids haven't lived here for nearly 2 years!! the smell is terrible, but you will be more sensitive to it than other people so its not as bad as you think. we still are very sensitive to it, our poor 3 yr old is caught out if she is so much as damp because i can smell it a mile off now. we used shake and vax powder on the carpets to freshen them up, and got chairs for our two in the living room to keep then off the furniture we couldn't clean. we made ours change their clothes as soon as we found out they were wet (up to 5 times a day!), and eventually they got so sick of being sent upstairs to change, combined with being ordered into the toilet every hour that they gradually improved to the point where they were mostly dry in the day and one was dry at night (the ASD one was the fully dry one). we used rewards for successful toilet trips where their underwear was still dry. people must have thought we were nuts, the kids would come home from school and very proudly say 'smell my knickers!'

one thing to be aware of is that most of the most popular game applications encourage you to have an ever-increasing number of neighbours/friends/mafia members (dont ask!). the fastest way for someone to do this is to add random people as friends and if you get hooked into the games its a very tempting idea for someone who has very few actual friends on facebook. perhaps put in the ground rule that you approve all his friends on there and check every now and again.

photo frames are traditional and you could get a very nice one for £30. photo albums are also popular, especially if you took some photos at the service/reception to put in it before you gave it to them. otherwise, a tree/shrub if they have a garden, a piece of art if you know what their house looks like, something practical they probably dont have (icecream maker springs to mind). some places will do up a gift reciept these days so if they already had one of whatever you choose they could swap it for something else. i dont like giving gift vouchers because they show a lack of thought (unless they asked for them). another nice idea is a donation in their name to a charity that is important to them

i've read them all and seen the film. the books are quite good - the writing style gets on my nerves a bit but the story is more than makes up for it. what do you think so far?

i was 2 weeks late and induced, but everything was fine otherwise. my sister (NT) was also induced but my mother was forced to have pethadin and was seriously ill while giving birth.

i'm on my 4th rotation in a row of the full box set of West Wing at the moment (156 episodes)

the shop might not exist anymore but you might know of something similar - i used to go and look at all the twirly lights in the natural earth shop. i expect any nature/science shop would have the same sorts of things. they always seemed to have spinning fibre optics etc.

we go through this with our foster kids (some of which we get very attached to). you get so bogged down in all the battles and things that need to be improved and worked on that you stop seeing all the good things. it exhausts you mentally and physically and then everything is even harder because you're tired on top of everything else! perhaps you could make a list of things that she likes doing/is good at and make time to do those things more often. it should help her by giving her a time when she isn't in trouble, and help you because you get to see your lovely daughter which helps motivate you to keep fighting. we also have days/weeks when we feel they are particulalry struggling when we back off and say 'ok, you're having a sad/cross day/time, how about we just slow down and do whatever'. we spent yesterday afternoon cuddled up on the sofa with our little one watching cbeebies and reading stories after she got in so much trouble in the morning at nursery she spent hours screaming and crying because she couldn't stop being naughty. today shes back to normal and is managing her behaviour a bit better. as for the school hopefully if shes calmer and happier at home her behaviour will improve at school (i know its not always the way but i'm a firm believer in 'try one thing, then if it doesn't work, try another')

we normally dont put ours on until late november but we've got K now and shes only 3 and feels the cold so we've had to put it on. we have it set around 17 degrees just to take the chill off and generally have a window open in a low traffic room to keep everything fresh. we had cavity wall and roof insulation fitted this year (free!!) and the house temperature is so much more constant now. its not really any hotter, but it has stayed cooler in summer and hopefully wont be so cold in winter. i hate not having fresh air and keep my window open all year which mildly irritates my parents who complain i'm throwing all their money out the window by letting the heat in my room out.

i'd found the same type mumble, but only in adult sizes and i dont know if his feet would be that big at 9. i was also thinking of the turnover top stocks that girls have (K has ones without lace trim which aren't very girly), as they aren't tight at the top at all, but if the problem is with ribbed that wont work. other than that i've found super-soft tube socks which dont have seams, but might have the same problems at the top and

do you mean the tightness is the problem? or the fact that its ribbed? what shoe size is he?

i dont know about the scottish part, but my diagnostic report stated that there was no evidence of psychosis, and spent a lot of time ruling out previously diagnosed mental health issues before stating the diagnosis, so its likely that ASD cannot be diagnosed without further investigation if there is any evidence that there is any psychiatric disorder present. i initially saw a psychiatrist through university who gave me a working diagnosis of AS, OCD, Agoropobia and depression and by the time the final report was written they'd ruled out all but AS stating the other conditions were results of the AS and not conditions in their own right. i know there are other adults on here who were first sent to a psychiatrist.

