Sophina

Loving your outlook AS Warrior. It's so REFRESHING to hear someone using their AS as their advantage and being proud of it. I have two sons, (Joe 7 and Joshua 4) I'll tell you a little about them *smile* bless 'em! Joe has Autism/AS and Dyspraxia. He's exceptionally articulate, has knowledge beyond his years, is very loving and absolutely loves astronomy, geography and history. He calls his Autism 'Mr Chatty' - yes he has a name for it!! He's my best little buddy in the whole world and I love him to bits ... ok his behaviour can be quite challenging sometimes, but he always recovers quickly by breathing and counting with me. He also loves the deep pressure of me lying on him. He's copying to learn how to manage his feelings and frustrations at a very young age and is also doing a course of Occupational Therapy which is fantastic. Joshua, my 4 year old doesn't talk too much, but every day I'm noticing improvements and he's talking loads more than ever before. Joshua has an exceptional decoding brain and I often find him reading the newspaper or picking up one oif his Dad's sci fi novels and reading fluently. He also has an amazing sense of humour and LOVES cuddling. My husband has Aspergers and is one of the cleverest people I know. He drives me crazy sometimes, but it's part of his charm. We often get the wrong end of the stick and misunderstand each other but it's all ok in the end. We've been married 9 years and have two amazing children so something must be going right! He has an exceptionally demanding job in IT but manages to control his anxiety really well. A funny story to end ..... this is what I have to deal with on a daily basis and although very stressful, it does make me laugh (somewhat hysterically!). Before the school run, Joshua has a little ritual (which I am trying to break for my own sanity) of going round the entire house closing all the doors, making sure all the lights are off, telly off standby, radio off etc etc. This has to be worked into our morning routine and is rather tiresome! Anyway, yesterday we were sooooo late and I patiently waited for Joshua to do his thing, had both kids in the porch and nipped back in to get my keys. Returned to porch to find Joshua standing completely naked with only his shoes on clutching his reading folder ready to go. Meanwhile Joe's standing there shaking his head, tuttung saying 'Joshua, you're a disgrace' and Joshua saying back 'No Joe YOU are a disgrace'. So the conversation continued until clothes back on and out of the door .... strapped into car and it won't start!! A walk to school resembling sheep herding followed, but we got there in the end JUST before the bell! A typical morning with my gorgeous boys ... haha!

Hi, I was told by our son's paediatrician that Nottingham university's engineering dept is mostly filled with Autistic/Aspergers people/students. Hope this is of some use!!

Hope this helps some of you .....

Hi All I found the attached soooo useful in understanding my boys. For those of you who don't know, Dr Temple Grandin is autistic and revolutionised cattle farming methods in the US. She's inspirational- also check out the trailer for the film which is a brilliant watch. Hope some of you find this helpful Cheers, Soph x

Thanks Tanya, looking forward to some interesting chats! :-)

Hi Paul, I'm Soph, also new to the site and looking for some contacts. I'm 36 and have two boys with Autism (Joshua 4 and Joe 7, who is most likely Aspergers) Joe also has Dyspraxia. My husband has Aspergers (we found out while our sons were being diagnosed) and suffers from anxiety. He's learnt to deal with it in his own way though. He has a massively demanding job in IT and when I listen to him talking on the phone he's like a machine and I haven't got a clue what he's talking about!! I must say we sometimes have difficulty communicating and he gets the wrong end of the stick and so do I but we always get it right in the end! Be nice to hear from you and your experiences

Hi Souxie, nice to meet you! (in a virtua lsense!) I'm a mum of two boys with autism and one with dyspraxia too. I'll check out your blog ... also have funny tales too to share! Soph x

Hi All Am new on here so would like to introduce myself. I have two boys (aged nearly 7 and 4) who have been diagnosed with Autism. My eldest also has Dyspraxia. The last 18 months have been a real roller coaster of emotions for us as a family as well as having to deal with the professionals (teachers and paediatricians etc) Sometimes feel quite overwhelmed. I joined this site because I think it would do me a lot of good talking so some lovely peeps who are experiencing similar things to me and share info and ideas to help our kids etc Looking forward to talking to you Soph x