My teenage daughter is struggling at school and this is compounded by a lack of understanding of her inability to feel or describe her emotions. I think she has alexithymia - an inability to describe her emotions, which is combined with interceptive difficulties that mean that she doesn't recognise the physical feelings that go with her emotions. She does not feel hot or cold, hungry or thirsty. The upside is that she doesn't really get anxious in the traditional sense as she doesn't recognise the increase in heart rate / butterflies in the stomach! Because she does not express any negative emotions at school, they assume she is fine. Her grades are fine academically. So very little support. The only emotion she consistently names is confusion! When she doesn't understand teachers (due to being very literal) she gets very confused about what she should be doing, despite being very bright. But struggles to communicate this to her teachers as she cannot describe what she is feeling.
I feel like we are going round in circles - her ASD diagnosis was literally "she meets the criteria for ASD". No report. and other autistic students do not seem to be so severely affected by this - including my other daughter. Who do I need to consult to get a better understanding of just how much these issues affect her so school can help more? At the moment they think I am making it up!