Calum Report post Posted February 20, 2011 Evening all, Just joining up here as things are starting to get tough here at home. Bit of background I guess first... We are a family of six! Me (Calum), Fiona (wife), Charlie (12 year old girl), Alexander (10 year old), Bryony (almost 3) and Eva (month old yesterday! ) Charlie and Alexander are from Fiona's previous marriage and go to see their Dad every couple of weekends or so. So... We had Alexander diagnosed with Aspergers just over a year ago and since then have been on a constant struggle with keeping Alexander on the level. We have been through various different phases of change but the noticeable things at present are as follows: walking in and out of doorways constantly - needs interrupted/diverted in order to break the cycle. Making regular hand movements whilst at the dining table. This is one of the few places that we try and encourage a sense of 'normality' as we have juniors present that we are also trying to teach table manners to! The one thing that we are seriously struggling with is tempers. We were back at the psychologist last week (Lynn Buntin in Aberdeen, highly recommended!) and she has recommended that we try and look to see these things coming before thay happen. Easier said than done as I'm sure many will know. We have also booked Alexander in to see her a week tomorrow to see if we can try and figure out what is causing the extreme anger at the minute. All we know is that Alexander sees the rest of us as the problem in his life. I suspect that Lynn will come back and probably say that there have been many changes as far as he's concerned and that is the issue. But... In the meantime, anyone got any ways of dealing with this? At present if we see things spiralling, we send him to his room to calm down as we'll only talk to him when he's calm. Sometimes though this doesn't go to plan and he will rather stand and scream through an argument than want to calm down. We desparately want to help him help himself so he can try and avoid unwanted situations but I don't know whether a) he's ready for it and if it would even work. I've just put together a timetable of daily activities that I hope will help him plan his day so we'll see how that works out. Anyhoo, just wanted to pop on and say Hi, will now start the process of reading others' stories and see what good advice I can pick up! Cheers all, Calum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RainbowsButterflies Report post Posted February 20, 2011 Just wanted to say Hi and welcome Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kathryn Report post Posted February 21, 2011 Hi Calum, Welcome to the forum Hope the appointment goes well next week and you come out of it with some answers and ideas on how to deal with this issue. Feel free to ask the question again in "Help and Advice" - more people might see it there. K x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lynden Report post Posted February 21, 2011 Hi Calum Where you from in NE Scotland? Being nosy as I'm originally from up that way, L who is 7.5 now got his diagnosis in the Raeden Centre when he was 2 and 2 months. We're in London now and have been for four years. Unfortunately I don't have much advice re the temper as we get the same but we try as much as possible to pre-empt it but as you say, you often can't. Giving him time to come round often works but that depends on the situation -at home it's fine, but out and about we don't always have that option. Lynne Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Calum Report post Posted February 22, 2011 Hi Lynne, we're in Insch between Inverurie and Huntly. Nice part of the country, in London every now and again but glad to get back to the sticks! Timetables rock as long as we can stick to them! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
allaboutasd Report post Posted March 1, 2011 Hi Callum, My name's Charlotte and I am out past Mintlaw on the fraserburgh road. I have 2 kids, Stephen is 10 and has aspergers and Amy who's 6 and a neurotypical little madam! We find no support up here, no facilities and the school can't cope so Stephen's mostly home schooled. It's been nearly a year since his official diagnosis and I'm wondering if I was right to tell him about it as it's been the worst year ever! Anyway, thought I'd say hi Xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sesley Report post Posted March 5, 2011 we are in the Inverness area. I have 11 ASD son. We have a parent support group,which we started after the Earlybird sessions,run by the NAS. my son is in mainstream school and doing ok with support although we have clashed with the head teacher over various things. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lynden Report post Posted March 6, 2011 I lived in Gardenstown, just the other side of Fraserburgh so not far from you at all Charlotte. There used to be a support group in Fraserburgh at the school my sister used to teach at. I'm not sure if it still runs or not but I can certainly find out for you if you could get there easily enough. I do miss being around my family but the facilities and school for Logan where are are now are far superior to what we would have had at home but there is far greater demand here too simply due to the volume of people! Lynne Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
B's Mum Report post Posted April 8, 2011 Hi Callum, My name's Charlotte and I am out past Mintlaw on the fraserburgh road. I have 2 kids, Stephen is 10 and has aspergers and Amy who's 6 and a neurotypical little madam! We find no support up here, no facilities and the school can't cope so Stephen's mostly home schooled. It's been nearly a year since his official diagnosis and I'm wondering if I was right to tell him about it as it's been the worst year ever! Anyway, thought I'd say hi Xx Hi Charlotte, my son is 6 (almost 7) an we told him the paediatricians thoughts (he was in the room and heard most of it) and he started using it as an excuse to misbehave so we had to tell him she was wrong and he changed overnight. I'm in Fraserburgh and struggling at the moment, hopefully we'll get more help when he gets an official diagnosis. I lived in Gardenstown, just the other side of Fraserburgh so not far from you at all Charlotte. There used to be a support group in Fraserburgh at the school my sister used to teach at. I'm not sure if it still runs or not but I can certainly find out for you if you could get there easily enough. I do miss being around my family but the facilities and school for Logan where are