bramblebrae

Just wanted to say I didn't have candida when pregnant or at any time before it I did have extra, late, scan for too much fluid in womb and baby was highly active which needed extra monitoring every 2 days in the 2 weeks overdue I went and then they had to bascially force him out - I say he got lost and couldn't find the exit;) or he was too cosy Have lots of genetic family markers around us though I'm verging on aspieness his father was too I've a young cousin with classic autism who attends a NAS school and another second cousin who has moderate LD and autistic traits and my sons paternal uncle is psychophrenic. I haven't heard of threelac but I hope it or some alternative helps your DD soon, it must be very difficult for her to cope with. take care Lorraine

Oh I shoulda posted a link I've been reading these for a few weeks now I was very unimpressed with SENCO's blog as it only had one entry when I last looked - I am presuming she was off on her hols! oh well off to check for any improvements. Josh's stuff is great - I did leave a comment on all three but they weren't all printed. anyway thanks for posting the link - you guys are great for links I've learnt so much through you all Lorraine

Hi, Could someone explain what a 'sensory diet' is and how it works please? I'm really curious as I've not seen it mentioned before. thanks Lorraine

I think your only going to get some proper answers when his father communicates to you. I'm presuming Nanny is the dad's mum ?? can she find out and be a go between if he is not willing to communicate directly with you at the moment. How is your other son with his father not coming to visit? It must be very difficult for all of you at the moment I hope camhs can help Louis to deal with whatever happened. take care Lorraine

Thanks so much for the info Oracle. Lorraine

Hi thanks for the reply Ksasnic, I've actually made one sale on ebay once lol it was a set of thunderbird cards for a pound. Thing I can't see is what to sell on there I can't work out where folk get cheap stuff so they can sell cheaper than the shops and make money considering theres additional postage to add. I think my imagination is limited in that I know it must be possible just can't find out how -any pointers greatly appreciated - though I'm sure 'd find something if I looked a bit harder! (lazy me) just now i'm using the spare time to decorate the living room though it's taken me a year to get around to starting it from when I first looked and thought heck this place is a complete mess I need to do something. anyway thanks again take care Lorraine

I would go back to the gp now and ask him to do what ever he would do in a weeks time as you have already waited 4 and if you wanted to wait another you would have. I would be looking for him to do blood and urine tests immediately and a phsyical examine. or did they do these already? Personally your post flies alerts up at me and although it maybe because the food has changed it may even be like sugar withdrawl or something and nothing serious at all but something happened to our family where we were told to wait a week or 2 by a doctor and although even if the doctor hadn't been blind and stupid and negligent the outcome wouldv'e been the same in the end it might make a difference to someone else. I don't want to scare anyone and things usually turn out to be fine in the end but IMHO it really is far better to be safe than sorry. If the GP refuses and your still as worried I would just walk into A&E the have the facilities to get results quicker too. take care Lorraine

Hi wow thats sounds like a terrible meeting you had to go through. I'm really stunned at their off handeness of your very rightly concerns. Can you ask the school to apply for a full assessment and statement, I would think they would be looking for a statement to get funding to provide the support your son is currently getting and clearly they feel he needs. It's amazing it's the school who is in support for a change and not the professionals who are supposed to know what their doing. My sons nursery teacher was the one who pushed for his diagnosis and though at the time I never really appreciated it if it hadn't been for her we would have never got the diagnosis so quickly as the assessment panel just didn't know what to think as the conditions he was assessed under, 3 kids to 4 adults was a very calming atmosphere he thrived in and didn't display as many ASD behaviours as he did at nursery - so they were pushed into observing him in different situations upon which he got his diagnosis and eventually the help he needs. I do wonder if the team you got actually watched the whole video, they would maybe been discussing things amongst themselves and not paying attention to what was happening on screen -sorry just me trying to find an excuse for their blindness! As for them not even reading the schools report I would say that was negligent. Good luck keep pushing them you know what your witnessing don't let them bully you out of getting your son the help he needs. Doctors etc aren't infalliable by a long shot. Take Care Lorraine

I've not had one(letter) yet so maybe it's not coming to this area. I gave up work when Stephen was 4 and at the same time I'd just been given DLA award and applied for income support and carers allowance at the same time. I got 2 letters about interviews one as lone parent and another as carer and i phoned and I got these combined together. I remember the interviewer watching Stephen happily playing with the kids toys in the waiting area whilst we spoke and giving me the usual mmh he looks fine to me nonsense whilst also telling me about her son whose dyslexic and how he is doing so well now, when for once his timing was perfect as we looked back a minute later and he was pulling down his trousers and pants and was just about to weeee up the side of their job finder computer terminal lol it's really funny looking back though I had to move really quickly to avoid the nasty surprise - wow they even let me take him into the staff loos! About 6mths later when he was 5 they sent a letter for interview about going back to work and I just phoned and explained that 6mths ago I'd given up a blinking brilliant job because of our circumstances and why on earth would I be looking for another 6mths later, they left it at that thankfully. Zaman - if you have no other income coming into the house from yourself or partner you should be getting income support. Who ever said you can't get income support because of carers allowance was completely out of order. There is a premium you get added onto income support if you recieve carers allowance which means under most circumstances even though they deduct the carers allowance from the income support you will always be left with at least a token amount of income support which then lets you get the presciptions etc and easier to access housing benefit etc too. I used to assess IS and JSA claims though it's a few years back if anyone wants some rusty info feel free to PM me. Lorraine

