Who was the first person to mention ASD?

[lil_me]

I was just thinking this morning, to my surpise the first person who mentioned ASD to me with regards to my sons behaviour was my partner.

 

He is currently a taxi driver whilst he is studying for his degree and he does a school run for 2 guys on the spectrum, he came home one day and said 'They are just like Mikey' (my son) wasn't long after it was suggested by an ed.pshychologist in her report and 2 consultants. He is very good with these boys and will get up at the crack of dawn and turn down work that will make him more money to make sure they get the same driver each time and are on time, same when he picks them up he goes early as he knows how much our son is affected by routine. When we went on holiday he was worried if they would be ok with the change of driver bless him and he's explained to his boss about the children they collect with ASD (there are 3 sets they pick up daily) how important routine etc is.

 

I always think he's ignorant and takes little notice of our children and other peoples, but this proved he most certainly wasn't as he started asking the ? then of is our son Autistic and the amount he cares about those boys he collects shocked me.

Edited July 22, 2005 by lil_me

[Guest flutter]

a friend, with an aspergers son

but then i n same week 3 ohter peeps did too

[Kathryn]

My daughter herself, at age 15 talked about it first I think. And to my shame I remember arguing with her on at least one occasion about it and saying "I don't think you have AS". That was before I began to find out more about it. In my defence I had only met one much younger child with AS and she was very different from him.

[oracle]

A Lecturer in Psychiatric Medicine from a local Uni, the sister of a friend of mine, who realised from my description of my son what the problem could be. It was just a shame that the 'experts' we had been seeing did not have her ability to see past the end of their own noses, and had missed his AS for ten years!!!!!

 

 

 

Carole

[Kathryn]

My daughter saw an ed psych at age 11 who completely missed her ASD, and wrote a report that was too vague to be of any use. I am furious with this woman! Had she got a dx then, in her last year of primary school, she might have been saved years of misery. Then again, maybe not, judgeing by other people's experiences.

[Suze]

Lil me your partner sounds lovely, a taxi ride has been suggested for my sons H/S placement and it worried me.If they could find him someone like your partner I,d have no worries. It was an OT who first mentioned AS to the school she was a great help and I,m truly thankful she happened along.

[CarerQuie]

The idea of ASD was first mooted by the SALT when Rhodri was in a Special School nursery(due to a language disorder).I then went home and read the first ever SALT report I'd received (written by a different SALT when Rhodri was 3) and it said quite clearly 'Social interaction and communication skills are disordered'.

 

Funnily enuogh,Rhodri has been dx as having both an ASD and a separate language disorder.xx

[Flora]

I thought my first son had AS when he was 5 but I'd previously been made to feel stupid when I had sought help from paediatricians so I said and did nothing, but all the while quietly wondering if that is what he had. It wasn't until he was nearly 9 and his class teacher suggested the same thing that I finally had the confidence to have him assessed by an ed psych who then confirmed my suspicians.

 

My second son was assessed at the same time, same result! Though he doesn't have Aspergers he's def ASD.

 

Several years on and I feel as if I know more than most of the 'professionals' my son's have been seen by.

[lil_me]

Suze I know from my friends experiences all are not the same, but he believes its vital that the parents explain the childs condition to the driver and how it affects them in some ways that will have an affect on the transport, like the ones who rely specifically on routine and prefer things to be the same, some kids have a tendancies to open door or run away etc. Unfortunately the information is usually passed to the councils but it is rare that it gets passed onto the drivers.

 

I suppose he has his head screwed on for a 25 year old, and is the first person to suggest complaints if taxi services are messing people about.

[bluejean-genie]

My son's primary school headteacher was the first person to say she felt my son had an Autistic disorder, He was in year 1 at the time. We then asked for the Community Paediatrician to see him and she told us that he was probably suffering from Aspergers Syndrome but the Specialist we were seeing did not diagnose him until he was 10 years old.

[Mother in Need]

A friend with a child with Asperger's and then, completely indepently, a week later a private educational psychologist who I had asked/paid to assess him for his dyslxia/dyspraxia mentioned autism. It then still took a full year before he was finally officially assessed, and I had to change GPs and do a lot of pushing to get this far.

