Hi there

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Hi everyone!
First of all, I'd like to say that it's great to have found such a valuable resource of real-world first-hand accounts of people with Asperger's Syndrome so easily accessible on the internet!

My name is Andrew and I have a 19 year old younger brother who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I myself am 21 years old and we live in Melbourne, Australia.

My family had always known that there was something "different" about my brother ever since he was very little. He did not start speaking until quite late (as I recall, he didn't start until he was at least 3), did not have many friends at school, had trouble communicating with people, had difficulty concentrating at school, etc.

However, it wasn't until he was about 12 or 13 when we were told that he had Asperger's. My parents decided to not tell him for a few years (until he was about 16) as they were unsure and worried about how knowledge of it it would affect him at such a young age. We did not know of any other families who had kids who were Aspies (I picked that name up here) and were going on the advice of the professionals we had met with. I myself have never been involved directly with the counselors/psychologists that my brother meets with so I thought a great place to learn would be from a forum like this.

I have a whole list of questions that I would love to ask about how people live with Asperger's and, more importantly, how I myself can help my brother. I realise that this is an introduction thread so I will not post any questions here and just wish to make everyone's acquaintance.

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Nice to meet you, Andrew.

Welcome aboard and it's real nice that you are doing this!

Would he come here also?

There is a good amount of information just in personal experiences here.
People here are quite frank in their discussions which is definitely one thing I LOVE about this place.

Hope you get what you came for.

I'll be looking forward to your posts.

Nice to meet you all too and thanks for making me feel welcome.

Sure, I'll ask him if he would be interested in joining. It would be really great to see him pro-actively looking for a way to help himself and to meet more people like himself in the meantime. I'm not sure if he feels that kind of need yet, but I'll ask.

When did you guys/girls feel a need to do this? Is there any way that I can encourage him to be more active in this way?

I was thinking... do you think he's get offended if he knew you were checking up on this stuff?

I could see where someone might feel it is a personal thing and wouldn't want others 'getting ahead' of them in checking this out.

just a thought

Mmm...it is true that he may feel that way.

I guess I could ask him if he minds or doesn't mind me checking up on this stuff.

He has never expressed that he doesn't like us researching anything about Asperger's. We have books on Asperger's at home that my parents have asked him to read and he sometimes leaves them around the house where anyone could pick it up (although this could be because he sometimes just simply forgets).

Also, even if he does mind he may not tell us because he might have trouble expressing it. I just don't know.

How would aspies here feel about if their brothers/sisters/mothers/fathers were chatting about Asperger's with other people without them knowing? Any and all comments are welcome. I really feel like I need to learn and better understand him and Asperger's if I am to help him further. I regularly find myself perplexed by things he does/says. Although, he probably he feels the same way about me.

Welcome to WP nice to meet you

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www.spectrumforums.com - We are back! Needs more members come and take a look

Welcome to WrongPlanet

Sorry! I was so busy introducing my brother that I forgot to introduce myself!

I'm 21 and just finished a Bachelor of Computer Science at one of the universities here in Melbourne and am currently working for an IT consultancy firm. I love Star Wars, Coldplay, playing the guitar, and reading sci-fi/fantasy books!