Stella63

Hi Was feeling really positive today as took AJ to a private clinic for assessment for anger management and behaviour at school. He was really articulate and was able to talk about the problems he has at school and said he wanted to be able to deal with his anger. Great! Booked him in for his first session on thursday. OJ came home from school, upset because of an incident where he was being blamed for something and hadn't been given the chance to give his side of the story. Everything calm until big thunder storm and power cut. AJ had just started something on World of Warcraft where he was in a group and they were fighting something and losing the internet meant he had left 'the group' and let everyone down. He went berserk! Smashing stuff in his room, punched another hole in his bedroom wall, was totally inconsolable, swearing at everyone. This had a knock on effect with OJ who started screaming swear words at my husband who had just walked through the door, after a dreadful day at work and world war 3 erupted! Several glasses of merlot later and I, and everyone else, has calmed down. Stupid me, imagining that I could have a day without total fallout occuring.

Hi My 14yr old has just been signed off by camhs as they don't feel he has any mental health problems. Next day he was suspended for a week. He has always had huge problems with anger management and it is the one thing that he wants to change ( when he is in calm mode! ). I took him for an assessment with a private child psychologist who specialises in ASD this morning and he has agreed to go for some weekly sessions. I have more faith in this lady than I ever did with camhs and actually feel a little more confident that he will get the right help. Nobody has at any stage suggested medication and I'm not sure what it would be, maybe Ritalin, but I don't know a lot about that. My younger son is on Prozac for anxiety and OCB and that works really well, but I couldn't see it working for AJ. I will keep posting when AJ has his first proper session

Just been on wrongplanet and there is a long thread about this awful situation. They're starting petitions and suggesting everyone phone the Director of SS!!

Hi Just got an Email from the Tourettes Society saying there is an interview with an 11yr old girl with tourettes on BBC1 Newsround tonight at 5.25pm. My 11yr old will definitely want to see it!

Jack

Jimmy

Hi If you have kids with ASD you may qualify for disability allowance and carers allowance, this amounts to a fair amount and is related to how many hours you work, not how much you earn. It took a random remark from a ASD parent whose child I teach swimming to and I am better off by about �600 per month!!!

Hi Thought i'd join in and have a bit of a moan!. When OJ had his breakdown, all of a sudden the whole multi professional team arrived for a network meeting. I was lucky I guess cos the school Dr specialises in ASD and did an assessment there and then. I was also told to tel my own Dr to write a referrel to St Georges Hospital for possible Tourettes which he did. Great for OJ as had the dx's he needed but the Dr then said what about your older son. She knew he had been 'naughty' all through primary school and in secondary. Even though AJ was not her responsibility she wanted to assess him. He was dx'd aspergers. She then bumped into his old SENCO and asked her what she thought about AJ and his behaviour. She said that they had got it completely wrong and if she had realised he was aspergers the school would have dealt with him in a much different way! So his whole primary education was stuffed up and to get a dx at 14 is almost too late. He perceives himself to be the 'naughty boy' and it is proving very difficult to break that, not that we're giving up! And, Lolly, I hope you get a decent person at CAMHS cos some of them are worse than useless, apologies to the good ones out there!. also have you considered Tourettes with the sniffing etc?

Hi Is that tonight as in Wednesday? What time is it on? I have OJ,11, with Tourettes and try and watch anything relating to the subject.

Hi Soraya, Hope things are calmer today. It certainly shocked AJ when we called the police as previously we had used it as a threat and I think he didn'y believe us. The policeman was really helpful, went upstairs and sat down and talked to AJ about his behaviour. It hasn't stopped the behaviour carrying on but as I'm learning more about his aspergers I am beginning to have a better understanding of why he does these things and how to deal with him (when I am calm and rational !). I found a really good link called Managing an Angry Episode at www.mindsandhearts.net. I don't know how to do that as a proper link but have a look at it, we used it the other evening after a meltdown because the internet went down and AJ was in the middle of some extremely important World of Warcraft game!! It did help. Good luck

Hey, I really sympathise with what you're going through. I have a 14 yr old aspergers son who has been in trouble ever since he started school. He was only dxed aspergers last year and I am beginning to see how and why he behaves the way he does. We have had stealing money from us, anger problems resulting in him smashing up his room and other parts of the house. we have had the police out recently because we were concerned for his safety and our younger son. He has been suspended from school so many times and is currently on a 5 day suspension for stealing a roll of magnesium from the science lab ( i haven't established yet why it was left lying around ). His excuse was that it was there and makes a pretty glow. The school has told me that he is in danger of being permanently excluded because he doesn't learn from his mistakes and appears to show no remorse for his actions. I feel like you and part of me thinks why not kick him out as I can't keep going through the stress but then the rational part of me says that he is unable to communicate why he does these things and I need to keep battling to get him the right help. We have been through CAMHS which was completely useless and I am now about to start with a private psychiatrist on monday to see if they can get through to him. Trouble is he has no motivation to help himself as he sees it as other peoples problem, not his. Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but it is helping me knowing that I am not the only one dealing with these kinds of problems.

hi, I totally sympathise with anyone who has been affected recently. We were flooded last summer, a foot of water throughout the house. Not only did we lose all our furniture. personal stuff etc, the emotional stress it put on us was unbelievable. It took 6 months to have flooring replaced, new kitchen etc and with two aspergers kids, not a good time. We even had strangers coming up to us saying weren't we lucky to get flooded as we got lots of new furniture! OJ, 11, totally freaks when it rains. Lets hope for some sunshine!

Hi, I'm Stella. I have 2 boys, both with dx of aspergers. AJ, my eldest is 14 and been in trouble at school since Reception. He is now in Year 9 and at risk of expulsion for continued low level disruption. He was only dxed last year and having been labeled 'naughty boy' it is now very difficult to overcome the label and get teachers to accept that there may be other issues going on. With everything I have learnt I can now see how a lot of his behaviour is misconstrued - lack of eye contact is not him being rude, he can't do it, he can't verbalise a lot of what he does ( I am refering him to a private psychiatrist for this as CAMHS have been useless), the meltdowns he has after school which have resulted in the police being called after punching walls etc. My younger son, 11, OJ was diagnosed last year after a complete breakdown at school. I had been going in for several years saying that something was wrong, was he aspergers, had they noticed funny face grimaces etc and they said, no. He has since been dxed aspergers, Tourettes and OCB. He spent most of Year 5 out of school because he couldn't cope with other children, noise, assembly, PE and several other subjects. He has gone back this year but it is still a daily struggle, not just with him but with the school. He has been targeted by a really nasty boy and this has resulted in him being stabbed in the back with a pen last week. The boy was given a one day suspension!!!! I think thats enough for the moment but I need later to mention my husband who is not dxed but definately aspergers and my father who is aspergers and Tourettes age 75 but will not even consider it (and why should he if he's got to that age without it bothering him!). got to go now to pair read a dragon story to OJ!!