Aspies For Freedom

I think work on earlier recognition would be helpful for children and parents.  Many children these days are in some kind of care setting (nursery or with a registered child minder) from a few months old until they start school so it may be helpful to target play activities to build on strenghts and identify areas of weakness or possible concern.

My son refused to breast feed, was very difficult to bottlefeed and still is an extremely picky eater.  It's only recently, when reading about ASD, that I have started to think that this may be due to sensory issues connected to his being aspie. If this is the case and it was identified as such at an early age then he could have had a better start in life.  As it was I was told just to keep on trying to breast feed - at three hourly intervals - until after 5 weeks I gave up, exhausted.  I don't have any other children so this type of study wouldn't involve others like me or my son, but I think a lot more could be done to recognise ante- and post- natal indicators of autism.

My son is 6 now and still likes being carried.  He's small for his age, so I still carry him a bit, but only in short bursts or it does my back in!   My parents don't approve of me carrying him, and have moaned about that for a few years now, but I like carrying him and he likes being carried so I don't see why it should be a problem.  There will come a time when he will be too big, so we enjoy it while we can!

Yes, I think it is cruel to demand that they stop outright.  However, I think altenatives to stimming or ways of managing it in particular situations could be helpful.  At the moment, my son's school are working with him to encourage him to substitute exercise for headbanging.  I started a thread on this on the Parent's Forum and people seem that think that it's generally a helpful thing for the school to do.

From my perspective, I let just let him get on with it, but I think it'll help us to work out if he's stimming because he's anxious or worried or just because he's happy and excited.  The school tell me that the headbanging has increased recently so now I'm trying to work out why that is and if he needs reassurance or help with anything.

I believe so. I think the schools try to replace stimming with what they deem "more appropriate" behavior.