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Adult son with Asperger Syndrome

NAS19307

 After 2 years of my son trying to get a job or even get some work experience, I reluctently agreed to take him to the docters and have him made unfit for work. I was advised by the disabilty work adviser at the job centre to do this to prevent him going on to the work programme which we all agreed he would not be able to cope with.

I had a visit from Gloucester careers who gave me some good advice with completing the ESA paperwork and he is now awaiting an assessment. Social services are due to come and finacially assess him so that he can have vouchers for him to be able to access social events. However i am thinging of cancelling this as he is unlikley to want to go anywhere without me or his dad and he is very protective about giving out financial details.

I have found a local social club for him to attend to try and increase his social skills and am still keen to try and help him access work. Before anyone suggests trying Remploy we aready did and they decided that he was too difficult to place!

any ideas on how to help him gain work in the future would be welcomed

Parents

  • I find it baffling that just because he can dress himself and cook his own meals he doesn't count as disabled.

    This is treating autism as a physical disability surely? Blind people can dress themselves and cook their own meals, does that mean they aren't blind? Many people with Downs Syndrome can dress themselves and cook their own meals. It is truly ludicrous that this kind of assessment is going on.

    NAS moderators please offer advice here to starfish on what she should do. Can NAS help her son get a proper assessment?

    As regards computing skills and employment, the facts remain that while some people can, mostly it doesn't work out, for the reasons I've given.

    It is particularly worrying as regards the numbers coming in to university to study computing and "hitting a brick wall" by second year. A degree requires aptitude in all the aspects specified in the course. Many "would be"s don't have enouigh aptitudes across the range.

    Just because someone is "good with computers" doesn't mean they can hold down a job, because it means being able to deliver what the job asks for, which may be outside the aptitude range, and it also means being able to adapt and rapidly assimilate new developments.

    I wish I could get this across because so many young people on the spectrum are being pushed in this direction inadvisably, failing the courses or failing to sustain the job expectations, falling down and losing hope.

    A bit more care and they might have found a good sustainable vocation. Surely when people's futures are at stake the issue deserves more than knowing a few people like computers. And one person who is doing well as a programmer (well there are lots of different contexts of programmer and he may be in one where it works well for him - but as they say "one swallow doesn't make a summer").

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  • I find it baffling that just because he can dress himself and cook his own meals he doesn't count as disabled.

    This is treating autism as a physical disability surely? Blind people can dress themselves and cook their own meals, does that mean they aren't blind? Many people with Downs Syndrome can dress themselves and cook their own meals. It is truly ludicrous that this kind of assessment is going on.

    NAS moderators please offer advice here to starfish on what she should do. Can NAS help her son get a proper assessment?

    As regards computing skills and employment, the facts remain that while some people can, mostly it doesn't work out, for the reasons I've given.

    It is particularly worrying as regards the numbers coming in to university to study computing and "hitting a brick wall" by second year. A degree requires aptitude in all the aspects specified in the course. Many "would be"s don't have enouigh aptitudes across the range.

    Just because someone is "good with computers" doesn't mean they can hold down a job, because it means being able to deliver what the job asks for, which may be outside the aptitude range, and it also means being able to adapt and rapidly assimilate new developments.

    I wish I could get this across because so many young people on the spectrum are being pushed in this direction inadvisably, failing the courses or failing to sustain the job expectations, falling down and losing hope.

    A bit more care and they might have found a good sustainable vocation. Surely when people's futures are at stake the issue deserves more than knowing a few people like computers. And one person who is doing well as a programmer (well there are lots of different contexts of programmer and he may be in one where it works well for him - but as they say "one swallow doesn't make a summer").

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