hmm. the likelihood of seeing a consultant for anything remotely relating to sleep or ASD is zero so i guess i'll have to keep complaining until they give up and send me to someone. i'm now having 3 nights a week of not sleeping. i took the tablet 4 hours ago tonight and i'm still wide awake so no sleep for me tonight. i think they just dont realise that i'm not exaggerating when i say i dont sleep for 3 nights in a row. last time they just gave me high dose sleeping tablets, told me they were addicting and i shouldn't take them and pushed me out the door

that would be my point. surely this is more about company insurance than personal insurance. the majority of foster carers are rather annoyed that we are required to take out personal liability insurance for the child in our care when responsibility for that child is with their social worker. we can't take all measures we would like to ensure safety, yet are made to be financially resposnible for the results of this. for example, we have been granted special permission to use reins with our current child, but a foster carer we know with a child of identical age and behaviours except more violent and destructive is not allowed to use them because it would be considered abuse. teachers are not allowed to take certain logical precaustions because of human rights, yet their employer is not responsible for protecting them with insurance (at least to any significant degree) i know the NAS insurance thing is different, as its for parents who ARE responsible for the control and safety of their children, but unless you know you have a potentially violent and destructive child its no more likely that they will cause chaos than an NT child, and is preying on parents who are already financially terrified by the potential need to support their child for a lot longer than was considered before birth.

perhaps another time. i dont do well in cities and last time i went to london i spent most of my time crying (bad experience at the US embassy!), so i need to go to a few other busy places first i think.

i'd come but... i'm too scared! so you'll have to post lots of details afterwards for me

i've grown up exactly the same way as you have. i only got my diagnosis a couple of months ago so i've had no help with my differences either. i understand how frustrating it can be to suddenly realise there might be a reason behind your battles, and that if it had been realised sooner everything would have been much better. but if you hang around and read some of the posts by parents of children diagnosed with AS you'll soon realise thats not the case. having a diagnosis and people around you who understand doesn't make the problems go away.

wow. thats pretty disgusting. before anyone else jumps on you i'll say this - this board is frequented by NT and AS parents of ASD children, and ASD adults without children. no one of those 'types' is better than any of the other, we are all here to help and support each other. there are a great number of NT people here who have an incredibly developed understanding of ASD and what it is like. and its not like what you're describing! people with AS are not spiteful egocentric people who look down on the poor NTs for not being enlightened. we are people with a social/communication disorder who may find it difficult to understand and navigate in social situations. i strongly suggest you widen your reading to include books that aren't apparently convincing you you have super-powers. i can recommend Tony Attwoods 'The complete guide to Aspergers Syndrome'. i've just had a look over the link you posted and its certainly not something i would consider saying was remotely true. its spiteful and certainly not remotely a parody of what having AS means to me. i've done a lot of research over the internet and never come across something like that. which would suggest you had to go looking for it. perhaps before you post again you should take a look at some proper scientific research into ASDs. none of the symptoms you listed (except normal speech development (which is actually a diagnostic criteria for AS)) have anything much to do with ASDs. if you are serious about getting a diagnosis you're going to need to read some factual information, as what you're hoping to be diagnosed with doesn't exist.

noone has every autistic trait ever noted, people with ASD are still people and we're all different. you say you've done a lot of research. can i ask where? because your understanding of classic symptoms doesnt match anything i've ever heard and would be interested to see the contrasting information. congratulations on getting a referral for a diagnosis, thats usually a big fight for an adult

foster carers are instructed to get public liability insurance in relation to damage done by children in our care. our current placement is 3 years old and this afternoon walked out of nursery and hugged the front of our car announcing 'i love betty car'. shes a real risk to other people. our home insurance also doesn't cover any damage done by children in our care to our house or property as they are not considered part of the household i'm sudenly quite glad that there seems to be an error with my NAS subscription. i dont get any mailings or information (but they money went out of my account) and that now seems like a great thing. all they need to do now is join up with Autism Speaks and create another one of those 'autistics wreck everything' adverts.

phew. i've tracked down a route that takes 2 hrs 16 minutes each way which is acceptable, especially since K will sleep in her pushchair on the way back and wont even know how long its taking. i remembered that i used to go from a train station slightly further from home that has a lot more travel options. its the next station on the line from our nearest, yet cut over 50 minutes from the journey! ive also got my mom to agree to phoning legoland to ask about the exit pass and whether i can go on the rides with K next to me or on my own as i haven't had a meltdown since i was 13 and can and will do anything i need to if i'm responsible for K (thats already been tested a few times). if not then we just wont use the exit pass and i'll have to deal with the queues, although i'm hoping there wont be many as we're going in term time on a week day.

its never simple... just looked up the train times for getting there and its impossible. going to have to look at every possible route/time to work out a journey time of less than 3 hours each way! no way we can put k on a train for 6 hours, she'd demolish the place. i dont understand it as i know i can get to reading in an hour direct, but every time i look it up it says no, i can't get there.

sorry to highjack but is portage for diagnosed additional needs or can it be behavioural (non-ADHD) etc and general developmental delay?