Hi there. I have a MAster 3.5ish who has autism and I am starting to think about what school to send him to. We live near a good school which is highly regarded but it has a huge school roll for a primary and i think it may be too overwhelming for him.

Im not sure your situation but izaak has made so much progress in a special school. Obviously all children have needs of their own but Izaak could not have coped in a 'normal' school: Too much activity and people..

Thanks KC Is Izaak quite high needs? Mikko, I am told, will be high functioning though at the moment it's a bit hard to see it lol. I was told that high will not need a special unit or school but it is good to hear pos. experiences.

Hi all, well all geared up for joshys birthday on sunday..... party organised for saturday... just to work out what to get him now lol.

Jeshiko my older son is high functioning and is in mainstream school he has had no problems.... joshy may have to go to a special school but will decide closer to school age.

Hi there. I have read a a little bit in here over the last few months as I have suspected for a long time that my son probably has ASD. We saw a social worker through CAFS earlier in the year, and as my son performed wonderfully during the appointment, she dismissed us and put it down to my lack of confidence in parenting (I should have shut up about my depression!) I was gutted as I *know* there is something up with him. A few months ago we had a change in supervisors at our Playcentre and things got moving. She applied to GSE to have an assessment done, and set up an ESW for him so that I felt safe leaving him while he was at the centre. When I filled out the paperwork for GSE it dawned on me how real this all was and how a lot of what he does really screams ASD. We has the GSE early intervention teacher come to assess him at Playcentre 2 weeks ago and she was FANTASTIC. She observed him in and spent a long time talking to me. She confirmed my suspicions and thought a referral to a paed for ASD assessment would be warranted. She has since come back to discuss a few things with me and I am even more convinced. It's going to be a long wait to see the paediatrician! My biggest fear is that they too, will right him off and tell me that there is nothing 'wrong'. (I mean no offence by saying wrong, my son is normal and right for who he is, I guess as a society we just always see difference as wrong and something that needs to be fixed...which I know is not going to be the case, as challenging as he can be, I still love him entirely! So if you have a better word, please feel free to suggest it )
My biggest hurdle is his father, or rather his fathers gf. She doesn't think there is anything 'wrong', he is just a typical boy and I need to spend more time with him and keep him busy *rolls eyes* I am hoping that once we see the pead and have someone of such standing tell him/them these things they will come on board. Right now though, it is very difficult.
I have been lucky enough to get a place in the Incredible Years program, which is proving to be invaluable, highly recommend it!
SO that is my story so far...
My questions, pretty please! How long did you wait for your initial paed visit, and how long did the assessment process take? I just want to know now!

Hi all

Hi panteks, i see you are from P/nth, you will prob see Dr Hunter, i found he listened asked questions, he was great, even tho josh was not co-operating that day he still managed to say def ASD - prob mid to lower end of the scale but will hopefully be able to get a complete diagnosis at next visit. it took roughly 6-8 weeks for us to get an appt with him, and that was due to the kindy getting the right therapists and writting letters to the paed clinic at P/nth hosp. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

as for the fathers gf she has her head stuck in the sand. we had a similar thing with dp's family, now that they realise that J has asd they now want to know why is he allowed to eat a mince pie, when will he be put in a ihc home gosh sometimes people just dont get it.

Anyways, went to get Joshy's haircut yeterday... OMG what a nightmare he screamed and even tho I was holding him managed to try and throw himself about.... only managed to get his front and sides done so now he is sporting a mullet hairdo and thank goodness it suits him.

Right best be off to prepare for Joshys 3rd birthday party.........

Thanks Tracey, the early intervention teacher spent a lot of time with me so fingers crossed her report to the pead will be helpful ib fast tracking us!
As for the gf, she has an older son so thinks she is an expert. Nobody knows my son better than I do!
I think because my son is quite intelligent (he can write his own name already, I pity his teachers!) people think he cant possibly be Autistic, because aren't 'they' all like rainman? I guess I should probably get used to that sort of attitude!

MY GP referred us even though she told me not to worry and that he was completely normal lol. It took 4 months to see a paed and he diagnosed him within half an hour it was so glaringly obvious. Good that you have GSE already involved though as I waited another couple of months for them to get themselves sorted. I found our EIT and teacher aide and SLT all to be lovely and very helpful. OT didn't really do anything but then he doesn't really have a lot of issues that they can help with anyway.
You could go private and then you don't have to wait.

Oh to anyone that is interested. There is a new forum specifically for parents of kids with ASDs.

www.asdparents.forumotion.co.nz

I am hoping that it will be a great resource and a lot of help to people

Ok, another topic I have questions on: How did everyone here find toilet training?

We're finding it really difficult at the moment to TT him. We have kinda guessed when he does a POO but have yet to get it in the toilet. He pee's in the shower AFTER he's been sitting on the toilet. We have a social story and DVD for it but he hasnt seemed to put it together yet.

He's 6 and his grandparents really want this done but its proving rather difficult..

Hiya,

Havent tried it yet, but I got 'Toilet training using the Dior Method' off trademe was going to wait intil shes a bit older to give it a go. they have a website www.behaviourskills.com if you want to have a look.

