Hi,
I am new here. DD10 has recently been diagnosed ASD. She's always been 'difficult' (demanding of us, yet demand avoidant herself, inflexible, prone to tantrums which then lead to full on meltdowns) but has very successfully masked her difficulties outside of home.
As we have progressed through the weeks of lockdown, things have become more and more challenging and I am really worried about her now. She is not engaging with any of the work set by school (she's very bright academically) and the lack of structure and routine is having a massive impact. We've tried replicating the routine of her school day, but despite sitting down with me to make the timetable and then populating it together in the mornings she won't settle to it. I'm not even worried about the lack of academic work as such - if she'd settle to something else, indeed ANYTHING constructive (that's not watching utter crap on TV or youtube) then that would be fine.
Her anxiety is through the roof but I can't get her to open up very often and when she does, she is just really confrontational.
She's also habitually snacking and then not eating proper meals. This also massively impacts her mood.
DH and I are both trying to work full time from home but because she won't settle to anything and is also trying to interrupt her older sister at every opportunity, it's getting harder and harder. I know that because everything feels so out of control in her life she is trying to impose some control, but how to deal with it? We don't have the bandwidth to sit and work with with her for 7 hours a day (both of us are key workers and although working from home, our jobs are pretty essential right now) but I'm starting to think that's what she wants/needs?
We got her diagnosis right at the beginning of all this, so have had absolutely no follow up and I don't really know where to turn to for help. We are at a bit of a loss and I think DH and I could really do with talking to someone who can work with us so that we can support her - how do I go about finding the right sort of person?
Thanks in advance!
