A mother's curiosity

[Beanerlees]

Hi, I'm not diagnosed with autism in any form, but my six year old daughter is. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of one and later diagnosed as an aspie, as you call it.
She is moderately high functioning, emotionally a couple years delayed, but a very smart, wonderful, loving girl. I don't know a great deal about autism, medical wise, all I have learned has mainly been through raising my daughter. But she is growing older, having school problems and I feel it is time to learn more and to see how others are living with it. I want to give her the best chance at a fun, loving life and the more I see and learn, I hope the better she will be. I hope that I can learn more and meet new people here on the forums as time goes on, and share my experiances.
As for the name Beanerlees.. it is one of a few nicknames she was given by her grandfather who had passed who she was close to. She's too young to speak for herself here, so I am here on her behalf. Thank you for creating a place for us to come and meet, and I hope to make new friends here.

 

[Droopy]

Hello and welcome to the forums. Feel free to ask questions and share your experiences with us.

 

[Spinning Compass]

Welcome! The biggest challenge that I can see for you and your daughter is to help her get through these school years without losing her sense of self-esteem. I'm sure you've heard kids can be cruel. Well, brace yourselves, you are in for a rough ride. Fortunately, there is much more recognition and help out there than 40 years ago when I was going through it. Back then the theories of a man named B. F. Skinner were very much the rage. Skinner (and his followers) saw people like myself (I have AS) as little more than lab rats, machines to be programmed, and the only thing he cared about was results. He didn't care about motivation, individual differences, just achieving the desired behavior, and it didn't matter much how that was achieved. Those were very brutal years for me. I understand things have changed greatly since.

What you will need to do is be an advocate for your daughter and that means being informed. Coming here was a good step. One thing you will have to be on the lookout for is people and programs who claim to have your daughter's best interests in mind but are really only interested in producing a quiet, docile child. Remember, this is a lifelong condition. Quiet and docile might make teachers and school people happy, but the real world outside school has very different demands. Such as learning problem-solving, taking initiative, being proactive. I was taught none of these skills and I had a very rough time adjusting to employment as a result. To this day I am great at following orders when I understand what they are, but not so great at the other things. Yet these are things I am increasingly being asked to do. So, while a certain level of control is necessary, she needs to learn when and how to assert herself. I am sure with a mother like you she will do well.