[lisa]

It was my son's Year 4 teacher who first mentioned Asperger's. Coincidently she'd taught a child with AS the year before and was struck immediately by how similar they were. I'd never heard of it before and I went home and did a search on the internet. As soon as I started reading about AS I cried, it was as if someone had smacked me in the face. Jack had been to a special needs nursery from the age of 2, we always knew that there was something different but no one could tell us what. He was so typical of AS, how could it have been missed. We didn't realise that it was one big ###### up from the start and it hadn't occurred to us that the school should have referred him to SALT or Ed Psych earlier. As soon as SALT had their initial assessment (it was blindingly obvious from the outset of her assessment he was on the spectrum), everything started moving very quickly and he was diagnosed and had a statement within a year. By this time he was nearly 10. I now realise that the reason this happened so quickly was because there were so many errors. The SEN nursery had sent J's records to the school who then lost them. In fact they lost his whole SEN file at the beginning of year 5 which wouldn't have looked good at tribunal. We hadn't kept any of the SEN nursery reports (we keep everything now!) but so much of it pointed to an ASD it beggars belief it wasn't picked up. I remember one of the big issues being that he wouldn't look at you and didn't appear to understand. He also used to have the most amazing meltdowns, kicking teachers and wrecking the SEN nursery. He was obsessed by maps and sharks, wasn't interested in interacting with anyone, was very hyperactive and one track. He was displaying such obvious signs. Why when he was in a SEN nursery didn't any professionals come in to assess him??

 

Sorry, I appear to have got a little carried away. I'm just thankful that this teacher noticed or he would still be struggling without his much needed support.

 

Lisa

[Laz]

The first time aspergers was mentioned to my mother was by my aunt's partner, im not sure what her occupation was at the time (can't remember) but she had been on a trainning course as part of her job down London and during this trainning was introduced to Pragmatic Segmatic disorder and Asperger Syndrome. Bear in mind this was around 1988/89 several years before it became an official diagnosis so it was by pure chance we had a family gathering that weekend and she met me for the first time and was really shocked to find a child who was an exact description of what she had just been taught and mentioned to my mother she thought I was asperer or Pragmatic segmatic and that really got the ball rolling.

 

At the time my mother had just won against my primary school wanting to send me to a special school because they believed I was retarded. An assesment was carried out and I turned out to be in the top 2% of the population for IQ. So this really started the ball rolling for me to eventually (after alot of luck and some fighting) get a formal diagnosis around the early 90's (i think around 1991/2) By Professor Howlin at St George's hospital. Though when I got diagnosed I was one of the first in hertfordshire, and as far as the LEA and county were concerned "unofficially" and off the record my mother was told they acted as if it was non-existant. On the plus side I got access to speach therapy which really turned around alot of the problems I was having socialising in school and my communication in general.

 

Theres a nice little story for you anyway

Edited July 24, 2005 by Laz

[Tylers-mum]

Me, Me and Me alone!! No one would listen until I gave the Pead a lot of questionaires I found online and filled them in. I gave his 1-2-1 in school some too which confirmed my suspicions and that's when he got referred to the Autism Team.

So in a nutshell, it was myself (and a close friend) and his 1-2-1 helper at school but since then, a child ed psych has rasied the issue also.

[Amanda32]

<'> It was my son's teacher in infant school that mentioned his behaviour was odd and that it needed checking out. I went to the GP and told her what the teacher had said so referred me to a Paediatrician and thats the time I found out. I knew from an early age that some of the things he did like flapping, headbanging etc was just my son. But now I know its because he's autistic and I only got answers last year and this was when he was about 3 years old with him doing odd things and now he's 9.

Take care

Amanda

[Flora]

I first read about Aspergers Syndrome when my son was 6 years old... (he's 11 now), even though it was just a brief outline of the signs of AS I was sure it was what my son had. However, having had previous negative reactions from GP's and paediatricians I didn't do anything about it.

 

A couple of months before he turned 9 he started having real trouble meeting the ever expanding expectations at school and he became suicidal (threatening to stab himself), this lead to a very swift referral to ed psych followed be equally swift referral to a child and family psychiatric unit. It was confirmed that he had Aspergers Syndrome and dyspraxia. I had my youngest son referred at the same time and after a host of neurological assessments he was diagnosed with pragmatic and conceputual language delay and autistic tendencies.

 

When I read of some of the problems people are having getting a diagnosis for their child I realise how lucky we've been that once the process was started our diagnosis were very swift.

 

However, having moved area since then I have come accross many brick walls regarding the help available. Last year when the child psychologist said she was taking my AS son of her files as he didn't need to be on them, I referred them to some news stories which were around at the time, highlighting how badly things can go for these children when they and their families don't get the support they need.