pyfan

http://www.mintnorwich.co.uk/ http://www.asperger.org.uk/index.asp Both of these cover Norfolk, not sure about Cambridgeshire.

Thanks for your advice. It goes to Panel fairly soon so at the moment we are just waiting........

Thanks for advice, I am still thinking this one over....it's not an easy decision.

My husband and son are already diagnosed and I have concerns about my daughter. She has always had some Asperger traits and I think she is now showing more difficulties socially and emotionally which are more obvious as she is getting older. However she is getting on well at school and I don't really want to involve school in getting her assessed - has anyone had a teenager privately assessed for a diagnosis without going through school? She is aware of having difficulties and I feel it might help to put a name to it - my husband was diagnosed 2yrs ago and it has been a great help getting it out into the open. Any advice? Also how to go about finding a reputable person to go to?

I was told by careers adviser that although leaving age has been raised to 17yrs, then will go up to 18yrs, it is not legally enforceable. So if your child did not attend school/ education/ training after age 16yrs the parent cannot be prosecuted. Nor can an employer for employing a 16/17yr old in a job without training. Don't know if this is correct though! I am interested in this as I have a son Yr11 at a private school funded by LEA. His statement was reviewed with no changes in October but although he wants to stay on at his school in the 6th form and school are happy to have him continue, we have still had to make a case for the LEA panel to assess whether his placement can be extended. We have not had to do this in any other year since he was initially accepted in Yr7. If he has to stay in education for at least another year anyway due to the leaving age being raised, why have we had to go through this process? Have not had a decision from panel yet but fear it will be a refusal. is anyone else in this position? Thanks for any advice.

Thank you for your advice! I suppose it is a case of wait and see at the moment.

My son is Year 9 currently and will be the first year group to have to stay in education to age 17yrs. We are starting to think about ideas for 6th form or college but what I would like to know is whether the LEA are obliged to continue with my son's statement (subject to the annual review) to also cover what will be the first year of the 6th form. If he is obliged by law to stay in education then do they have to assist him still? He is funded by the LEA at an independent school which has a 6th form and although we are looking at several options I am wondering whether it is possible that they will fund the 1st year in 6th form without a big fight or will we have to go through another long process........has anyone got any information on this topic? Grateful for any help. Thanks.

Thank you for all your replies. I can see why the psychologist feels she has to report it as for all she knows maybe he isn't safe to drive and she is doing her job. It's just that the impact on us would be so great and the fact that none of this occurred to me beforehand, it has come as a shock and something else to worry about. I think the main thing is that he knows his limitations but as you say, the DVLA may see it in more black and white terms. Will see what happens......Thanks

My husband has recently been diagnosed with Aspergers and the psychologist has told us that she is reporting this DX to the DVLA. This is because during his assessment my husband told her that he didn't like driving unless alone and he has had several minor accidents over the years plus a few points on licence at different times eg 36mph in 30mph zone, although nothing recently (touch wood). He only drives locally now. I am now worried that the DVLA might take his licence away or make him re-sit a test which he might not pass, and without a car he will lose his job. I do all the family driving because he cannot cope with passengers distracting him but he is quite capable of driving the short distance to work. Also will this affect our car insurance? Has anyone actually lost their licence after diagnosis? I cannot take him to work as he works nights and we have children, also I work early mornings, we live in the country with no public transport. I have 2 medical conditions myself and our son also has AS, I did not realise that there might be any problems with the DVLA and now the whole thing is worrying me - any advice please? Thanks.

Thank you for your help on this!

My son has a statement review coming up - he has just started Year 9 and will choose his options for GCSE this school year. School have said that Connexions will be involved although I thought the service was being stopped soon. My son is doing well at school so far and his statement has been sufficient (after a long battle to get it correct for the transition to High School 2 years ago). Are there any changes we might need to make or particular issues to consider at this stage - do we need to start thinking ahead as far as leaving school and going on to 6th form yet? I am not sure where Connexions comes into this and don't want to be unprepared for the meeting. Has anyone got any advice from their experiences? Thanks for any help.

We have always been open with our son about his difficulties, he has always been aware of feeling different and used to think he was 'stupid' because of his difficulties. It has taken quite a long time to get a proper Dx but he knew the doctors were trying to help him and we went so often it seemed normal. I have health problems and have regular hospital appts so again it didn't seem unusual to him to have appts for himself. Once we started the process of transfer to High School we were completely open with him because he goes to a school with other pupils who have AS and similar. Since going there and being with other AS children he has completely accepted it. I have just asked him if he still feels 'stupid' and he replied 'no actually I think I am a genius'! On another note, we did have problems with our daughter who is 2 years younger. We should have explained things to her more carefully as during the long process of getting my son's place at school she did not understand why he had so much attention and started to act up, once we got a booklet from NAS and went over things with her she also accepted it. I think it is better to face up to these things and take it from there, as it will come out eventually anyway. Once my son knew what the problem was he stopped blaming himself and his self-esteem improved.

My husband ran in the Great South Run and raised nearly £400 for the NAS, paid in very promptly. They never acknowledged this or thanked him for his efforts and when our membership renewal came up I told them I did not feel like renewing for that reason. They then gave us a year's free membership which I felt bad about as I did not intend to take money away from them, but my husband wished he had run in aid of our local AS group which has given us direct and relevant help (and is now having problems with funding). I do read the NAS emails and newsletters but they have not helped me directly, somehow I feel they are too big. The local group are familiar with the doctors, schools, county council procedures etc that I actually use.

Just a small suggestion re fear of being upstairs - my son would thunder up and down the stairs and refuse to stay upstairs alone - it turned out that the noise from the electricity meter turning was bothering him (it is on the landing), he said it was inside his head. I could not even hear it! Once we identified it and explained it to him it seemed to help, he still runs up and down but doesn't have the fear anymore.

Hello again! Thank you for your replies so far, it just feels better to know we are not the only ones out there! To add a little background, me and husband have been together 20 years, I always knew he was different (I mean that nicely!) but sometimes you don't put these things together all at once. Our son is teenage and had various problems from birth, started to be assessed for these from age 2 and a half and was statemented from age 5. He is high functioning ASD. Husband is quite a lot older than me, his brothers are in their 60's and both parents dead now. We have a GP appt next week, but I don't have very high hopes for any quick results. We both just feel it is time to acknowledge it and he feels better to be trying to do something. I don't want to speak to his work without something more concrete as I think they may see it as an excuse and after all we don't actually know for sure that it is AS. However it would come as absolutely no surprise to either his or my family if it was the case! Today he is out on his bike as he doesn't like being in the house with nothing to do, he cannot handle unstructured time and gets claustrophobic indoors. Thanks for your help so far, it does help just to talk about it.