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Does Aspergers get worse? (Intenseworld, your input would be great)

Pink68

Hi, we are on the road to a diagnosis for my daughter (9).  Since we came to the conclusion she may have Aspergers she has been a lot happier in herself and says that she's glad that she knows why she is different and that other people know why she's different.

But.....her 'autistic traits' seems to be getting worse.  I don't know if it's because she feels able to talk about the things now, that she doesn't feel 'silly' for telling me things that bother her. She seems less able to cope in busy shops, when it's noisy at school and things like that. She told me that when she's stressed she feels she wants to hide her face 'somewhere dark' like in a cushion or blanket, or if it's somewhere noisy she wants to run away and hide.

She also says that she's worried about 'everything', when I try to find out what she actually worried about I can't get much out of her.  One of the things she has said that she's worried about burglars coming in at night!

It's horrible as a parent to see her struggling so much, I'm also worried that if things carry on escalating she's going to really struggle by the time she gets to senior school.

Parents

  • Autistic traits get worse according to the environment.  This would usually be school for a child.  Where there is pressure (remembering a lot of things, homework etc.), a lot going on, noise and trying to fit in with everyone else it creates an environment very adverse to the average person with ASC.

    There may be an element of knowing the likely cause she feels less inhibited at holding things in, because she has a valid reason for her differences in her mind.  Perhaps she feels she needs to unburden them a bit.  In one way, this is better for her assessment as the more obvious her traits the easier it will be to assess.  It can be a bit trickier assessing a high-functioning individual who masks very well.

    Anxiety is co-morbid with the vast majority of people with ASC.  Unless it became so bad that it was severely hindering her day-to-day functioning the NHS is fairly unlikely to consider medication.  It's something you should ask about at her assessment or even see the GP about your concerns beforehand as this can also feed into the assessment process.

    You are right to be thinking of her future, because secondary school is usually even more difficult for a child with ASC.  The expectations are higher, the socialising more difficult (less playing and more conversation), the differences in emotional maturity more noticeable etc.  So getting her assessed is the best thing you can be doing because with a diagnosis doors to support will open and eligibility for things like statement etc. will be a little easier.

    As a condition, mine has worsened with age definitely, but this is down to the same reason - environment, and all those elements mentioned above.

    When she is assessed, ask about alexithymia as she may struggle to indentify her own emotions and put them into words.

Reply

  • Autistic traits get worse according to the environment.  This would usually be school for a child.  Where there is pressure (remembering a lot of things, homework etc.), a lot going on, noise and trying to fit in with everyone else it creates an environment very adverse to the average person with ASC.

    There may be an element of knowing the likely cause she feels less inhibited at holding things in, because she has a valid reason for her differences in her mind.  Perhaps she feels she needs to unburden them a bit.  In one way, this is better for her assessment as the more obvious her traits the easier it will be to assess.  It can be a bit trickier assessing a high-functioning individual who masks very well.

    Anxiety is co-morbid with the vast majority of people with ASC.  Unless it became so bad that it was severely hindering her day-to-day functioning the NHS is fairly unlikely to consider medication.  It's something you should ask about at her assessment or even see the GP about your concerns beforehand as this can also feed into the assessment process.

    You are right to be thinking of her future, because secondary school is usually even more difficult for a child with ASC.  The expectations are higher, the socialising more difficult (less playing and more conversation), the differences in emotional maturity more noticeable etc.  So getting her assessed is the best thing you can be doing because with a diagnosis doors to support will open and eligibility for things like statement etc. will be a little easier.

    As a condition, mine has worsened with age definitely, but this is down to the same reason - environment, and all those elements mentioned above.

    When she is assessed, ask about alexithymia as she may struggle to indentify her own emotions and put them into words.

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