"Neurodivergent family with no support"

We have struggled as a family since our first Son was born 15 years ago. We have no family support and struggle with friendships, therefore we can feel very isolated. 

Over the years have asked for support/guidance from numerous professionals, but have gotten nowhere. Even when my first Son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, we were given no support or guidance even from Primary schools. 

Now that my Son is in high school, he is struggling with keeping up with school work, with socialised, with behaviour. 

I keep regular contact with the school through the guidance teacher, who referred him to family support. 

We were quickly visited with a worker who regularly checks in with us and our Son. She provides us with advice or assisting us on seeing a situation from a different perspective. She has built a bond with our Son which has provided him with support when he doesn’t feel he can come to us. The support worker has also attended meetings with myself that I would’ve attended alone in the past. 

My husband and I were invited to Incredible Years Parent support program, at Clydesdale Family Support Hub, which is a peer group, where we learned effective strategies for dealing with challenging behaviours, which effectively helped us develop a better relationship with our children. 

Each week we would have a discussion with other parents to identify the unwanted behaviours and then consider different ways to deal with situations to help improve the behaviour and ultimately develop a better approach in the long term.