what age did your chidren learn they had ASD?

[JsMum]

 

 

Just made me think about how children respond to a discussion that they have ASD/ADHD did they understand, and what age did they know that they had ASD/ADHD? After reading mygifts post, feel free to link them.

 

JsMumxxx

 

Edited November 3, 2009 by JsMum

[BusyLizzie100]

DS1 was seven when DS2 was diagnosed with ASD; After several months of hearing all about autism he piped up one day: 'I think might have autism too, because I'm a lot like DS2', and went on to list their similarities eg sensitivity to noise, at which point we were able to say to him yes, actually you have something called Asperger Syndrome. he's nearly 12 now.

 

With DS2, it's been very different. at nearly ten years old he is aware of the word 'autism', but hasn't really got any understanding of what that means. A couple of years ago he obviously heard us using the word and would say 'I'm artistic'. I've not heard him say 'I'm autistic'. however he's at an autism-specific school now so that may change soon.

 

DS3, at the tender age of seven, has lots of understanding of autism and how it affects his brothers - but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier for him to cope with!!!

 

Does that help?

 

Lizzie xx <'>

[JsMum]

DS1 was seven when DS2 was diagnosed with ASD; After several months of hearing all about autism he piped up one day: 'I think might have autism too, because I'm a lot like DS2', and went on to list their similarities eg sensitivity to noise, at which point we were able to say to him yes, actually you have something called Asperger Syndrome. he's nearly 12 now.

 

With DS2, it's been very different. at nearly ten years old he is aware of the word 'autism', but hasn't really got any understanding of what that means. A couple of years ago he obviously heard us using the word and would say 'I'm artistic'. I've not heard him say 'I'm autistic'. however he's at an autism-specific school now so that may change soon.

 

DS3, at the tender age of seven, has lots of understanding of autism and how it affects his brothers - but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier for him to cope with!!!

 

Does that help?

 

Lizzie xx <'>

 

 

Thanks,D, I guess it does depend on the level of spectrum, Js high functioning and very literal, he does understand he has an a ASD, I persume when a child is AS or higher functioning Autistic the early you can tell them the better they come to understand themselves, I would say around 7-12yrs old, though for some that might not happen who dont get a AS dx until there a teenager, which is happening more and more.

 

I think if your lucky enough to get a dx at an early age of AS/HFA I would of been comfortable explaining AS/HFA at around 7 or eight.

 

JsMumxxxx

 

 

[Sally44]

I think I started talking to him about 'differences' when he was around 6. But I didn't actually say the word 'autism' until over a year later, because I thought it would not 'mean' anything to him. What I tried to explain to him - because he has alot of sensory issues - is he sometimes he sees, hears, feels or smells things differently. I could tell from the discussion that it helped him because he is self aware, and he did not understand how the other children in his class could tolerate certain things and he couldn't. He thought he was bad, and used to call himself rubbish and a loser. I haven't heard any of that language for ages now.

When he has a meltdown he is very upset afterwards and asks 'what is wrong with my brain' and 'why can't I control it and stop the feelings'. Heartbreaking stuff really. So I just told him that his brain works a bit differently and that sometimes it makes him very upset or angry and when that happens we do x, y and z. Afterwards he is so mortified at things he has said or done, but at the time he is like a tazmanian devil and you cannot talk or touch him - just get him in a quiet place and sit in the room with him. We haven't had an episode like that for a while now either.

 

[KezT]

DS was told almost as soon as we got the formal diagnosis - so he was 7. He is high functioning and knew that 1) he was different in some way and 2) that he had been dragged off to see dozens of different "doctors" to find out why he was different. He deserved to know, and it made life much easier when explaining to friends/relatives/teachers etc - he is an awful eavesdropper anyway, and invariably gets everything completely wrong when he listens in to our conversations

 

We have taken the explanations about all the diagnosis entails at a much more slow pace tho - at first it was just a name and the explanation that he finds things like socialising and understanding others difficult, whereas other people find maths or reading difficult. He has just recently asked for a bit more info, and i explained about the "spectrum" concept with some rather nifty craft work involving me making a sliding scale

 

I asked if he wanted to learn more, or if he wanted any books about AS and he said not at the moment, so we'll take it at his pace.....