Sorry to barge in but I was just wondering why they didn't like the idea of going to the press? Lorraine

I hope things go well today with the ed psych and Dan gets the help he needs in school. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you take care Lorraine

ditto ditto ditto and you all explained it far better than I ever could! Sometimes people say stuff who just don't realise why things are happeneing they just don't look like the coach at the summer week football thingie S went to S got upset and came off crying and raging shaking his fists the coach asked where he was going he said to sit with the parents cause I'm getting angry-reason for being angry no one would pass him the ball cause he;d not been getting along with any of the others at all he just yapped straight at them and told them what to do although he isn't very good at football at all he did calm down and go back and one nice girl he teamed up with a few times tried to give him a chance but he'd be so amazed she'd passed it the other team always got the ball first..anyway this coach comes over at the end and says we've got S down as being on the autistic spectrum mmh he says he must just be on it....grrrrh and he had actually witnessed a total meltdown on the first day there and he had a helper with him (who did nothing really!) and myself most of the time whilst all the other parents just left their boys n girls to it....drives me totally insane ...and I know it could be worse as pointed out by my own mother but I have to look at reality and the future for him he's so close to 'normal' as viewed by ignorant NT's I'm really scared how people will react to his 'differences' when he's older. One woman in a shoe shop who he announced to her himself that he had ASD her reply oh wow I'd have never have thought that your such a good well behaved boy - I was too stunned to utter a word and feel so bad to this day how dare she presume ASD means 'bad' behaviour it's just so not the case even if at times that is what the end result looks like!!! School are identical in P1 they said he got on with his classmates even though he'd hurt a few by hugging their necks too tight -total of 6 birthday parties not one invite and some of these including kids I even thoguht he was getting along with a bit-and they are yet to apologise or even admit for getting it so wrong with him in P1, now there just like isn't he doing so well now he's maturing so well yada yada yeah only because I called in the outreach teacher and got 121 support for him. Even his 121 has made the statement of how he's no problem at lunchtime really - I swear one day I'll send him in with what would be considered a 'normal lunch' and see what happens but then she knows if he goes for school dinner all he ends up with is 2 crackers milk oj and raisins IF they have any. They are still convinced he'll just eat like the other kids if he goes long enough yet they are not trying to encourage any new foods and if he get a bit upset they let him go out to the corridor...but it's fine really not a problem grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I've gone off on one again srry Lorraine

Unbelievable, why on earth is it so limited in its release? It's got at least 2 major actors and has had excellent reviews, the mind boggles!! I too will have to wait for the dvd or just hope it comes out later. Jeez I live in the oil capital of the north with over 200k people you think they could show it here it's not the back of beyond!! I'm miffed if you hadn't realised! Lorraine

Alan Rickman - brillant actor -distinctive and lovely voice -bad side snape in HP movies. Speaking of films containing autism material. Has anyone else mananged to see a movie called - Mozart and the Whale - stars Josh Harnett playing a aspie guy who runs a support group for people with AS and is a taxi driver - is based on a true story from a book written by the main character but I've forgotten his name. I don't think it's ever been released properly anywhere but Brazil for some strange obscure reason and was also shown at an american ASD convention. I got it from the net using some dubious means but only because I'd being waiting a year to see it and it seemed like it was never going to get released! Lorraine

Hi my son has gone from always yapping at me to sometimes yapping at me and talking constantly whilst playing with his toys. He also reads alot and used to only read out loud this has changed and he reads to himself now, I think he realises he gets through the book even quicker this way. I made the mistake perhaps of asking him who he was talking to when he was constantly talking whilst playing alone and after awhile he found an answer he says he is talking to Stephen TV viewers. He often gets up late on a weekend and apologises to the viewers for being on late. I have discussed it with him and he does admit that its imaginary and there isn't anyone watching but then he talks about it as if there is. I think I pushed him into finding an answer becasue I kept asking who he was talking to so he invented Stephen TV so he would have a reply. I don't ask anymore and the references to S 'tv' are still there but far fewer. I feel you though the constant talking is very distracting, I gave up watching tv when he was about long ago or doing much that involves my concentration as I just found it so frustrating and kept losing my own thoughts but I think it has lessened over time and the dialogue whilst playing has become much quieter, he recently turned 7yo but all our kids develop differently as you know. His imagination has definitly grown in leaps over the last year too, maybe aided by the constant dialogue perhaps. We now spend time together doing stuff like board games or watching movies (currently half way through all the james bond films!) usually I get to a point where I just need peace and admit this loudly and then he will play on his own entertaining the 'tv' viewers...it seems to work better now for my sanity at least and he is becoming more symphathetic towards my needs too. Lorraine

