Introduce yourself (part one)

Auntie Ann said:

Hi, my name is Ann and I'm from Cambridgeshire. I had my sons diagnosed in February on the 9th and 10th of this year. My eldest son Ciaran, (now 7), has aspergers and ADHD. My youngest son Frazier, (now 3), has classic autism.

 

It was pretty tough to be told that they both have the problems they have within the space of two days. I have always known that Ciaran had some issues and I spent years pushing for him to be seen. It took five years for him to be assessed and they said he needs medication but three months later nothing has happened. I haven't even got the report back and without it I can't get the medicines that Ciaran needs. I have been on their case to try and get some help but they can't even find the report so we've had no help at all!

 

As I said, I knew Ciaran had problems from the minute he was born... But I thought Frazier was just a tantrum throwing toddler with speech problems. There is a history of speech problems in my family so I didn't read too much into it. I suppose I just loved him as he is and overlooked his problems. When I look back I feel quite foolish that I didn't see the signs and symptoms, because he has pretty much all of them! But to be fair I didn't really know much about autism as I'd never encountered it myself. If you don't know what you are looking for then even if it's right under your nose you still wouldn't recognise it.

 

Frazier has echolalia but doesn't seem to put words to meaning. He is just starting to learn a few words which he matches to the right objects now, but it is a very recent thing. He can throw tantrums that last up to five hours and he can stay awake for up to 36 hours with only a couple of hours sleep in between. Odd things freak him out, and I get a lot of nasty comments and evil glances from onlookers who think I am a bad mum and Frazier is a result of my bad parenting. I am gradually getting support for Frazier, but it is slow in coming. I start the 'early birds course' in a few weeks so I am looking forward to that. Frazier has a speech therapist, early years support worker, a pediatrician and another person that I don't really see and can't remember what she does. I have only just come to terms with the diagnosis of both of my children but I am okay now. I have been doing a lot of reading about autism, (this website is brilliant for information), so things are improving slowly. 

 

Anyway, I'm sure you are bored by now so I shall say cheerio xx

One of my twins had a lot of problems with echolalia and he ended up using it as his way of commincating for several years. Now he can use speech in a much more normal way but he does frequently repeat phrases from adverts and TV programs, etc or even whole adverts just because he likes doing that. His echolalia was always the delayed variety anyway and he has a memory like the proverbial elephant except for what he needs to do or where he's put things (and then he has a brain like a sieve). My twins are 11 and still prone to tantrums but ussually at home rather than school these days. Having Aspergers Syndrome myself when in the past they had tantrums when we are out I never noticed people's facial expressions but I was aware afterwards that people probably were giving nasty looks I didn't see. I never had the option of the early bird course- I forget now why. We knew they were on the Autistic Spectrum for years before they actually got a diagnosis- they were assessed using an assessment questionaire by an ordinary peadiatrician at a hospital (the sort that sees outpatients) at the age 0f 2 that came up as probably being on the Autsitc Spectrum and mild ASD.

Auntie Ann said:

Hi, my name is Ann and I'm from Cambridgeshire. I had my sons diagnosed in February on the 9th and 10th of this year. My eldest son Ciaran, (now 7), has aspergers and ADHD. My youngest son Frazier, (now 3), has classic autism.

 

It was pretty tough to be told that they both have the problems they have within the space of two days. I have always known that Ciaran had some issues and I spent years pushing for him to be seen. It took five years for him to be assessed and they said he needs medication but three months later nothing has happened. I haven't even got the report back and without it I can't get the medicines that Ciaran needs. I have been on their case to try and get some help but they can't even find the report so we've had no help at all!

 

As I said, I knew Ciaran had problems from the minute he was born... But I thought Frazier was just a tantrum throwing toddler with speech problems. There is a history of speech problems in my family so I didn't read too much into it. I suppose I just loved him as he is and overlooked his problems. When I look back I feel quite foolish that I didn't see the signs and symptoms, because he has pretty much all of them! But to be fair I didn't really know much about autism as I'd never encountered it myself. If you don't know what you are looking for then even if it's right under your nose you still wouldn't recognise it.

 

Frazier has echolalia but doesn't seem to put words to meaning. He is just starting to learn a few words which he matches to the right objects now, but it is a very recent thing. He can throw tantrums that last up to five hours and he can stay awake for up to 36 hours with only a couple of hours sleep in between. Odd things freak him out, and I get a lot of nasty comments and evil glances from onlookers who think I am a bad mum and Frazier is a result of my bad parenting. I am gradually getting support for Frazier, but it is slow in coming. I start the 'early birds course' in a few weeks so I am looking forward to that. Frazier has a speech therapist, early years support worker, a pediatrician and another person that I don't really see and can't remember what she does. I have only just come to terms with the diagnosis of both of my children but I am okay now. I have been doing a lot of reading about autism, (this website is brilliant for information), so things are improving slowly. 

 

Anyway, I'm sure you are bored by now so I shall say cheerio xx

One of my twins had a lot of problems with echolalia and he ended up using it as his way of commincating for several years. Now he can use speech in a much more normal way but he does frequently repeat phrases from adverts and TV programs, etc or even whole adverts just because he likes doing that. His echolalia was always the delayed variety anyway and he has a memory like the proverbial elephant except for what he needs to do or where he's put things (and then he has a brain like a sieve). My twins are 11 and still prone to tantrums but ussually at home rather than school these days. Having Aspergers Syndrome myself when in the past they had tantrums when we are out I never noticed people's facial expressions but I was aware afterwards that people probably were giving nasty looks I didn't see. I never had the option of the early bird course- I forget now why. We knew they were on the Autistic Spectrum for years before they actually got a diagnosis- they were assessed using an assessment questionaire by an ordinary peadiatrician at a hospital (the sort that sees outpatients) at the age 0f 2 that came up as probably being on the Autsitc Spectrum and mild ASD.