Edited November 3, 2009 by KezT

[trekster]

i was diagnosed at age 16 and told straight away. i didnt fully understand the impact of being asperger until i started reading about it in books. This happened post breakdown and tony attwoods 1st book helped me out of my depression.

 

2 books that could help explain aspergers/autism to a kid are;

 

"what is asperger syndrome and how will it affect me?" NAS

"how to be yourself in a world thats different"

 

Alexis

Edited November 3, 2009 by trekster

[justine1]

My son has just turned 6 and he knows he is different.A few weeks ago he keptsaying nobody understands me and nobodt REALLY listens to what I say,he went on to say my brain is super I think in agood way everyone else does not think the way I do.This was a shock as I have not told him anything about his brain or AS.

[Tempus]

My mum didn't actually tell me specifically, it was first mentioned when I was 11 and my mum left a newspaper article lying around (or similar, can't remember exactly what it was) that I read and then saw the similarities for myself. I think that's quite a good way to go about it if a child is relatively self-aware; for me it was a relief to have a name put to it and I think figuring it out for myself rather than being 'labelled' by somebody else probably went a good way towards acceptance too.

[trekster]

My mum didn't actually tell me specifically, it was first mentioned when I was 11 and my mum left a newspaper article lying around (or similar, can't remember exactly what it was) that I read and then saw the similarities for myself. I think that's quite a good way to go about it if a child is relatively self-aware; for me it was a relief to have a name put to it and I think figuring it out for myself rather than being 'labelled' by somebody else probably went a good way towards acceptance too.

 

Im with Tempus on this one, the more self aware an autistic is the better able they are to understand their autism.

 

Alexis

 

[BusyLizzie100]

DS1 started secondary school in September. As part of the introductions, each child in the form had to stand up and say something about themselves.

 

DS1 stood up and announced that he has Asperger Syndrome, and described it by using an analogy about PCs and Macs that we came across somewhere - here, maybe? It's about how some computers are compatible and some aren't, although they may be very similar, to describe how his brain is wired a bit differently to most people's. The idea is that most people are like PCs, but a person with AS is like a Mac, so there are similarites but they don't always interface.

 

Apparently the kids in his form 'got' what he meant and thought it was cool. In the past, in primary, he took the book All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome into class to show his classmates what he's all about; again it was very effective.

 

I love him to bits and I'm so proud of him! Sometimes he's proud of his AS too, and other times he hates it. At the moment it's the root of lots of his anxieties so it's not a good thing as far as he's concerned . At other times he'll say that people with AS are so much more evolved than regular people...

 

Lizzie x

[sesley]

not told him yet,because at nine with a mental age of 5/6 he is not ready,the most he has said was "I wish i could be ordinary" after a difficult day in school,but no more signs of asking why as of yet.

[JsMum]

not told him yet,because at nine with a mental age of 5/6 he is not ready,the most he has said was "I wish i could be ordinary" after a difficult day in school,but no more signs of asking why as of yet.

 

 

would any of these be a nice introduction to his Auitsm, the book I have Autism is aimed at children from 5yrs old, and from what Ive just seen even younger children, I felt really upset when J talks like that too.

 

http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=425

 

Anyway hope that he feels better soonxxx

 

JsMumxxx

 

[CarolineJ]

Bim was 7 when we got his AS diagnosis. We talked to him and his sisters about it straight away. Bim doesn't understand what it is, but he is accepting of it. He loves to read Asperger adventure stories, especially the Kathy Hoopman books. It's only now that he's gone up to middle school that he's really seeing the huge differences between himself and his peers and he's not coping very well at all.

[Mirabelle]

Is there anyone (else) who has had an experience of a child who refuses to accept they have AS ?