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I just found this forum a few weeks ago but have been just "lurking" while I waited to hear the results of my son's assessment. He's 10 years old and was just officially diagnosed with AS this week. Technically, his diagnosis is AS with depressive disorder but the general consensus is that the depression is stemming from the frustrations of his brain functioning on one level while the expectations and demands on him are coming from a different level if that makes sense. I'm somewhat at a loss when it comes to explaining it.

We've (his teachers, me, his therapist, my parents, and apparently random people I've run into who have asked if he is Autistic) suspected he has AS for awhile now but had to wait for an assessment from Vanderbilt (in Tennessee) which is not only the leading institute in Autism Spectrum Disorders in the area but is also incredibly busy, I guess, since we had been on the waiting list for over a year before someone cancelled and we finally got a call.

In a nutshell, we have had problems with my son's behavior since he started kindergarten. He's currently in a behavioral intervention class and we've had issues with meltdowns, refusing to do work, throwing things, screaming, etc. In 3rd grade, he began hurting himself (choking himself, stabbing himself with a pencil) and saying he wanted to die so we took him out of school for a year and enrolled him in jiu-jitsu for his self-confidence and discipline. That did help but, as it turned out, was a mistake as well since he was already having issue with social skills and a year away from public school made that much worse.

Right now he's in therapy and, until last week, saw a different individual for his medication (she diagnosed him with Bipolar Disorder).

So I'm completely new to all this and not really sure even where to start. I've done the research and I've read a lot about different techniques and strategies that help kids with AS but applying all of that to my own son is somewhat bewildering since, as I said, I don't even know where to start. I think the general feeling after receiving his diagnosis was, "ok, now we know, I have to do something, anything to help him". Right now, he's just really struggling and I think a large part of it comes from going so long without a diagnosis and nobody could really figure out why he reacted to things the way he does or what would set him off in regards to his meltdowns. I don't want to overwhelm him or myself or place too much emphasis on the label but I feel that there are things I should be doing to help that I'm not.

Anyway, I think this is probably long enough for an introduction post. Meant to keep it short and to the point, but I'm not known for my ability to be concise. I'm hoping to be able to gain some more insights & information from this site and it already helps just to see how many other people are going through such similar situations.

Hi and welcome to WP.

I'm a parent too, but my daughter has no diagnosis yet, although it's looking likely that she has Aspergers.

I'm sure you'll find the other users on here to be very helpful. You may be particularly interested in the parents' discussion forum, where there are lots of parents in the same boat as you and many with years of experience, happy to give advice.

I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome.

Welkome to WP

Mick