are now are far superior to what we would have had at home but there is far greater demand here too simply due to the volume of people! Lynne Hi Lynne, would you happen to know which school it was? We're thinking Westfield would be the place to start looking for support but could be wrong, my son's at Lochpots and struggling to get any support from staff. xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lynden Report post Posted April 9, 2011 Hiya We're up here at the minute, just arrived this morning for a week. If we had stayed up here, L would have gone to the SEN unit attached to Banff Primary. I don't know what it's like once they get into P1 but I know I was very happy with the nursery whilst he was there, the staff were fabulous and used sign/PECS and he got SALT etc whilst he was there. There is also the option of integration into the main primary given it's attached to the main school. The support group I went to used to be run via St Andrews School - I'm not sure if it still is or not but you could always give them a ring to find out. Lynne Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lyndalou Report post Posted April 10, 2011 Hi all My little boy (3) was assessed at Raeden Centre in November and has high functioning autism. Did you know that Raeden will close in June (no discussion with staff seemingly) and assessment will be community based from then? I'm very glad that Struan was assessed there as the staff were great with him. I think the closure of the unit is a great loss to the area as it has all the staff and resources under one roof whereas in the community the process of diagnosis will likely take considerably longer and be a lot more stressful. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.... Struan has a split placement - he has been going to the Developmental Nursery at St Andrews School in Inverurie twice weekly since the start of March combined with twice weekly at mainstream Playgroup. It is quite a lot for him to cope with but we have seen a marked improvement in how he copes around other children in playparks etc and his communication has come on in leaps and bounds. Struan has an Educational Psychologist who I do need to keep contacting to push things on but she was instrumental in ensuring that Struan's split placement went ahead. I am now pushing to get a meeting as soon as is possible where everyone involved can discuss how things are going. I don't want to be too pushy but sometimes it's necessary!! Lynda x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
B's Mum Report post Posted April 10, 2011 Hiya We're up here at the minute, just arrived this morning for a week. If we had stayed up here, L would have gone to the SEN unit attached to Banff Primary. I don't know what it's like once they get into P1 but I know I was very happy with the nursery whilst he was there, the staff were fabulous and used sign/PECS and he got SALT etc whilst he was there. There is also the option of integration into the main primary given it's attached to the main school. The support group I went to used to be run via St Andrews School - I'm not sure if it still is or not but you could always give them a ring to find out. Lynne Funnily enough we just moved from Banff a year ago, I loved the school there and B got on so well, it's taken him a year to settle into his new school and the staff have no time for him whatsoever, sometimes I wish we'd stayed in Banff just for the fact that the school was fantastic, he had 1 on 1 support and his teacher worked with him to gain his potential (when he moved schools they held him back so the rest of the class could catch up) I personally think it's one of the best schools in the NE as it caters for kids who need extra support so the staff are all more understanding. I'll maybe try St Andrews after the hols and see what they say, thanks xx Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lynden Report post Posted April 10, 2011 Hi all My little boy (3) was assessed at Raeden Centre in November and has high functioning autism. Did you know that Raeden will close in June (no discussion with staff seemingly) and assessment will be community based from then? I'm very glad that Struan was assessed there as the staff were great with him. I think the closure of the unit is a great loss to the area as it has all the staff and resources under one roof whereas in the community the process of diagnosis will likely take considerably longer and be a lot more stressful. It'll be interesting to see how it goes.... Struan has a split placement - he has been going to the Developmental Nursery at St Andrews School in Inverurie twice weekly since the start of March combined with twice weekly at mainstream Playgroup. It is quite a lot for him to cope with but we have seen a marked improvement in how he copes around other children in playparks etc and his communication has come on in leaps and bounds. Struan has an Educational Psychologist who I do need to keep contacting to push things on but she was instrumental in ensuring that Struan's split placement went ahead. I am now pushing to get a meeting as soon as is possible where everyone involved can discuss how things are going. I don't want to be too pushy but sometimes it's necessary!! Lynda x Oh gosh! the Raeden Centre closing will be such a loss to the area. In saying that, it was supposed to be closing when L was diagnosed 5 years ago. Quite a few professionals where we live in England now have commented on how great our diagnosis procedure was. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Calum Report post Posted May 6, 2011 (edited) Hi Callum, My name's Charlotte and I am out past Mintlaw on the fraserburgh road. I have 2 kids, Stephen is 10 and has aspergers and Amy who's 6 and a neurotypical little madam! We find no support up here, no facilities and the school can't cope so Stephen's mostly home schooled. It's been nearly a year since his official diagnosis and I'm wondering if I was right to tell him about it as it's been the worst year ever! Anyway, thought I'd say hi Xx We have someone called Gary Wade who is our NAS rep for this area. You tried getting in contact with him? Let me know if you need his contact details... Cheers We pondered whether we should tell Alexander but we decided to as we thought it would help him understand. Still don't know if it was the right choice but we're going through a phase now of helping him understand how it affects his everyday life - hard going. Edited May 6, 2011 by Calum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
