autism

lemongrove, I agree our GC is going to Senior School in September I am proud as in some subjects he is high achieving but in others and in his friendships/interpersonal skills he is struggling.

Hormones are kicking in and as a family we have new obstacles to face but I am sure we will get there in some way or another.

Well said lemon. So many people who have no personal experience of autism feel qualified to give an opinion. No one but the family of autistic children know the pain and hardship parents have to care for an autistic child at any level on the spectrum. I love my grandson to bits and feel for him in this world of “neuronormal” people who should know better.

Good luck GG13 to your DGS and family, it’s hard on everybody.?
My DGS attends a special school ( what’s called a high achieving autism school) he loves it there but still has problems, both there and at home.Yes, hormones are racing too at that age, when moody angst mix with the autistic traits
It can be very ‘challenging’ ( understatement of the year.)

Doodle ????

Years ago children who didn't seem 'normal' were sent off to a special school at an early age, quite often residential. Children with physical illnesses were sent to 'Open Air" schools. So these children were not encountered in every day life. There were different requirements for children's behaviour. They were mostly required to be quiet and not socialise or relate to others, so someone with autistic traits could just slip into the background. Clever children were often allowed to be different and the eccentric professor was a common stereotype.
In some ways I think we are less tolerant of behaviour which is different.

Thanks Doodle.... like me, you have no doubt spent a lot of the Summer holidays trying to help out the family and your DGS and feel that protectiveness towards him that we all do with these vulnerable children/teenagers ( even when they drive us up the wall!?)
We do what we can but ultimately our DD and SIL take the brunt of things.

It’s funny how many of us have autistic grandchildren and oh how they are loved. If only our love could make the rest of the world realise how precious they are.

So true lemon. Just wish all the children with special needs could get the help they need to cope with their life and education.

The main reason that autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD, and eating disorders were not around 40 p[us years ago is quite simply that they were not recognised or even identified at the time as specific problems at the time..

We were the awkward, difficult, bullied children who some teachers had it in for, who were constantly in trouble for our clumsiness or poor handwriting, or being unable to sit still or concentrate.

I cannot count the number of times I was made to rewrite my homework because of my handwriting, or got accused of not making an effort etc etc. In fact I am dyspraxic and possibly have ADHD,

Dyspraxia was not recognised as a specific syndrome until the 1980s. I was fortunate to be recognised and diagnosed with the problem quite early on, when I was in my 40s, but how much better my school days would have been if the problem had been recognised and understood then.

I am sure there are many other GN members who will have had similar experiences to mine.

Having worked in the field of ASD for thirty years +, I am firmly of the belief that there's something else going on. The greatly increased incidence of all these neurodevelopmental conditions indicates that something is going on. A very wise person in our dept (not me!) once said that children are our canaries. In case that meaning isn't clear, canaries used to be taken down mines to indicate the presence of toxicity in the atmosphere. As I said. Something is going on. There is an infinite number of new potential systemic stressors from medications in the water table to chemicals in the plastics around the food we eat, chemical fertilisers, odd fungal spores, electromagnetic fields etc etc etc. So many potential risks.
Sorry to be a downer. I'm glad I've retired from the fray, and it is a fray with so many competing agendas. It's the families who live with it who really know the struggles. Good luck to them all.