Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone. My son has recently been diagnosed with autism which we was expecting. I am looking for advice on ways of trying to get my son to talk to us more. This has become more of a worry as he has recently started school (mainstream).
He is under speech and language since he was 3 but it's been a slow process. He can talk in small sentences but just doesn't seem intrested, when we ask him questions. Now he is at school i am worrying about him a lot if he is ok and how his day has been.
Is there anything that others can suggest? That I can do to help with this? Is there any programmes he can use?
Just looking for some advice.
I found this really worrying when my son was at school. He seemed to be on overload when he came home and didn't answer any questions of the 10 questions that I probably asked (which must have added to his overload!). He's now 22.
I am not an expert but who is? - Everyone with an autistic spectrum condition is different.
Anyway here's my tuppence worth.
Wait - give your son a couple of hours to de-stress in his own way. If school has been stressful, the last thing he will want is to think about the days events.
Be concrete when you ask questions, eg: say "I am going to ask you 3 questions about school" ...and stick to that.
Ask your first question, try to be specific and then wait for an answer, not a few seconds but maybe up to a couple of minutes (whilst he may be re-running what did happen at school). Appreciate you may not get an answer. Ask your second and third specific/concrete question in the same way.
It might help for him to be able to point to a picture PECS rather than speak?
There are lots of different cards available on Amazon. Have you seen these picture cards for emotions and feelings? They might help: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feelings-Emotions-Exchange-Communication-Resource/dp/B00KCPP6G6/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&qid=1536939543&sr=8-27&keywords=pecs
Hope this works for you. I found I got more answers from having a quick chat at the end of the day with the teaching assistant or teacher. However, this was exhausting because they were not experts and when I found out some of the daft things that happened I took umbrage and couldn't understand why they weren't doing their jobs or why they knew nothing about autism!
NAS helpline (lines are open 10am-4pm from Monday-Thursday. On Fridays, we are open from 9am-3pm (excluding Bank Holidays). You can call us on 0808 800 4104) may be able help or to put you in touch with your local group, mumsnet, autscape and wrong planet are also great sources of information.
Good luck.