Thank you for your thoughtful replies and sharing your experiences. I feel better about it now though he still says he feels the same. I'll just keep up the praise and be extra careful over what I say. He insists nothing has happened to 'trigger' these thoughts so I'll just go with the fact he is becoming more aware and thoughtful of life events so to speak himself. The school doctor recently said she would refer him back to the clinical psych dept over some other issues, not sure how long the wait willbe though but I'll see if psych can assess his self esteem etc also. thanks Lorraine

Hi all, I earlier tonight had the most strange and worrying conversation with my son. To cut a very longstory short he basicaly dosen't think he'll have a future he thinks he won't get/want a job he won't get a girl and therefore won't have children he won't have money for a house or even a caravan he said. I've asked him why he is thinking like this and what has made him think about it at all but he says nothing, it's just what he thinks. He often 'thinks' things for which he has no apparent basis to think them like saying he thinks the kfc were on our way to won't have any chicken pops - just out of the blue like with no reason to why he thinks it - when we go there very often and they've never ran out yet. Anyway the point is he was fairly upset whilst saying all this stuff about when he's older and was almost in tears 3 or 4 times. I specifically asked if it was because he knows he has an ASD and did he think this would stop him from doing these things but he said no. I just don't know why he's suddenly so worried about all of this. I have a few ideas on tackling what I think looks like low self esteem basically but am I wrong?! I was thinking of showing him lots of successful things people adults and children with ASD have done. Also just carrying on praising him for the things he is geat at. I am overall concerned with where he is picking up this negativity from, it could be me I'm sad to say as sometimes I speak about things I really shouldn't in front of him and I'll try and take more care in future. I really don't think I've said anything about his future to him though, not that I can remember. I try not to think of the longterm future at all really not because I worry about what he will be able to do (as I do sometimes) but because we never know what, if anything, is ahead of us. (this is rather pessimistic but is reality as I've come to experience ) Anyone experienced similar thoughts or feelings in their kids - I'm pleased at least he felt able to tell me but is this the start of depression? surely at 7 he's too young? which in terms of worrys about the future that I have thought of, is my main concern and I have tried to ensure school etc isn't too stressful and would pull him out if that happened. He's only just turned 7 and I've not really heard him talk like this before except for a couple of times when school treated him badly in my opinion and he refused to move away after school and said he was going to stand in the road till a car hit him. He did say something similar to me once when I was refusing to buy something he wanted but I had to stick to what I said, didn't I? After both incidents 5 or 10 minutes he was seemingly fine again...though I was more careful over the few days following. anyway I'm rambling cause I'm confused about exactly want I do think please if you can still see the main question still has anyone any ideas? thanks v much Lorraine

Interesting but my first thoughts would be how many of those fathes display autistic traits. If a guy has some form of autistic spectrum disorder or traits is it not at least in the realms of possibilties and something they should have looked into /investigated that they are more likely to have children older because of there own social differences and because of the genetic factor their children would be more likely to be autistic and therefore it would show as a higher proportion at a higher age IYSWIM. I'm not for a minute suggesting that anyone with an autistic child must be autistic too just that it is known that genes play a big part in it and I would have liked to have seen something saying they had considered this possibility. I don't like the idea of fathers blaming themselves for having kids when older anymore than the old 'refridgerator' mother thing!! or am I a hundred miles off base - what does everyone else think? we could run a poll on ages lol my sons father was 33 when he was born I was 27 practically-10days anyway just my thoughts take care Lorraine

http://www.ipsea.org.uk/lewishamcomplaint.htm Hi I've been googling this and came up with a complaint ipsea are dealing with just now, link above. Basically the borough produced a leaflet telling parents statements were no longer needed as the school would get the money direct to use where the saw the need as school is the best place to see it (errr yeah right!!!) but IPSEA have complained as no change to the statement procedures have happened at all and they have had worried parents phoning them about there childrens provision. IPSEA sound well hacked off and rightly so I can't believe this borough tried to basically pull a fast one on their most vulnerable children, I think someone should be prosecuted for it I really do. I don't know for sure if this is what the SEN officer was talking about but I can't find anything else about statements changing in England. This complaint is dated July 2006 so fairly current - it didn't mention in complaint or quotes from leaflet about when they were saying the changes took place....could be the SEN guy is misinformed directly from this! I'd check directly with IPSEA if I was in England, if it's came from the same misinformation it could be good for their case to see how this rumour has spread and the damage it may do. take care Lorraine

