Autism Spectrum Disorder,
or what some people call Aspergers
A Starting Point

by Findlay Rose Reid

Hi, I am Findlay Rose Reid, and I have created this website, firstly, for:

Parents who are wondering if their teenagers might be Autistic; and

Teenagers who are wondering if they might be Autistic, and are seeking answers for themselves.

Being Autistic is the same as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, which is often called ASD or Autism for short, and some people call it Aspergers.

My website is only a starting point, but my second aim is to try to help:

Parents to be better able to help their Autistic teenagers; and

Autistic teenagers to be better able to understand and help themselves.

My website is aimed at helping Autistic teenagers, and their parents, but it could also be helpful for Autistic adults, including adults who are wondering if they might be Autistic, and are seeking answers for themselves.

This website contains information that could be helpful for:

Teenagers who already have a diagnosis of ASD, and their parents;

Teenagers who are struggling with 'certain issues', and their parents - it contains information that could help you to figure out if it's possible that those 'certain issues' are due to ASD.

Click here to read the 'certain issues' that I am referring to.

My 'Handbook for Teenagers with ASD/Aspergers, and their Parents', which is available for free on this website, goes into some detail about Autism Spectrum Disorder, or what some people call Aspergers, and the symptoms that a teenager with this condition might display.

If your teenager has not yet been diagnosed with ASD, reading my Handbook could help you to figure out if it's possible that your teenager might have ASD. You can use my Handbook as a guide to ask your teenager specific questions about things like sensory triggers, stimming and social/communication issues. You might be surprised at just how many traits of ASD/Aspergers your teenager has. If you seek an ASD assessment for you teenager, the information that you have discovered about your teenager, from asking these specific questions, can be helpful to the ASD assessors, and therefore helpful in obtaining a diagnosis of ASD for your teenager.

My Handbook also contains suggestions for how to help teenagers cope with their ASD/Aspergers issues, which could be helpful for Autistic teenagers, whether they have a diagnosis of ASD yet, or not. Reading my Handbook could help you to:

Better understand your teenager with ASD/Aspergers;

Be better able to speak with your teenager with ASD/Aspergers, and give you a better idea of what sorts of questions to ask your teenager with ASD/Aspergers, in order to be better able to understand them;

Be better able to help your teenager with ASD/Aspergers to cope with their ASD/Aspergers issues.

In creating this website, and my Handbook, I was particularly thinking of girls with ASD/Aspergers, their specific types of issues, and the ways in which they might present, which is often quite different to boys with ASD/Aspergers, and is not as well recognised or understood.

I was also particularly thinking of children with ASD/Aspergers, whose particular combination of ASD/Aspergers traits/symptoms are not obvious to most people, and who are therefore not diagnosed as young children. When these sorts of children become teenagers, they often start to experience difficulties that are obvious to their parents, even if they are not obvious to other people. However, it can still be difficult for their parents to understand the cause of their difficulties, to obtain the correct diagnosis for them, and the appropriate support/treatment to best help them.

However, this website, and my Handbook, might also be helpful to boys with ASD/Aspergers, and/or teenagers with ASD/Aspergers who were diagnosed as young children. People with ASD/Aspergers do not all fit certain well known, but very limited, stereotypes. In fact, no two people with ASD/Aspergers are the same.

On the right hand side of my website, you will see a list of coloured tiles, each of which will lead you to further information.

The first four tiles on my website are really designed for people who don't know much about ASD/Aspergers, to help them to decide if my website could be relevant to them, and whether they want to read my Handbook, and/or the rest of the tiles on my website.

My Handbook goes into a lot more specific detail about ASD/Aspergers, how this 'condition' might affect a teenager, and suggestions for how to cope with ASD/Aspergers issues. I have written my Handbook as though I am talking directly to a teenager with ASD/Aspergers, because some teenagers do not have parents who can help them, and it might be that a teenager has been seeking answers for their 'certain issues', and has found my website themselves, as opposed to their parents.

If you read all of my website, or some parts of my website, and feel that it is not helpful to you, I encourage you to open the tile on my website called 'Further Sources of Information'. This tile lists details of other websites, articles and books about ASD/Aspergers that could be particularly helpful for teenagers with ASD/Aspergers, and their parents. No two people with ASD/Aspergers are the same. My website might not be the most relevant or useful source of information to you, but another website, article or book might be.