HELP!

Hi New Diagnosis to...

Seeing your other posting in response to Hi! by Suzie, It appears you've only just been advised of the possibility and your daughter is yet to get a diagnosis.

So until you get the full facts try not to let this get you down. Autism varies very widely (they use the term spectrum because everyone's different and people have varying symptoms). So don't assume from a few instances that your daughter will be like any one of them. She could be anywhere from full on autism to mild Asperger's.

Your Mum's comments sound shocking, but people are generally very ignorant about autism, hopefully she will come to regret being so harsh, as this is a time when you need her support.

What you may encounter here is that parents sometimes show traits of autism, so you need to explore at some future stage why she has said this. However it does not follow that other children born to you will have it. There are parents who have a number of children with varying degrees of autism. There are others who have one child affected and all others unaffected.

The causes are still little understood, and there may be environmental factors as well as genetic. There's a lot of debate about atmospheric pollution, increased lead and mercury. Also there is a growing network of information about it so you do not need to feel alone.

But it is about the way the brain processes incoming information. Hence you'll find it labelled a cognitive disorder. It is neither a mental halth condition nor a learning disability, although those can be present in association in some cases.

You can get useful information from Tony Attwood's site if it turns out to be Asperger's Syndrome rather than autism http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/ or for any form of autism read the explanatory sections on the NAS homepage.

Hi New Diagnosis to...

Seeing your other posting in response to Hi! by Suzie, It appears you've only just been advised of the possibility and your daughter is yet to get a diagnosis.

So until you get the full facts try not to let this get you down. Autism varies very widely (they use the term spectrum because everyone's different and people have varying symptoms). So don't assume from a few instances that your daughter will be like any one of them. She could be anywhere from full on autism to mild Asperger's.

Your Mum's comments sound shocking, but people are generally very ignorant about autism, hopefully she will come to regret being so harsh, as this is a time when you need her support.

What you may encounter here is that parents sometimes show traits of autism, so you need to explore at some future stage why she has said this. However it does not follow that other children born to you will have it. There are parents who have a number of children with varying degrees of autism. There are others who have one child affected and all others unaffected.

The causes are still little understood, and there may be environmental factors as well as genetic. There's a lot of debate about atmospheric pollution, increased lead and mercury. Also there is a growing network of information about it so you do not need to feel alone.

But it is about the way the brain processes incoming information. Hence you'll find it labelled a cognitive disorder. It is neither a mental halth condition nor a learning disability, although those can be present in association in some cases.

You can get useful information from Tony Attwood's site if it turns out to be Asperger's Syndrome rather than autism http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/ or for any form of autism read the explanatory sections on the NAS homepage.