Hi everyone. I wanted to say hello to panteks....our boys are the same age! My son is high functioning ASD - most people say he is full on, high energy, etc, and I do get a lot of 'oh he's just being a boy'. That was what I wished to start with, but since C was diagnosed in June I have realised he really truly is ASD, and the signs were there much much earlier if I had but recognised them.

So, anyway - I hope that you don't have to wait too long for the paed appt. We got seen in about 6 weeks after referral here, but I know it is different everywhere. We just got our early intervention service on board today, after referral in mid July. Yay! And well done your Playcentre. Mine is keen to help C, but don't have much knowledge about ASD so it has been the blind (me) leading the blind (them) up until now.

Re schools. Joshiko, does your coordinator for Autism NZ have a view? I only mention it because when I was discussing schools with the coordinator down here, she was able to tell me that, of my three local schools, one has never sent anyone to the training courses they run, one has sent one person in 8 years, and the third school (which is where the RTLB teachers are based) sends several people every year. Makes it a very easy choice for me really.

Toilet training...no comment, we struggled a bit but C is more or less there now.

Hi BritishLass... I think we were in the same due date group on here...4 years ago now!
I have had "he's just being a boy" for too long now, even from a social worker we went to see about my concerns. I *know* it's more than that, just so happy the EIT saw what I see, and we are getting somewhere now. Our current supervisor at Playcentre has a child with behavioural and learning difficulties and has been involved with Autism NZ, she is fantastic! It was only by chance that she came to work at our centre, before her no one was of any real help and definitely no support, I am lucky to have her!

We didn't have many problems with toilet training, he W responded pretty well to stickers. Hope you can find something that works for you.

Hi everyone

We're facing the dreaded school transition at the moment, hoping to start in the first term next year. We've decided not to do prolonged school visits leading up to it, but to use the actual classroom time as school visits, and just make them short at the start and expose him slowly.

So I'm hunting for people's transition stories -- anything and everything really. What worked for you, what crashed and burned, how long it took, useful props, etc.

I'm going to start doing social stories this year, and we're going to take him along to the school's playground in the weekends and familiarise him with the grounds.

Oh and another thing for all of you with ASD kids in school -- did you notice any changes in behaviour as they approached 5? Tornado has started to display some regressive stuff and I wondered if it was just normal boundary-challenging behaviour given the age, or whether it was something we needed to investigate a bit more.

TIA

are you transitioning from kindergarten to school? Cos what happened with Izaak is they didnt do any school visits, they just got his teacher aide to go with him to school and went to school, he did a half day for a half week then two full days. The second week she slowly phased herself out. We're lucky,though, in that Izaak is REALLY adaptable..Like, seriously.He took to school in a week, he took to his new living arrangements in two weeks
(he used to live full time with his grandparents and spend weekends with his father. IN December we took him on full time. he now spends afterschool time with his grandies and comes home with us each night and weekends. We get one night respite and the other grandparents recently began being able to have him for afternoons on a Sunday )

Dp is asking,in terms of the regressing,has much changed lately? Perhaps he is unsure of whats going on and this is causing some regression.. regression is fairly normal in any child leading up to a times of big changes. Do you think he senses that things are going to be having a bit of a change soon?

Yeah that's entirely possible, although the changes predate the school build up, but kids are pretty perceptive so you never know, you may have been picking up general vibes off us. It's hard to know with our kids how much is neurotypical developmental behaviour and how much is exclusive to the condition. I have heard that boys do a little regressing as they approach 5, but not having any template for 'normal' behaviour means we can't sift stuff out.

Your settling routine sounds very similar to what we're planning for T. Hopefully he shows some adaptive behaviour of his own So hard to tell though and you never know which way it's going to go.

Thanks!

hi ladies, after a long time we suspected our son wasn't wired the same as other kids he was diagnosed today with Aspergers.
I don't know whether to feel relieved or sad or what to feel - I think I am just after a hug actually :-)

Heya.. I dnt know what other words to offer except your welcome to in come here and chat about concerns or to have vents if you need. They're a pretty cool bunch in here, albeit a bit quiet

Hi Caprice, and welcome! Here's a hug then

How old is your little boy? My nearly 4 year old DS is high functioning autism (the docs said it's basically Aspergers with a slight language delay). I went through a whole gamut of emotions when he was diagnosed, and I'm sure you'll be the same. There is so much to find out and understand, a whole world of services to get to grips with, and a whole different way of thinking about your child. The way I figure it now is, from my point of view, my son is the same as he ever was, and now I have a better chance of understanding some of the things he does and a better chance of helping him live the happiest life he can. At times I feel sad about the extra challenges he's going to face, but then, we all get challenges of some sort in life, and autism is by no means the worst of them. I can even see now that some of the 'differences' about my boy are going to be real strengths when he is an adult.

hi there thanks for the welcomes and hugs :-)
My son is 5 and a half
It's a bit like a light has been turned on since we found out soooooo much makes sense now ;-)
There is a great deal of helpful information I have already been pointed to and lots of support which is neat!

I am definitely a bit conflicted in terms of emotions and stuff right now but am sure it gets easier :-)
And at the end of the day I still just want what's right for him

British Lass I love your point of view :-)

thanks again and am sure I will be back with a gazillion questions soon