Emapthy

[ogsplosh]

This is the only area that the pead is confused with. 'R seams to demostrate some empathy' this was the area that stoped the dx being straight forward.

 

Ok so I know what empathy is but how can you tell if a child has it or not?

 

In the meantime as the 'Autistic tequiqies' are working then the school are told to carry on with that. The report said things like highly likely and just to confirm it.

 

So confused, wish there was a brain scan or blood test for this

[pookie170]

I think they're looking for signs of him genuinely thinking about how another person would feel in a given situation. I know Cal was asked lots of q's on this. Look at picture-see persons face-how is he/she feeling-why do they feel that way? type of thing.

Thing is, theres a huge difference between displaying some empathy and being being able to display the whole lot. Cal has a bit of empathy too. I think he has learned a lot of what hes got, but the most basic levels he seemed understand, at least on a technical level. He still cant employ it in the middle of a situation though, but when calm can make reasonably good supposition on how another person might feel.

What I dont get is that so many people here have had similar experiences during dx process, whether its themselves or their child thats being dx'd. How many people fit the dx criteria exactly? How many are hummed and hawed over because they have an imagination, for example? Or have a slight grasp of something that the dx criteria says they shouldn't? Paeds and psychs must notice that this happens frequently, surely?? And if the person has a co-morbid, it gets even more complicated. The amount of people that have told me its unusual for an aspie to also have adhd for example, but this just isn't the case, I know of so many kids in exactly the same boat!

Hope you dont have too long a wait though!

 

Esther x

[ogsplosh]

Well we are now waiting for the Clinical psychologist (one who knows a bit more apparently) and/or a specialist autism nurse to carry out an assessment to 'clarify things'. How long this will take is anyone guess!

 

By the time we see anyone else from the hospital she will have an assessment by the educational psychiatrists, so I'm hoping that will help us get somewhere

[purplehaze]

My son who is 14 has a lack of understanding of others feelings and only sees things from his point of view. When my mum died I was devastated as you would be but he was just mad because I canceled the planned cinema trip. Over the years he has learnt some behaviours and strategies of how to act when something happens but it is very hard especially as he is getting older because it seems like I have a toddler still at times, because he just doesn't understand we need to think of other as well. When our rabbit died last year I told him and he asked if he could have the feet because of them being lucky and then when he saw my daughter crying he asked why, because he just didn't understand or connect the two. My son has a real problem with tone of voice and doesn't know when people are shouting or just talking in a loud voice which as you can imagine causes lots of problems particularly in school. Also problems with expressing his emotions and how he is feeling which can lead to anger.

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Very interesting some researchers think that autistic children do not respond to contagious yawning because they suggest that emotional empathy may be the underlying reason why yawns are infectious and I have never seen my son yawn when someone else has.

[Tally]

You would expect someone with autism to have impaired empathy. It would be very rare for someone to completely lack any empathy whatsoever.

 

It's also possible to work out what people may be feeling on an intellectual level, rather than intuitively.

Edited May 31, 2008 by Tally

[Enid]

my son also has no understanding of how his actions affect other people, he has no embarrassment, for instantance will yawn really loudly in meeting/church/while someone is talking to him, or pass wind will be really horrible to another child/sibling and be surprised if they dont want to play with him 10mins later. Be annoyed if one of the other children is the slightest bit naughty when his own behaviour is outrageous!! but he cant see that. Enid

[pookie170]

Oh my word, Enid, your son sounds a lot like mine!!

 

Tally, never thought of it quite like that before, but I getcha and it makes sense to me.

 

Esther x

[ScienceGeek]

You would expect someone with autism to have impaired empathy. It would be very rare for someone to completely lack any empathy whatsoever.

 

It's also possible to work out what people may be feeling on an intellectual level, rather than intuitively.

 

That pretty much is me. I can to an extent work things out on an intellectual level, rather than intuitively. I still don't have a clue a lot of the time.

[oxgirl]

My lad is pretty much an empathy-free zone. Having said that, though, I was pretty ill last week and it happened to be half-term. Every morning, as soon as we got up, he would ask me 'are you feeling any better today?', which he never EVER does. As the day went on he'd say, 'maybe you'll be better tomorrow'. Now, part of me would like to feel that he was very concerned for my wellbeing, but I suspect that it has more to do with him wondering if I'd be well enough to take him to the Fish Shop or just a general anxiety about the uncertainty of my not being myself that was at the heart of his concern. I'd like to think that he had some feelings of regret about me feeling ill, though, but it's very hard to tell, tbh.

 

~ Mel ~