thomastank
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Posts posted by thomastank
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found it, this seemed to tick a lot of boxes with us. Hope it helps you.
http://www.researchautism.net/asditem.ikml...p;info=linksymp
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Hi, A and A, welcome to the forum.HFA is 'High Functioning Autism'. There is alot of debate about how HFA and Asperger's Syndrome (AS) differ...I couldn't begin to put all these arguments together, but I think HFA is given as a dx (diagnosis) where there was a delay in aquiring speech, AS is given where there was no speech delay. Now I'm going to duck for cover while everyone jumps in and proves me wrong!
Hello, there, its already been answered but my ds didn't have a speech delay, but I wont start the debate. . .!!! HFA and Aspergers are very similar and we were just pleased to have a diagnosis.
Annoyingly I cant find the list we worked from (if I find it I will let you know) but if you look on general autism sites and aspergers you might spot things that your son does. For example my son was (and still is) obsessed with trains (thomas mainly). He also played the same game when he got out of the bath every single night for 2 years (pretending to be a ghost wrapped up in the towel), was/is very aggressive with other children, would never join in 'circle time' with other children, would always run off with no fear of leaving me etc. His language was not delayed but it was strange, ie he had made up words/phrases, would answer certain questions the same way every time. He was still in nappies (actually only just out of them during the day in the past few weeks and nearly 5). Put down everything that you think is unusual about him and take it with you to your appointment.
I really feel for you, its a very difficult time being in 'no-man's land' but I am sure you will get there and as you get to learn more about your son and learn more strategies life will get easier. Feel free to ask more questions. Oh, and the National Autistic Society website is very good. . . . .
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[Definately worth applying for, we bought a trampoline for the kids which is great especially for burning off all that excess energy!!!!
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Hi everyone. My name is Jan and I am from Liverpool. I have 4 beautiful children aged 15, 12, 6 and 3. My youngest boy is on IEP in nursery and is awaiting an assessment. Although he has not been diagnosed with AS as yet the senco thinks that is what he has and after reading up on the disorder I do agree with her. I would like to talk to others in same situation because , as I am sure you all were, I am scared he is going to suffer as he grows with bullying and such. He is such a wonderful, talented beautiful boy and it breaks my heart to think this way.I am glad I found this site... hope to get to know you all soon
Jan xxx
Hi Jan and welcome. You'll get lots of help and support here. My son is in reception at school and is coping very well with the right support. Do you have a date for your assessment?
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Hi A and A, and welcome! My son was diagnosed with HFA last year aged 3 and a half, diagnosis took under a year. Good luck on your journey, and I hope you get your answers soon. By the way, it may be useful for you to keep a diary/list of various traits etc. to take to your peadiatrician, we did and we had a fairly smooth diagnosis, time has to be allowed for various professionals to observe your son in different settings, nursery, home etc. Do you have an appointment date? Good luck anyway.
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Hi Thomastank,Thanks for the reply we have been on a short break hence my delayed reply was really hard word Harvey was all over the place and we basically had to let him burn out every evening so he would sleep without a fuss was very tiring but we had a lovely time.
Yes he goes to Pre School 2 full days and 1 morning and they flagged it to be honest and are really supportive and want to learn with Harvey how to make his Life easier so we dont feel on our own.
I have never heard of Portage but I did call for the DLA forms yesterday and one of His teachers gave a number for Direct payments it's all new to me I have no idea what he is entitled to have been reading lots on here about the benefits they are getting.
I guess it's all a learning curve
Hello again!
Portage is a home visiting service for pre-schoolers, they will give you loads of advice and strategies for making everyone's life easier, visual timetables, structure etc. Have a look on www.portage.org.uk We only qualified for a few sessions as my son was about to start school but it was worth it. Also the NAS do courses such as Earlybird which will help you too and give you more info on ASD. I also met some local people on mine. . . .
When you fill in your DLA form go the Cerebra website, they have a great form which lists the type of things you need to include question by question. Imagine your worst day and don't put he good bits down! There's another post on it somewhere, general discussion board I think.
Preschool should be able to call in people as well to help them.
Good luck, feel free to ask more questions if you need to! As you learn why your son behaves how he does it gets easier to understand and help him.
xx
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What do you think? I think ruined.
the whole point of Thomas's was the expression without the verbal stuff,which can be difficult to understand if your person finds language and communication difficult. Its bad enough trying to stop P having conversations with objects /animals that can't talk, he says bye to planes and train 
My son was petrified of the "Brand new Thomas" as he calls it, and Thomas is his life! Getting more used to it now but the change freaked him out. . . .
