Published on 12, July, 2020
hi all im a new user here and wanted some advise from anyone but especially people with aspergers or parents of children with aspergers. our sons school has suggested he has aspergers, this is no suprise to us, he seems to fit the description of this condition. The school would like to know if he want to pursue a formal diagnosis, at the moment i feel as if this would be as useful as being diagnosed left handed! ok hes a bit different but is highly academic, is not really making friends but thoroughly enjoys school is happy and likes playing alongside the other children. he is 4, i dont know what a diagnosis would acheive besides making him feel as though hes the odd one out, but is it likely he will need more support as time goes on and should we have the disgnosis ready in waiting?! additionally, i wondered if anyone knew of how to find groups to meet up with other children who have aspergers, he enjoys talking about the universe and space and has a good understanding of this topic it would be nice if he had friends to share this interest with.
I would probably have met the sort of profile you describe for your son. I did OK (quite well?) at Primary school, and although I had "social issues" they were relatively minor in the scheme of things. I wasn't put forward for the 11+ for potential entrance to Grammar school because the school thought although I could answer the questions, I would probably struggle to get down what I wanted to say in a readable manner in the time available and would probably find it too stressful. (Back in late 70s/early 80s ASD was pretty much unknown.)
But I really didn't cope with the transition from Primary school to Secondary school and that basically turned into a disaster. It sort of turned out OK in the end, but only because my local authority paid for me to go to a small private boarding school, but my schooling was pretty heavily disrupted.
I don't know what support you are likely to get, I think that might be a bit postcode lottery, but I think potentially if there were interventions that could be made, they may have made my secondary school experience a lot less stressful as well as helping me in my adult life. My thinking would be the sooner you know there might be difficulties, the sooner you can start trying to mitigate them and the more time you have to do so.
Thank you very much for your insightful response. It is so helpful to learn from others real life experiences. I will certainly take that in to consideration, we have a meeting with the SENCO next week and will discuss with her support available especially with regards to school transitions when the time comes. thanks again
Good luck! I hope it all goes well for you.