Parent of 12 year old girl with Aspergers - Sydney Australia

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Hi all,

I'm new to WP and a bit nervous writing for the first time!

My 12 year old daughter has been recently diagnosed with Aspergers. She is attending a child and adolescent psychiatrist and will be commencing regular sessions with a clin psych from early next year.

I would like to know if there are other parents out there with adolescent daughters on the spectrum - particularly living in the Sydney area? It would be great to correspond with someone close-by who understands how Aspergers affects the life of a teenage girl.

If anyone can also point me to any good quality psychoeducation resources to introduce Aspergers to an adolescent? My daughter is aware of her diagnosis but has only a superficial understanding of the syndrome so far.

Many thanks in advance...and good to know there is a lot of support here

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Wellll I don't exactly live in the Sydney area (try midwestern US) but I am a teen girl with AS, so if you have questions on her perception of what she's going through I may be of some help, just PM me.

The way I learned about AS was by reading a lot of books and looking around for quite a while on this site, so I'm afraid I'm not much help there.
For you though, try http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt112787.html it describes how a lot of us see the world eerily well.

Thanks guys.

And dragonbean - thanks for that... a lot of the literature around is based on the male experience of Aspergers but I have bled Fishpond dry of every book I could find and have ordered some really good books from Tony Attwood. The clin psych my daughter will be seeing works closely with him.

Thanks for the link...what a good way to introduce people to Aspergers who might not have known much about it!

When my daughter has a bit more of an idea of what is going on herself I'll ask her to PM you if that's ok with you? At the moment she's just getting used to the idea that she is not as "alone" as she thought she was! She read your post earlier and said "you know, even though I speak English, for years I thought I must be speaking another language because people just don't get what I'm saying and I don't get what they're saying".

So all in all, it's very helpful for her to get the diagnosis and to become aware of a wider community that she might be comfortable with

Also a teenage girl with AS. PM me if you or your daughter have any questions.

Oh, and welcome to Wrong Planet.

Welkome to WP!

Mick

Sure, absolutely!
And I had, and still have sometimes, that idea, that I am speaking one language while everyone else is speaking another. You think you heard correctly what they said, but you must not have, because they seem to expect something from you and you have no idea what that something is. It's rather frustrating.

To your daughter- Hello! Despite that the world often seems very foreign and ill-fitting, there are others who are the same species as you

I *wish* I were in Sydney or you here... My 12-year old dd was dx in the summer, and we're still feeling our way through it. I am more comfortable with her dx and am starting to get some ideas about how to help her in school (she struggles academically). However, she hates me mentioning anything about Aspergers, autism, behavioural issues etc. Occasionally I can sneak some helpful info into the conversation, but mostly she tries to shush me when I say anything. However, school is going slightly better this year, so there's hope.
J.

You can visit this website www.autismspectrum.org.au or www.autismsupport.org.au for more information. Hopefully you will find the information helpful.

Welcome!