My name is Sharon and I am single mum to 3 wonderfull children aged 4, 3 and 1. My eldest son has recently been diagnosed with ASD.
I am hoping to find parents/carers of Autistic children in my area.
Would love to hear from people who are/have experiencing the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with having a child with Autism.

Hi and welcome to the forum!! our son is currently undergoing assessments at the minute and we are having a lot of problems, its heartbreaking because i just want to help him he also has a genetic condition called cystinosis to make it all a little more complex. He starts the nursery at our daughters school in april and i'm worried how he is going to cope, he is so up and down, at times he can be ok (usually when things are going exactly how he wants them) and then othertimes like on the thread 'meltdown' he just totally flips! sets him off for the whole day! We are in birmingham so not too far away

Lucy xx

Hi, im not in Staffordshire, but im also in Birmingham, i have 3 daughters who are nearly 8, nearly 5 and 13 months. My middle daughter is autistic, she was diagnosed just before she was 3, so almost 2 years ago now.

Thanks for the fast replies ladies
Birmingham isnt too far at all. Its nice to hear from other parents who understand what Im going through.
Lucy, I just read one of your post re your lil boy and up comming assesments. A lot of the behaviour you described is very much like my son. He started school in Sept and am pleased to say he doing really well. He started school before his diagnosis but had been issued with a SEN statment. He has good days and bad days as you would expect but loves going to school. Thankfully children that age dont notice/judge others with disabilities and Noah has many friends (which always brings a tear to my eye to see)
His speech is delayed and sometimes repetetive or not relevent to the situation. We are starting speech therepy this afternoon.
I totally understand the "trigger" thing. Noah's are if a toy, object or sequence of events doesnt go as it should. For example when we had all the snow recently I tried to drive the car up our road (steep hill) Got half way and had to turn around and go the back way. He went crazy, even when we were home he wouldnt get out of the car and wanted me to go back down the hill to come up it again. He did calm down after about 30 mins but was so distressed about it. Its heartbreaking to see.
I spend most of my time planning ahead to try to avoid these situations as best I can though obv I can forsee everything!
I have the support of my family who live close by, sadly his father (not together anymore) is unwilling to even consider ASD so I have had to do all this alone. He isnt even aware of the diagnosis, I figure if he isnt ready to accept it theres no point.

Anyway I have rambled on a bit, sorry!

I think alot of fathers, whether you are together anymore or not, are not willing to consider that their child is autistic. My hubby is just starting to realise now that our daughter has got autism, and is trying to understand more about it now than he ever was when she was first diagnosed. I think he thought she would grow out of her behaviours, but now he is noticing that her behaviours are getting worse and he now understands abit more. He is not born in England, he is Albanian, which i think made it harder as autism in Albania is a big thing, you need to send your child away in Albania if they have autism, and autism in Albania means no speech, cant do anything for yourself (so a worse case of autism) so if you even mention it to his side of the family they all say that we are being stupid and she doesnt have it. Although i think his mom is starting to realise now that she does, as she has had 8 Children herself and knows something is different about Seliona.