Hi all

jazz1979

I'm new here, I have a 19 year old daughter with autism and learning difficulties.  Shes at college and I take and pick her up two days a week.  I thought she'd be more sociable by now but she isn't and also seems to be getting bullied by other's in college,  she's so down. I raised it with the college but they blatantly denied it was happening.  Absolutely lost just now.

poppy123456

Hi and welcome,

I'm one of the community champions here on scope. My daughter is almost 19 and attends a special needs college, she also has ASD and a learning disability. She has a taxi to college 4 days a week.

Have you also spoke to your daughter about this? I know my daughter can very often make things out to be worse than they actually are and i'm not saying your daughter is doing the same. Quite a few times my daughter has become angry about things that have happened at college, she's gone on to tell me what's happened and after further investigation i found out that things weren't actually as she told me they were. This happened quite a few times in her previous college and to be honest after speaking to the college and finding out what really was going on, it wasn't as bad as she made it out to be.

If it was me then i'd be speaking to the college again and ask them to keep an eye on her during lunch and breaks. This way they will know for sure exactly what's happening.

As for being sociable, this is part of Autism. My daughter has never been sociable with anyone, even myself. The only person she will really speak to properly is her older sister. They are very close and have a special bond. I wouldn't force her to be sociable, let her do her own thing. I was told this by my daughters Autism specialist. Forcing them to do something they don't want to do will only escalate the problems.

It's a difficult situation when we as mothers want to do everything we can for them but is that really the right thing to do?

Hopefully this time the college will keep a watchful eye on here and report back to you with what they find out. Good luck.