New member + New to ASD(Son 4 years old ) Help?

Hi I am a mum to two beautiful children , Lilia 6 and my son Riley who we think is on the autistic spectrum we have had our suspicions since last year , well mainly me it has taken a long time for my husband to realise , an we are now awaiting referral I am currently having help from parents plus weekly but we have had them out 2 years previous , nothing working atm I have resulted in looking for help my self with looking for other parents in same boat , I don’t know much information about autism , just what I have read recently and now I am adament that my son is on the autism spectrum I have worries as well about my self being on the scale due to similarities between me and my son , I deal with daily meltdowns from him and challenging behaviour and he will have a melt down mainly in shops we do not go no more and usually with food being hot or not positioned correctly , I also wanted to find out more information on my self as I recently found out it could be hereditary and the similarities of myself not liking certain lights or touching food . Love to meet new parents to talk on a regular basis with tips and strategies and calming methods . Thanks for reading looking forward to meeting you all soon . Lucy x 

  • Hello. My son was diagnosed aged 8 (he is now 15). At the time I knew little about ASD. With signposting, I attended a local parents’ group and ‘early bird’ training - it’s probably called something different now. I read avidly around the subject which helped me feel I could understand my son better and, like you, began to question my own and my husband’s quirkiness. A few things have really helped my son and I hope they might help yours. Sensory overload can lead to meltdowns.  I found that if I made my son’s bedroom a sensory ‘haven’ it helped him a lot. I painted the walls in a plain colour and removed all but his very favourite items from his room. I bought a little pop up tent for him to hide in when things got too much. I also bought a colour changing lamp for his room as he found these very relaxing to watch. It was very difficult to go shopping and I overcame this by ordering online. I know you can’t always do this but the big grocery shop was just too smelly, noisy and bright for my son!  I also got loads of info from the NAS of course.

    Does this help at all?  Hope so!  Best wishes Slight smile

  • thankyou will check this link out:)

  • Hi Lu16 and welome to the community,

    I hope you find the forum useful.  You may also like to have a look around the National Autistic Society's website, you may find the following link on behaviour and strategies particularly helpful :

    http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/understanding-behaviour.aspx

    If you have any questions please ask them and a moderator or community member will try to help.

    Kind regards,

    Heather - Mod