Autism and literality...

[hillside205]

As I read through the amount of difficulties that people share, especially with regard to the issue of autism and 'things being taken literally', it occurs to me - and I know because I have been there! - that many parents/carers/families are being penalised and being dragged through the courts or having unjust Safeguarding proceedings taken out against them.

Simply because social workers do NOT understand the nature of autism; and/or complex language disorders, they make misinformed assumptions about what an individual may or may not be trying to communicate.

This is so very wrong; indeed, it borders on the edge of libel or defamation. As if you haven't got enough to cope with on a day to day basis, you then have to cope with such distressing experiences - all through ignorance; and frankly, downright prejudice.

I wondered therefore, if people would like to share with me whether or not they have had to endure such demonstrably sick, unnecessary, and above all, expensive circumstances.

Thank you.

[Melly1]

Hi Hillside,

thankfully no; because S uses a communication aid and also requires written communication and needs to relax and feel comfortable to communicate ... social workers don't really engage with him (nor does he with them.) Of the many hoardes of social workers allocated to S over the years; very, very few have more than a cursory understanding of autism. They also fail to see that the meeting the needs of those with ASD and those with LD requires differing approaches. The lack of understanding/interest to learn is appalling.

melly1

[AspieMum]

As I read through the amount of difficulties that people share, especially with regard to the issue of autism and 'things being taken literally', it occurs to me - and I know because I have been there! - that many parents/carers/families are being penalised and being dragged through the courts or having unjust Safeguarding proceedings taken out against them.

Simply because social workers do NOT understand the nature of autism; and/or complex language disorders, they make misinformed assumptions about what an individual may or may not be trying to communicate.

This is so very wrong; indeed, it borders on the edge of libel or defamation. As if you haven't got enough to cope with on a day to day basis, you then have to cope with such distressing experiences - all through ignorance; and frankly, downright prejudice.

I wondered therefore, if people would like to share with me whether or not they have had to endure such demonstrably sick, unnecessary, and above all, expensive circumstances.

Thank you.

Social Workers can be a menace because they don't understand. My ex (who was at the time still my husband), the children's dad, started attacking us & that got the kids put on the At Risk Register. The social workers would have double registered th kids if they could because they assumed I was neglecting the kids because I was suspected of having Aspergers. The number of times they misunderstood what I said was beyond count and when you child is on the At Risk Register every one of them put the child at risk of being taken into care for no reason at all. Once the child is on the At Risk Register it doesn't need to be something that is a risk to the child that is the reason the child is removed. Their dad was supposed to babysit for one of the at he time 2 year old twins (why when he was attacking us I don't know but when social services say jump you ask how high, as the expression goes, when your child is on the At Risk Register) while the other twin went to a group speech & language therapy group only one of them was ready for. Because he didn't turn up to babysit one time I had to take both twins to the group & as a result I was told by the social worker the boys were nearly taken into care. It wasn't like I'd left one of them home alone or anything. They were actually safer than if he had babysat but he hadn't done as they told him and that was all that counted. At this point I was seperated but not divorced from him but if he messed up they would take the kids into care rather than give me the right to protect them from him (I was not allowed to restrict access or prevent the oldest, aged 5 but with global developmental delay so more like a 3 year old, being pick up from school by their dad on his own, etc but they still said I had to show I could protect them). They openly admitted they knew nothing about Aspergers (even though they were part of the Children's Disabilities Team). I had to in a non-physical way fight both social services and the children's dad to protect the children because with their special needs none of the children would cope in care & they needed their mum more than most kids because of their dad's treatment of them. We couldn't just escape to a refuge because of the kids' special needs. Although we were in social housing & trying to escape domestic violence we couldn't get moved. We had to rely on my mum managing to find a private landlord that would accept someone on Housing Benefit in an area where very few do. It took months to get out of there & then after we left & I divorced my ex CAFCASS wanted him to have unsupervised access to my oldest who was abut 6 but like about 4. Avoided only by my dad offering to supervise & the contact order had to leave open the possibility of unsupervised access at a later date. CAFCASS were no better than social services. CAFCASS went on about the rights of the father when I was talking to them about the safety and well being of the kids.