Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there,
This is my first post here, so I hope that I've put it in the right topic group!
I have a 10 year old daughter with Level 1 autism, who has anxiety problems and struggles to make friends at school. She would really love to be able to chat with others who are like her and have similar interests. We have been referred to various local support groups as part of her counselling but the one that is most recommended for her has a waiting list and several months after contacting them, we are still waiting for a space in one of their social groups.
In the meantime, does anyone know of any safe and moderated online communities for autistic children, where they can chat with each other? We registered for Autcraft but they, like many other family friendly servers, only operate on Java and my daughter won't use anything other than her ipad for minecraft (bedrock) so she's not really been able to participate on it as much as we hoped.
Does anyone know of any other communities where she can chat with autistic children in real time?
Thanks very much!
how old is your kid
[spam removed]
Hello,
Yes, there are several safe and moderated online communities for autistic children where they can chat with each other in real time. Here are a few options to consider:
Mighty Networks: This is a social networking platform that has several communities specifically for autistic children. You can join these communities for free, and your daughter can connect with other children who share similar interests.
Autism Social Communities: This is a free online platform that connects autistic children and adults with each other. They offer various social features, including chat rooms, forums, and virtual events, to help members build relationships and friendships.
Autistic Gaming Initiative: This is a gaming community that is dedicated to supporting autistic children and young adults. They offer online gaming events and forums where members can connect with each other and make friends.
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN): This is a national organization that offers various resources and support for autistic individuals, including online communities and forums. Their online platform, ASAN Connect, allows members to connect with each other in real-time chat rooms and message boards.
It's important to note that while these online communities are moderated, it's still important to monitor your daughter's online activity and ensure her safety.
I hope this information you like it.
Hello Nimue_03,
The NAS website has a directory and you might be able to find an online group for your daughter. Here is the link to the directory: https://www.autism.org.uk/directory
All the best,
Karin Mod
Just a mum here and Autistic with a possible bit of help on matters of Anxiety.
You may have this info, but if it helps: anxiety is a natural response to unnatural and harmful environmental factors. It is also a response to Gamma waves accelerating out of control when full-brain hyper-connexions are being sense-perceived as we default into a sort of troubleshooting mode. There's no exiting this, as it's part of the Autistic neurological-wiring which makes us eventually highly skilled with particular interests.
Several recent medical papers explain why Anxiety happens more often for Autistic and ADHD individuals. According to these studies, our GABA receptor levels can be lower, which can also help execute the immediacy to recognise and fix danger. It's basically a different biology which technically would've been incredibly useful in tribal societies as a hyper-awareness. In modern society, with artificial (painful) lighting, sound at dangerous levels and frequencies, harmful chemicals in cleaning products and emitted by buildings, cheep designs without attention to acoustics, all of these will cause an alert which Autistics tend to notice (we don't dull our senses the same), but when young combine a lack of understanding physics and environmental impact on biology, recognising danger without the education to match our ability to perceive and identify conflicts, simply turns into anxiety. This sense-perception involves seemingly invisible exchanges between humans, systems of economy and social nuance which may take years of sociology to explain, internal psychology, as emotions can all melt together and be frustrating to work out what beliefs they're a product of. It can involve sensing the affect of the change in weather (barometric pressure really affects us), and so on.
All the above to say, once the element(s) creating anxiety are discovered, most of the time the resolve as simply understanding or fixing the problems will ease the anxiety, as it's not a disorder for most of us but something like a Red Flag. Sometimes, though, I've found the only way to sleep is with a micro-dose of a drug to boost GABA. Rarely needed.
I hope you can find a community. ADHD kids and Dyslexic kids will be able to understand her as well, though ADHD can sometimes be taxing for Autistics. However, as we recognise each others differences, and understand the potentials in our diversity, we can have a good ability to tolerate our eccentricities :)