Hi all...
I'm not in a good place right now...
My oldest (9) was diagnosed with high functioning autism last july. (His real issues are very low frustration tolerance, raging tantrums, anger issues, and he's not easily compliant (I don't like that last description, but I can't think of how else to describe it. ex: He doesn't like church (non-negotiable for me that he go and always has been) and instead of just going along and getting the HOUR over, it tends to start raging tantrums... even though he KNOWS he's going to go ...EVERY week...
I've suspected something was off with him for a long time... but I've never treated him differently (unless he's having a fit... and I do tread carefully when I see them coming) ... but, I haven't changed how I parent/what we do... etc. Do I need to? Should I be making changes? How do you draw the line between what is autism and what is bad behavior and how do you cope appropriately?
He looks and acts completely "normal" 95% of the time... my parents don't believe me about his diagnosis and just think better discipline is needed... and I completely understand why they don't get it (it wasn't a think back when they had kids, etc.)... but I don't know where we go from here... (I don't want HIM to think he's a label, and he can't do/isn't good enough because he's got a label... that is unacceptable to me... but am i thinking about it the wrong way? I don't think I've ever really processed/accepted the label myself........
thanks!!
I'm not in a good place right now...
My oldest (9) was diagnosed with high functioning autism last july. (His real issues are very low frustration tolerance, raging tantrums, anger issues, and he's not easily compliant (I don't like that last description, but I can't think of how else to describe it. ex: He doesn't like church (non-negotiable for me that he go and always has been) and instead of just going along and getting the HOUR over, it tends to start raging tantrums... even though he KNOWS he's going to go ...EVERY week...
I've suspected something was off with him for a long time... but I've never treated him differently (unless he's having a fit... and I do tread carefully when I see them coming) ... but, I haven't changed how I parent/what we do... etc. Do I need to? Should I be making changes? How do you draw the line between what is autism and what is bad behavior and how do you cope appropriately?
He looks and acts completely "normal" 95% of the time... my parents don't believe me about his diagnosis and just think better discipline is needed... and I completely understand why they don't get it (it wasn't a think back when they had kids, etc.)... but I don't know where we go from here... (I don't want HIM to think he's a label, and he can't do/isn't good enough because he's got a label... that is unacceptable to me... but am i thinking about it the wrong way? I don't think I've ever really processed/accepted the label myself........
thanks!!