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Do all the autism "support" interventions for kids actually work?

DaisyGirl

This topic relates to people with high functioning autism/Aspergers with no learning disability.

I am an adult female with Aspergers. I was diagnosed as an adult so I did not have any of the social skills and anxiety reduction interventions that Aspie kids get now. I   devised my own strategies for talking to people etc. by observing and then applying what I learned through observation to everyday situations. 

But, because these are learned behaviours that are not natural they are extremely tiring to maintain for a long time.

What I am wondering is whether all this "stuff" which Aspie kids get now is of any use to them once they are adults. Aspergers can't be cured, and I am seriously wondering if there is any point in giving kids loads of therapies, which might seem as if they are working in the short term but which are no use in the long term (ie when the kids get into the adult world) because the strategies they teach are unnatural to people with Aspergers and cannot be manitained without mental (and physical) exhaustion.

Has anyone out there had all this SUPPORT as a kid and is now able to function in the adult (post University) world without having crippling anxiety/loneliness/depression/OCD/eating disorders etc. ?

Just wondering.

Parents

  • We seem to be stuck in a rut because the support processes haven't grasped that autism isn't something you grow out of!

    The point of the recent Government initiative on living better lives was to get local authorities to provide for adults on the spectrum, but it clearly isn't happening. There's just a gulf between the two "generations". Everything stops at transition.

    Part of the problem is that Parents Groups, which run most of everything for autism, are about parents rather than the kids with autism. And once we get past transition, there aren't any pressure groups. NAS has tried to create local social meetings and on-line local groups has had mixed success if at all (NAS please comment if I've unfairly generalised).

    All the momentum has gone into parents' groups. Many of these don't provide membership for the kids, and when they reach transition they continue only to be represented by their parents, and as there is little provision for after transition in these groups, many of these parents drop out. I have belonged to parents groups where I have to pay as a professional (which is true) but no account taken of the fact I have Aspergers. And you see young men and women still going to parents groups as kind of specimens with their parents.

    Hence there is also a notion that the help given to kids provides a solution, even though the help currently dilutes considerably, even disappears, after transition age.

    One of the arguments for the support infrastructure for children is it protects them from the harm done by bullying. But the bullying still goes on. It is difficult to comprehend whether enough thought has gone into whether support is beneficial.

    Most of the scientists are looking for a cure. No-one seems that concerned about making lifestyles easier.

    And I do so agree with DaisyGirl about after University. I was a disability coordinator ion the academic side in a university for ten years, supporting colleagues as well as directly supporting people on the spectrum with their studies. I saw people flourish and vastly improve in the course of three years at university.

    Then they graduate....support vanishes, and all the benefits of university are lost.

    I think it is cynical and criminal to delude oneself into thinking that support only up to transition is of any benefit for life.

Reply

  • We seem to be stuck in a rut because the support processes haven't grasped that autism isn't something you grow out of!

    The point of the recent Government initiative on living better lives was to get local authorities to provide for adults on the spectrum, but it clearly isn't happening. There's just a gulf between the two "generations". Everything stops at transition.

    Part of the problem is that Parents Groups, which run most of everything for autism, are about parents rather than the kids with autism. And once we get past transition, there aren't any pressure groups. NAS has tried to create local social meetings and on-line local groups has had mixed success if at all (NAS please comment if I've unfairly generalised).

    All the momentum has gone into parents' groups. Many of these don't provide membership for the kids, and when they reach transition they continue only to be represented by their parents, and as there is little provision for after transition in these groups, many of these parents drop out. I have belonged to parents groups where I have to pay as a professional (which is true) but no account taken of the fact I have Aspergers. And you see young men and women still going to parents groups as kind of specimens with their parents.

    Hence there is also a notion that the help given to kids provides a solution, even though the help currently dilutes considerably, even disappears, after transition age.

    One of the arguments for the support infrastructure for children is it protects them from the harm done by bullying. But the bullying still goes on. It is difficult to comprehend whether enough thought has gone into whether support is beneficial.

    Most of the scientists are looking for a cure. No-one seems that concerned about making lifestyles easier.

    And I do so agree with DaisyGirl about after University. I was a disability coordinator ion the academic side in a university for ten years, supporting colleagues as well as directly supporting people on the spectrum with their studies. I saw people flourish and vastly improve in the course of three years at university.

    Then they graduate....support vanishes, and all the benefits of university are lost.

    I think it is cynical and criminal to delude oneself into thinking that support only up to transition is of any benefit for life.

Children
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