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hi joanne, i started cam on eyeQ he was on it for about 5 months and to be honest i dont think it made a difference to him but i know results vary, i stopped using it as i felt like i was wasting my money! i do believe that all the omegas do have a part to play in brain function and development though so i decided to try the eskimo kids omega 3,6 and 9 oil and whether its because the eye Q started the job or maybe cam has reacted better to the eskimo kids, i have to say i have noticed a difference in his behaviour! and he says it tastes much better than eye Q! it is slightly more expensive but you dont have to do the initial extra dosage.sonj
My son on Eskimo kids too, been on it 3 weeks and seems much calmer (only one major meltdown). Even his teacher said how much calmer he was this term and thats before she knew. . .who knows but worth a try!!!
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I was wondering how many people are in receipt of DLA for a child with Aspergers Syndrome. I have applied twice. The first time I got refused, second time I'm still waiting for a response. I made much more of an effort with my second application and I'll be interested to see if it makes a difference. If I get refused this time I will probably appeal, so also wondering how many people have appealed a refusal and what the outcome was.Lauren
I ticked yes, my son has HFA. Luckily got it first time due to a lot of help, it took me months (even missed deadline) but got there in the end. . . .
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Hello allI am Carolyn 36 Married to Kevin and we have 2 children Aeryn 18 months and Harvey 3
It's Harvey who has just been diagnosed with Aspergers and to be honest I really dont know much about it so I'm trying to soak up as much information as possible so if anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.
Many Thanks
Hi Carolyn, welcome to the forum. I have 2 kiddies too, my 4 year old son was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism last year, also have a 2 year old daughter. Diagnosis is a very hard time, (bit like a rollercoaster ride!) but you should get lots of support here. The National Autistic society is a good place for info too. Will you get any support like Portage (I'm not sure if it covers all parts of UK?). Is your son in nursery? Are they supportive? I've done several courses which really help too, give you more strategies for supporting your son, visual timetables, egg timers etc. Anyway, welcome and feel free to ask loads of questions, there is some great advice on here. . .
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You could use Cerebra's online guide (google Cerebra, then from the homepage search DLA Guide), which gives step by step guidance for how to fill in the form.Karen
x
Brilliant, thanks very much
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Does anyone know of a DLA leaflet /book to help parents/carers fill in DLA forms for children? I borrowed one of a friend and it seems to have gone walkies, I really want to replace it for her. Thanks
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Ahhh, thats fab and I'm sure all of us here appreciate what a big deal it is.
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Hello, I wanted some advice too so thought I'd add to this thread too, hope you don't mind?
I'm reading 1-2-3 Magic - anyone done it? It tells you to give the child 3 warnings for behaviour and then time out, so much the same as what you are doing. We've had nightmares with the step and the tantrums get worse but 123 recommends that you send them to their room. I've sent my son up twice today and both times he's been upset but calmed down to do his 4 minutes so it all seems good, the only thing is, am I being too 'kind' by sending him to his room rather than the step? (he has toys in his room). The next time I was counting him he stopped by no. 2 so he obviously didn't want to go back to his room.
thanks for your help (again). . . .!!!
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Hello, lots of people seem to be mentioning CAMHS. . . .My son was diagnosed last year aged four with HFA and we had support from Portage. After he started school we were told everything was handed over to school but I wonder if I am missing out on CAMHS, I've never heard of them before joining here. . . .We don't get any support apart from school.
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Hi Mr A and Welcome! You are in the right place (if your daughter is on the spectrum). Good luck and I hope you get the answers you are looking for.
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HiMy son suffers severe anxiety which is stopping him doing almost everything. I have wondered if hypnotherapy could maybe 'take the edge' off the anxiety and enable him to access other help, such as CBT.
Has anyone used this for themselves or their child, or know anyone who has?
Hi there. My husband and I were hypnotised about 6 years ago to stop smoking. My husband was on over 30 a day and it still worked and he hasn't touched one since. I have no idea if it work for you but it was the best £90 we ever spent in our lives!!!!
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Hi, I just wanted to say hi and I know what you are feeling! I have a nearly 5 year old boy (HFA) and my daughter is nearly 3 (NT). I have this situation all the time and its really hard. My son can be agressive, and its really hard to know when its just bad temper or genuinely upset. My heath visitor said to me "Autism or no autism, a child needs discipline" and to me either way he has to learn to stop hitting out. I do think you did they right thing though, I'm not always good at seeing the easy way round and just get cross! Oh and my son def. has good and bad days!
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Thomas the Tank engine, any trains actually, Chuggington, maps, tracks (we have to stop the car and look over bridges at tracks!) etc. etc. bit scared of steam trains though (the noise!). Can't see it ever stopping. . . . .!!!!
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Hi there, my son is nearly 5 and we are toilet training now. He always poos in his pants (only been out of nappies for a month or so so one thing at a time!!!) unless I am there to spot the signs (his face goes white) and rush him to the loo. There is a website which might be able to help you, www.eric.org.uk
My son was seen by a continence advisor who came with a specialist health visitor, I wonder whether you might have one in your area???