Hi, welcome to the forum I'm having to assume here, sorry if I get it wrong, that the above quote is the main problem. Did the councellor have any suggestions on how to help you feel better about yourself? I agree with mossgrove on the labelling issue -he said it all already. take care Lorraine

What an interesting post I'd never really thought about it before but now that I have -Stephen's voice does change in pitch slightly in different moods but what I notice more is that he finds it very difficult to find the right words and stammers/stutters alot when angry, he also always starts with a moan/growl and then "I'm getting angry" statement, he has learnt to walk away when angry with the help of the autistic outreach teacher though it dosen't always work out like that yet. When being hyperactive, which isn't often normally but is getting more frequent, he dosen't really talk to anyone but constantly hums or chants etc. When just really interested in telling someone something, which is most of the time - he talks at 99miles an hour and forgets to breath he has a slight lisp too and it makes it hard for peeps to understand which in turn makes him frustrated and then we get stuttering at 99 miles an hour! I think I've done him a great diservice really because I've never thought about it fully I don't think I've really explained it properly to SALT when he's been assessed in the past - I will next time- I expect the usual answer of it's his condition (do ya thonk?)and remind him to slow down! As usual this forum proves most thought provoking take care Lorraine

Hi I've been interested in hyperlexia too. My son has been reading since 2yo and taught himself basically, thing is he does seem to understand everything he is reading too though I suppose he can read harder words which he dosen't yet know the exact meaning of. He choses to read books about 3 yrs beyond his age and shows good understanding of the story or facts. Anyway here is the link to the american hyperlexia association - I've not been on for awhile and I think it's not being maintained at the moment but there are some good articles - I remember quite a good one to hand to teachers teaching a child with hyperlexia- it seemed to me just the advice you would give to teaching someone with an ASD but it had some good points to it. http://www.hyperlexia.org/ Oh on the NAS earlybird course it mentions hyperlexia very briefly just saying what it is and that its a comorbid (sp?) with ASD whenever I've mentioned it to clinical psych she just raises her eyebrows- I don't think it is viewed as an actual diagnosis itself and TBH I'm not sure if it should unless the child has absoluetly no other indicators of AS/D IMO. take care Lorraine ps we always have subtitles on cause my video was #### and I taped alot off sky for me folks which they either couldnt hear or couldn't see, both wouldn't work at once (sensory overload? ) so they took the seeing and reading option - I've a dvd recorder now instead which usually works much better but I left the subs on anyway incase I'm watching late or trying to watch something with Stephen in the background(hardly ever bother though) as he talks to himself constantly- I only watch recorded programs as I get interrupted at least 10 times trying to watch a 30min show. Stephen likes the subtitles but gets a bit annoyed and obessed really with all the mistakes the subtitlers have made!! pps tip: don't watch a repeat of deal or no deal with the subtitles on the blinking money they had won comes up before Noel's opened the box.

Hi all, this is a link to a handout for grandparents but it could be used for any relative whose having difficulty understanding and accepting the situation as it is. It says it's for grandparents of kids with AS but I think it would more or less cover most ASD's it's from the OASIS website. http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/grandparents.html hope it's okay to post this I'm never sure on the rules take care Lorraine

OMG I'd ask Oh so your coming over to see if he's alright after seeing such a sight? or Well that will be 50p for knocking on my door, how much do you charge for just looking at your stuff? or how do you know? were you looking at my son? - quick call the police! or I'd call my son down ask him did you look in Mrs So and So's garden - yes - did you see anything interesting, marjuna plants, anything juicy? or omg isn't it really bad that kids have such a sense of curiosity about their environments these days - I don't know what the schools are teaching them, they should know to walk about with their heads down and ignore everything and everyone around them and just focus on themselves. or wow thanks for telling me it's good to know you wanted to share his growing curiosity with me I'll treasure the memory I hope you do too. or I asked him to look to see if your cats just use my garden as toilet or if they do it over at home too!!! or he was just making sure your wandering cats got home safely -were you coming to reward him for being such a considerate lad? I'm not surprised your hubby was shocked - In reality I'd probably mumble oh ok I'll tell him not to do that again bye!! then I'd fume about it for months...well done to your hubby for quickly pointing out her cats trespassing ...did she say anything about the cats? hope things don't get really bad between you though I hate not getting on with the neighbours - thank goodness the last ones moved! take care Lorraine

Thankyou Badonkadonk your posts have given me alot of insight and very useful information which will help my son and myself. I look forward to your future posts. take care Lorraine