Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I’ve recently had my first autism assessment (online) and towards the end of it I was asked to tell a story with 5 objects I’d chosen. I chose the first 5 things that happened to be on the sofa next to me. I was asked to tell a story with them & I just couldn’t. I told the assessor this & she said it was ok. Has anyone else had a similar experience?
No problem at all. I was diagnosed at 30 and am now 32, and for me the diagnosis was life changing. I'm still working through some of the particulars but the biggest change was that I gave myself permission to work 'with' myself instead of 'fighting' something internally and trying to act in the ways I thought I should, and since I am very much happier, have more energy, feel more 'aligned' internally, and am getting to know the real me. Do let me know if you'd like to discuss anything, there are some things which I've done since diagnosis e.g. buying noise cancelling headphones which have improved my life 1,000% which I'd be happy to share. Best of luck for Thursday!
Yes I do. I generally need a lot of time to process things. Like you had I been able to look through it in my own time I probably would have formulated a story. I’ve my final assessment on Thursday which they said would last for 3 hours...by my processing time I may still be there well into 2021. It’s good to know that you’re not alone so thank you for your reply. Have you now been through the whole assessment process? If yes was it worth it?
I think I had the same book! I understand if you feel down about it. I would say please do try to be gentle and compassionate with yourself - I don't mean to label your experience but for me I think it is a matter of time lengths. For instance, I think I may have understood more given the chance to read it through several times at my own pace and then plan a story in writing, but linking speech to meanings on the spot was too fast. Do you find something similar with tasks like that?
Hi Rach! I also had the narrating of a picture book. It was some frogs on what I initially thought were levitating lily pads, they were in fact (?) flying (?). As you I described each picture in quite a literal way, each page was ‘and the frogs are flying’. I feel frustrated and a failure!
Hi Bobontour, I had a similar experience with the assessment task of narrating a picture book story. I described each picture in quite a literal way, saying what I saw and having trouble weaving the pictures together into a story on the spot, and didn't understand at the end that the characters were 'going home'.