Hello! Daughter got diagnosed today

Was your daughter not involved in the assessment process? How was the assessment done? Have you talked to her about autism at all? Does she have anyone in her class who is autistic? And do you know what understanding she has of autism?

I told my daughter that she was going to have one to one meeting with a couple of adults and see how is she doing as i didn’t want to scare her and I wanted my daughter to be herself without anything in her head. 

I have not spoke to her about autism about it as there is no family history (however I am suspecting that myself / my father are autistic but we’ll cross that bridge another time as I want to focus on my daughter and how to support her) 

I know some parents of children with autism but they do not have same support needs as my daughter - one of them is AuADHD and the other is severe Autism. 

My daughter is fine with communication, motor skills but emotional / social skills is sometimes a bit difficult. Would that be high functioning autism (Asperger’s?)  

I told my daughter that she was going to have one to one meeting with a couple of adults and see how is she doing as i didn’t want to scare her and I wanted my daughter to be herself without anything in her head. 

I have not spoke to her about autism about it as there is no family history (however I am suspecting that myself / my father are autistic but we’ll cross that bridge another time as I want to focus on my daughter and how to support her) 

I know some parents of children with autism but they do not have same support needs as my daughter - one of them is AuADHD and the other is severe Autism. 

My daughter is fine with communication, motor skills but emotional / social skills is sometimes a bit difficult. Would that be high functioning autism (Asperger’s?)  

Thank you for this - it is very helpful to know all of this. 

It is tricky - especially if she’s not had any hints that she may be autistic. In some ways I think if this is totally new to her it might be worth leaving it a little while while you start introducing the idea of autism in some way - but isn’t it possible/likely that the staff who work with your daughter are going to mention it when they’re with her? You don’t want her to hear it from someone else. If she’s 10 years old and she’s bright surely she’s going to suss it out anyway? Are you in the uk? In the uk autism is talked about so much in school and I’d be surprised if she’s not going to have it openly mentioned to her by school staff. I think the high functioning thing can be misleading - because being very capable in one area doesn’t mean that the difficulties aren’t very profound in other ways. 

Nat1930 said:

Would that be high functioning autism (Asperger’s?)  

So not everyone seems to agree on how to classify it, but you’re correct. “High-functioning” works well, though some say it’s a little demeaning towards those with higher support needs. Aspergers is generally not used anymore, as the disorder has been included in the overall diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and the guy it’s named after has been found out to have been a supporter of a certain terrible regime during WWII. I’ve also heard “level 1 Autism” as a classification, but there’s often contention with that, too.

I have found that the safest way to classify it is “low support Autism”. Everyone with Autism needs support, but some need more than others.

Also I am researching and bought books to understand more about autism.