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20 month old with early ASD signs, doctor suggests alternative reasons

JamesMS

Hello everyone,

I have a wonderful 20 month old son (my only child), who for the last few months has been showing signs of having ASD. He has no speech (though certainly makes lots of emotive noises), does not respond to his name, has limited eye contact at times, no pointing or waving, and likes running in circles. 

His mum and I have recently started having him assessed. She is being very positive, however for entirely personal (and probably selfish) reasons this has hit me hard and this evening I was speaking with my doctor to try and get some counselling.

When I described my sons behaviors, he claims to have seen similar situations that were not ASD but actually due to a lack of adequate parental contact, and with hard work can be reversable. Some parents might be offended by this, but if I'm honest I can't say it's entirely impossible. It's certainly true that due to work pressures I'm not able to spend as much time as I'd like with my son, and while his mother is able to stay at home with him, his first year and a half was somewhat unusual, uneventful and a bit isolated. Maybe we just haven't done enough to engage him?

Normally every time I speak with a health professional about my son they refuse to be drawn on the odds of his having ASD. This is the first time I've heard someone actually suggest an alternative reason. I'm wondering if anyone else here has ever had a similar suggestion? 

Parents

  • Though I said I'd gone I've kept an eye out because people are still getting hurt.

    There just aren't enough people on here to provide support to enquirers. Most of the key respondents have gone.

    It is very brave of R'socks to persevere, but I'm concerned you are just going to get hurt as in this case.

    While the online community is at a low ebb like this, it is really beholden on NAS to make people aware of a (temporary?) difficulty. But NAS are still encouraging people with problems onto the site in the hope that, having got rid of the old contemptibles, there will now be a rush of 'new blood' eager to fill the vacuum.

    That might indeed happen. But I do think it is important to appreciate that the old contemtibles trying to stay on in this now very toxic environment are going to be very vulnerable. I also feel sorry for JamesMS being led to believe he could access an online community in the current circumstances.

    There have always been sparks because parents coming on here think we are some kind of formal volunteers group that can answer any question (when in fact we are here for peer support ourselves, and are being taken for granted by NAS), but at the same time we are being expected to be perfectly tactful, which is hard when we are put under constant pressure from desperate enquirers, denied any support, and then picked on incessantly by the mods for the slightest hint of political incorrectness.

    It couldn't go on for ever like that.

    Yesterday I took up these concerns with the Marketing Director who responded to my complaint on behalf of Mark Lever. He says

    "Once again, I hope that you will continue to make use of, as others do, the online community that the NAS's provides".

    This in spite of telling him it is currently lifeless. NAS thinks providing the space is all there is to creating an on-line community. They have no concept of the membership creating it, nor of anything changing when the bulk of the membership have left. They think it will magically heal in a few days.

    So people like JamesMS seeking help will get a raw deal. People like R'socks being incredibly loyal will get hurt. And people like Technophobe23 will suffer from seeing the sharp edges of exchanges on a nearly dead online community.

    And NAS (or "the Nas's" as the Marketing Director calls them, so like another word I know) wont lift a finger to help.

Reply

  • Though I said I'd gone I've kept an eye out because people are still getting hurt.

    There just aren't enough people on here to provide support to enquirers. Most of the key respondents have gone.

    It is very brave of R'socks to persevere, but I'm concerned you are just going to get hurt as in this case.

    While the online community is at a low ebb like this, it is really beholden on NAS to make people aware of a (temporary?) difficulty. But NAS are still encouraging people with problems onto the site in the hope that, having got rid of the old contemptibles, there will now be a rush of 'new blood' eager to fill the vacuum.

    That might indeed happen. But I do think it is important to appreciate that the old contemtibles trying to stay on in this now very toxic environment are going to be very vulnerable. I also feel sorry for JamesMS being led to believe he could access an online community in the current circumstances.

    There have always been sparks because parents coming on here think we are some kind of formal volunteers group that can answer any question (when in fact we are here for peer support ourselves, and are being taken for granted by NAS), but at the same time we are being expected to be perfectly tactful, which is hard when we are put under constant pressure from desperate enquirers, denied any support, and then picked on incessantly by the mods for the slightest hint of political incorrectness.

    It couldn't go on for ever like that.

    Yesterday I took up these concerns with the Marketing Director who responded to my complaint on behalf of Mark Lever. He says

    "Once again, I hope that you will continue to make use of, as others do, the online community that the NAS's provides".

    This in spite of telling him it is currently lifeless. NAS thinks providing the space is all there is to creating an on-line community. They have no concept of the membership creating it, nor of anything changing when the bulk of the membership have left. They think it will magically heal in a few days.

    So people like JamesMS seeking help will get a raw deal. People like R'socks being incredibly loyal will get hurt. And people like Technophobe23 will suffer from seeing the sharp edges of exchanges on a nearly dead online community.

    And NAS (or "the Nas's" as the Marketing Director calls them, so like another word I know) wont lift a finger to help.

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