Hope this helps x
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Hello! I have a 7 year old with HFA. He is generally a placid boy but can be a bit of a hitter.In addition to dealing with the actual hitting it is well worth looking at any triggers for the behaviour. That is not to excuse the poor behaviour but to look at other factors that could be ameliorated which might in turn reduce the behaviour. Is he lashing out at school when it is too noisy, when he is too overloaded, at a perceived injustice, when he has procesed something that might have happened a day ago? Is he being given structure, countdowns to when activities will end and so on. All these sorts of things were triggers for my DS at school. He had a very rocky first couple of terms but patience, consistency and understanding from his teacher along with strategies from Autism Outreach eventually cracked it.
At home we did sitting on the step for hitting but it never really worked. He got into such a state that the reason for the sanction was forgotten and his behaviour escalated. What helped most was a reward chart of his current obsession, think it was rockets at that time? He had to get 10 stars on his rocket and got his reward which had to be something that motivated him. On one side were pictures of good behaviour and on the other side were pictures of unacceptable behaviour. If he played nicely with his younger sibling for 5 minutes he got a star. If he hit or poked a star was removed. I know this is not how reward charts are supposed to be used but for my son it was effective as it was very visual, immediate with clear rules and consequences dealing with good as well as poor behaviour.
How he's a bit older we do use the step as a sanction as he can still be a bit handy. For DS the one minute per year was too long and found a shorter length of time was effective. Also gave him a timer so he could see the time on the step counting down so knew when he could get off. Telling him the consequence of good behaviour as well as poor behaviour is helpful, I used to say 'if you hit again you will go on the step' and this maybe was a certainty for him so he did it even if the consequence wasn't to his liking. Telling him the consequence of not hitting i.e. you can play gave him another certainty to choose from.
He often lashes out now when frustrated, often when provoked by his brother (or perceives he has been LOL!). Hitting is easier than using words. We are trying to model to him the desired way to behave when his brother provokes him i.e. come and tell mummy, say 'stop it' in the hope that he will learn that this is the more appropriate way to deal with these situation. It is slow progress but on a couple of occasions he has managed to hold it together enough to get me instead of lashing out and he's had lots of praise. Your son may be a bit young for this approach, I think with preschoolers the dog training approach is probably more effective LOL but it's worth remembering that our kids sometimes need to be taught the appropriate way to behave in certain situations, that they don't pick up these things instinctively
HTH
Lx
Hi, thanks for all of your advice. DS has a very structured time at school, visual timetables, taken to a small room with small groups of children if classroom is too much etc. but I must admit I'm not so good at home so might start. The problems really happen when he's just with his sister watching tv etc. We do have an egg timer for time out but I might try the reward chart with good and bad, I think he'd really get that but like you wasn't sure about introducing the negative side. Thanks, its something to think about.
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That sounds absolutely bang on... i think my son was about that age when we really started working on '1 2 3 magic' (that's two 'warnings' and then the hall - though he would go straight to '3' for major aggression), and we built up to the kind of timescales you mention. Initially it was just until he 'calmed down' (well, stopped kicking the door!) then calm down + 1 and then calm down + 2...The best is the first time they say 'I think I'm going to go up to my room for a while 'cos I need some time out'
you know they've cracked it then 
L&P
BD
brilliant, thanks, its just hard because he doesn't get it yet. My 2 year old daughter will sit on a step and walk calmly back in and say sorry, cuddle etc. and even the threat of the step is enough to stop her. At least I know I'm doing the right thing and will be consistant. thanks v much .
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Hi.Different professionals do reach different conclusions.However briefly if a child has ASD but the development of speech was within normal limits or advanced then the diagnosis will most likely be AS.It there is evidence of significant speech delay then the diagnosis will usually be High Functioning Autism.In practice the difference is not really too important and is more a professional opinion than anything.All of the support and interventions that might be suggested are the same.
Karen.Hi thanks, thats what I thought but my son was diagnosed with HFA even though he didn't have any speech delay. . . .I'm not too worried, just curious.
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Hi there, thanks for your replies. By time out I mean that every time he hits someone at home (usually his sister) I tell him that it is not acceptable and put him in our hallway. He doesn't come out until he has calmed down and then done 4 minutes (he is 4). I then go in and tell him again that hitting is not acceptable and he is allowed out to apologise. If he doesn't want to say sorry he's back in for another 4 etc. I am determined to anything to stop the hitting and put him in the hallway every time and totally agree with you on your PS which is why I am determined to sort this. Am I doing the right thing? At school he gets taken out of lessons and if he hits in the playground he has to sit inside for the rest of lunchtime.
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Sorry for late reply, only just found this. I got it off Amazon. Was expensive but I thought it worth I find it hard to shop around with kids on tow. . . .