How does that fit with “the spectrum”?
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The spectrum only describes how the autistic traits present themselves in the persons day to day life. It's not a spectrum on 'how bad you are autistic'.
I’m cy
I had an interesting experience with my son and the social contagion around neurodiversity.
He met all his milestones, went through nursery no problem. Health visitors over the years had him as a picture of health.
At school he initially struggled with the different from nursery and with writing, so would get a bit upset. 5 year old boy gets upset shocker!!! The school immediately hit out with “autistic spectrum” stuff. My wife was heavily into Mumsnet at the time and the social contagion aspect had her buying in.
I couldn’t believe it. It was such bullshit. There’s nothing remotely autistic about him. He was a bit clumsy and would fall over a bit more often that you would like but in terms of behaviours and interacting with the world. Absolutely not.
Eventually a consultant paediatrician assessed him. Diagnosis…..dyspraxia. And even then it was mild/borderline. Great news, or so you would think? But the sense of disappointment in some was palpable.
even after this clinical professional gave this diagnosis, we had amateur experts saying “ah, he’s probably still on the spectrum somewhere though”.
Pathetic.
I have my doubts. All these low level celebs suddenly claiming to have “neurodiverse”conditions is ridiculous and anyone with and open mind should be smelling a rat.
I had an interesting experience with my son and the social contagion around neurodiversity.
He met all his milestones, went through nursery no problem. Health visitors over the years had him as a picture of health.
At school he initially struggled with the different from nursery and with writing, so would get a bit upset. 5 year old boy gets upset shocker!!! The school immediately hit out with “autistic spectrum” stuff. My wife was heavily into Mumsnet at the time and the social contagion aspect had her buying in.
I couldn’t believe it. It was such bullshit. There’s nothing remotely autistic about him. He was a bit clumsy and would fall over a bit more often that you would like but in terms of behaviours and interacting with the world. Absolutely not.
Eventually a consultant paediatrician assessed him. Diagnosis…..dyspraxia. And even then it was mild/borderline. Great news, or so you would think? But the sense of disappointment in some was palpable.
even after this clinical professional gave this diagnosis, we had amateur experts saying “ah, he’s probably still on the spectrum somewhere though”.
Pathetic.
I'm not sure what you're getting at here? DCD would be a difficult disorder for a nursery/teacher to pinpoint and as some of the presenting difficulties can be similar with ASD, it's only natural that they would lean towards a 'familiar' diagnosis for starting the process of diagnosis, if needs be. That's why we have professionals. School noticed there was 'something' causing your son difficulty, and got the ball rolling for you.
It’s not their job to diagnose anything. They shouldn’t speculate and certainly shouldn’t be naysaying actual diagnoses after the fact.
DCD is very different from Autism.
I didn't say they should be. You seem to have a massive chip on your shoulder about the whole experience and so perhaps you need to take that up with the school and/or professionals.
Pathetic? Your son showed signs of something which turned out to be dyspraxia. The workers in the school aren’t trained to diagnose such disorders but they were obviously right to flag something. I’m autistic myself and met all my milestones as a child (if not quicker then my peers) and have no other health conditions
Also dyspraxia falls under the category of neurodiverse
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You should be grateful that the school got the ball rolling for you. They didn’t diagnose him, they expressed concerns. Do you realise how many are labelled’naughty’ or ‘troublesome’ rather than school seeking support
I've never read a story with the headline: "I thought my child had a behavioural disorder but it turned out they were just a naughty brat".
By pathetic I was referring to those people who were falling over themselves to label my child as autistic, who gaslighted me for questioning their assertions and who were disappointed by the actual diagnosis of the consultant paediatrician.
but you knew that.
No I didn’t know
I hope now your son has gotten his neurodivergent diagnosis of dyspraxia he can get the tailored supports he needs
My friend was diagnosed with Aspergers at age 12. Her mother was diagnosed with autism at age 50 because of my friend being diagnosed. Autism in women presents differently to men and there's lots of misdiagnosing around it. As such, you really can't decide whether someone is autistic or not based on observations of the version of themselves they present publicly, nor your own personal prejudice due to past experiences. It's silly.
Yes, almost anyone can have one or two autistic traits but that doesn’t actually make them autistic.
Just like you can’t be “a little bit pregnant” because you’re feeling nauseous.
So it’s OK for your children to have a diagnosis but not other peoples children?
Do you really think some parents seek out a diagnosis that carries a ton of stigma because they can’t be arsed to parent them properly?
Yeah, I do a bit. Wouldn’t you?
I’ve spoken to the only relevant professional, the paediatrician.
He’s doing very well thanks. The actual doctor did say it was a mild/borderline case and he is very well supported.
No, I’d be grateful to the school for flagging up difficulties - albeit they gave it an incorrect ‘label’, but you can’t know what you don’t know, which is why I said they most likely attributed some of the difficulties to previous diagnoses they’d seen in the past.
My 36 year old daughter has recently been diagnosed with ADHD ( privately as the wait on the NHS is so long). She is on medication and it seems to help. However I have done a bit of research and it seems I too have symptoms. Will I be getting a diagnosis or medication well certainly not. I’m 68 and it’s the way I am. Everything doesn’t have to have a label. It’s either Anxiety mental health or a diagnosis of autism or similar condition. It’s just another bandwagon and I apologise in advance to anyone who really has any of these conditions
I keep reading that so many things are mis-diagnosed yet at the same time any diagnosis of autism is to be treated as sacrosanct. How do people square holding these contradictory views?
it’s literally their job to flag issues. It’s not their job to conduct paediatric diagnoses, gaslight a parent who questions it or to cling to it even in the face of an actual diagnosis.